The Quintessence Trilogy in Retrospect

Looking back at some of the problems I encountered while writing my epic trilogy.

The Quintessence Trilogy in Retrospect

                Last year about this time I finished writing the third book in my Quintessence Trilogy, but the book was far from being ready for publication with much more needed revision and editing.  Without a proofreader or editor, that process would last about four months more, but at least I reached the point where I was satisfied with the plot and how the whole story wrapped up. The trilogy was long, 2,037 pages long, great in concept and scope, and heroic with at least six protagonists. It was an epic of science fiction and fantasy in equal parts, though the three books differed in length. The first book was quite long, but the second was longer and the third longer yet!

                When I began this trilogy a decade ago, I really didn’t think of it becoming a trilogy or even a book but only as an idea I wanted to flesh out. I knew the story would be character-driven so I could follow the over-emphasized “showing and not telling” advice in creative writing. I didn’t have an audience in mind as I wrote, but I suppose looking back, especially considering it is in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, that the trilogy should appeal to young male adults though I don’t know if it actually appeals to that crowd.

From the very beginning concept, the story centered on a five-piece Progressive Rock band, “The Five” who through their “out of this world” playing could impart magical natural effects. As a musical band, they would overcome and control the five natural elements water, air, fire, earth, and metal. I did not put this idea into context with the Greek title of Quintessence until much later when I named the trilogy. By the way, I couldn’t find a title that scored well on the “Lulu Title Scorer” so I went with a title that sounded cool.  Against all I knew about creative writing and writing a book I had no master plot, no outline to form a continuous saga especially one of the scope this story would become; nevertheless, I decided that it would become a trilogy of books without knowing the beginning, middle or end. I wanted the story to take place in a rough medieval-type future so that was a starting point for the setting. Getting there posed a problem though I’ve always had problems with stories’ beginning.  

                Taking it a step further, the setting became a medieval-based, post-apocalyptic landscape, though set well beyond the disastrous state of the Earth when the struggling few humans fought to survive. This meant that the residents would know of the technology of our age but very little of it survived. I tried to keep this back story to a minimum presenting most of what had happened to the Earth in snippets of historical lectures. The human race had recovered in this far future though had lost much in way of culture, education, and technology in the apocalypse. Gaia, the Earth entity, played into this having suffered from the disaster but recovering somewhat with time. Gaia would lend much power to The Five. How would the five men learn their musical skills in this recovering world without books or the internet? They needed a guide and this came in the form of Eddy, a professor from the far, far future beyond The Five’s era. In Eddy’s future his fellow man understood the benefits The Five had imparted upon the Earth such as a music-based, in-brain sort of internet and the benefit of time travel.

                You know, time travel in a science fiction novel comes in very handy though presents its own set of complications. Trying my best to avoid the usual time travel cliché’s, I used time travel to maneuver the plot out of tight spots in the second book, but then I was stuck with the altered universe’s repercussions.  In Quintessence’s case, going back in time a little ways after going forward in time created a body double, an identical copy of the original. Of course this makes for an interesting story, but who’s to say this copy doesn’t have inherent problems like different morals, values, and objectives from the original. To say the least, the two couldn’t be seen together without the twin excuse, but twins with differing opinions often engage in arguments and fights. How fun, how problematic! 

                In the first book, The Muse Eddy becomes the guide of The Five through the resentful actions of a spurned young woman time technician named Betsy. Eddy is thereby thrust into the era of The Five instead of medieval Spain in which he wished to visit and study.  A few words about Betsy: she hated Eddy because he dated her mother Aphrodite while ignoring her. Through the illegal use of time travel, Betsy and Aphrodite, daughter and mother were nearly the same age. Can you grasp that out of context? 

                So Eddy finds himself in the era of The Five which he, from his future historical studies knows a lot about. His tiny blue telepathic quadrapet Rover invites himself along which only exacerbates the problems for this out of place history professor.  Rover provided comic relief and the “awwww” factor.

There are coincidental events along the way that are only explained much later in the third book.  One of these events is the coincidental lucky happenstance of finding and procuring the mighty horse Quixote. Rover and Quixote hit it off right off the bat and though Eddy never had dealings with a horse before, the telepathic Rover helps him out with the training curve. Seeing he is there, Eddy decides to locate the members of The Five before their rise to power. Early on, Eddy gets to see and we see the lead singer of The Five grow up from a boy. Eddy also happens upon the lead singer’s future love interest who has a habit of taking her clothes off and running around nude since she was a toddler. This is about as risqué as the books become.  When it is suggested to Eddy that he is indeed the muse of the five, he was in denial until he realized that he was committed to the task.

                I didn’t have a master plot, and so I had no idea how this epic would end. With many twists and turns, I often wrote myself into corners with no foreseeable way out. I brainstormed, backtracked and inserted changes into the story already written in hopes that verisimilitude remained and that readers would suspend their disbelief.  A few changes had to be removed from the plot because they were not plausible or simply did not work. I learned that foreshadowing helped in the disbelief suspension. If there were suggestions that this or that was possible when it did happen it just felt right. You have to believe me here without reading the books.

                Any good epic requires a viable nasty antagonist and well, I have a couple. One perfect antagonist turns out to be a mad doctor that originates from Eddy’s time, so he has future knowledge the same as Eddy. Meanwhile, a reliable antagonist in the guise of an evil ruler originates in the five’s era. These two set the stage for the classic fight of good versus evil and light versus dark. I threw in a sizable army of mutants left over from the apocalyptic turmoil who are constant foils for the protagonists.

                I had trouble coming up with a vernacular for the characters, and so had Eddy speaking standard which is a sterile version of English while those in the five era speak an altered Middle Agesl-speak. My authorial diction remains iffy and only a few people provided feedback on the books and one common complaint was that I used too many “big words.” I read once that a writer shouldn’t dumb down their writing for readers and that he should introduce meaningful obscure words to increase vocabulary as long as they are used in context�"the word’s meaning is understood.   

                So. The first book The Muse was primarily about Eddy’s travels to meet the Five while book two The Five provided the backgrounds of the Five. Quite simplistic and logical titles, I suppose.  I decided to make one of The Five a humanoid sort of fellow from another planet who was gifted on fingerboards we commonly know as keyboards. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s believable, I feel. So in an effort to keep this retrospect short, I want to mention the third book in the Quintessence Trilogy entitled simply Resolution.

 Resolution as a title worked because it had a musical meaning with magical music having a central part in the story and secondly, the book provided a resolution in the trilogy. Halfway through this book, I shockingly realized that the trilogy must somehow be wrapped up�"all the loose ends must be wrapped up and I had plenty of those.  I had no idea how to reach this goal at first, but I came to the decision that as an epic, it had to have a grand finale to complete the story arc and provide a fitting climax. This meant a great epical battle with lots of explosive action and hand to hand combat.

Moving ahead with this idea, I had the antagonists build a huge edifice that would�"you guessed it�"have to be destroyed in one great smashing scene. Sounds logical, cliché perhaps, but in reality getting from the middle of the book to that finale within a few hundred pages proved to be a feat, not to mention all the heroes coming out on top, explanations for all that time traveling doubling, and of course tie up the romantic story line.  

                I felt good when Quintessence: The Muse, The Five, and Resolution were finally set in print last June. The story wrapped up believably in the denouement with only a few explanations and discussions necessary on those final few pages. I couldn’t believe it looking at those three fat books.

Sadly, no reader has verified that the Quintessence Trilogy was a satisfying or believable read, but I did have fun writing it. Years of frustrating fun!         

                 

Reviews

[Vawn]

HOLY SH*T (Excuse my language haha) this sounds epic. LBVS man this made me want to read your story!
And I love how you talk about the struggle and everything to write your story. I'm having the same problem with my story "Mani" although I'm in the first part of writing. Even now I know how hard it is to get feedback, and finding the right audience (although I know it will be around Young adults my age so 14-21) probably find my book interesting at the very least. Not trying to promote my story or anything, but I kind of got motivated (again) to continue with my story, but my ultimate goal, is more self driven where I can just sit back and read my entire story from start to finish.

So where can I find your book?