Reader Question Day #52 – why only seven DEMONSOULED books?
Joseph asks, concerning the final DEMONSOULED book:
I also thought #6 was going to be the last one but in regards to the post above, I’m looking forward to a confirmed 7th as well.
The seventh book will be the final one. I had planned originally for six books, with the final book called SOUL OF SHADOWS. However, by the end of the fifth book, I quickly realized that this meant the sixth book would be this 350,000 word monster. So I split it into two, SOUL OF SKULLS and the forthcoming SOUL OF SWORDS and even then, the seventh book is going to be quite long and a bit of a challenge to write. But the only way to grow as a writer (and, more importantly, to provide a satisfying ending for the reader) is to challenge oneself. 
Beverly asks:
My only disappointment so far has been the direction you took Lucan. I liked his character and hoped he would be Mazael’s right hand wizard and go to guy when things got really tough, perfecting his skill while still battling his own dark side. Since you didn’t write him that way, I’m hoping that Lucan will somehow have an epiphany and will help Mazael defeat The Old Demon.
Concerning Lucan, the direction his character took surprised me. I expected him to be, like you said, Mazael’s right-hand wizard. Except Mazael kept resisting his dark side, while Lucan was always willing to go just a *little* further and ignore the consequences. Finally that caught up to him.
Several different people ask (related to above):
Why only 7 DEMONSOULED books?
Actually, I wanted only six DEMONSOULED books, but it turned into seven.
But the main question is, I think, why only seven? Why not eight? Why not fifteen, like THE WHEEL OF TIME? Well, the temptation is there, to extend the story indefinitely to sell more books. And logistically, I could do it, too. But I don’t think that would be a good thing. Seven books is enough to tell the story, and so seven books it will be.
Also, I’m ready to do something new. DEMONSOULED’s first edition was published in 2005, and I’d been working on what would become the book since 2001 or so. I don’t want to be forever reworking the same characters and the same setting, or spinning off endless prequels and side stories. It’s time to do something new.
(That isn’t to say I won’t return to the world of DEMONSOULED or some of the characters in the future, just that the main story will be done.)
I wrote most of this post on Wednesday, but then on Friday Tom Simon (author of THE END OF EARTH AND SKY and other books) post an excellent essay on the matter. Key quotes:
The cumulative effect of all this is to make it seem that epic fantasy writers are by nature sprawling, slovenly, and self-indulgent. Some are, no doubt, but most are defeated by the nature of the medium — and of human experience. You set out to write an epic, and figure out what the story will be about, and who the heroes are, and what kinds of places you want to visit along the way; and you divide your outline into roughly equal thirds, and expect to write a trilogy. But the story has an exasperating way of growing bigger as you go along. The mountain that you chose for your destination turns out to be twice the size you originally thought, and consequently, twice as far away; and having travelled two-thirds of the distance you planned for, you find you are only one-third of the way there. Then, if your series has been a commercial success so far, you may find your publisher happily playing along, encouraging you to spin it out into as many books as they can profitably sell. If not, you are liable to be dropped in mid-series and never reach the destination at all…
The wisdom that could solve the paradox of epic fantasy may likewise be a matter of mathematics. What we want is a formula that will tell us, as a general rule, how much longer the actual story is likely to be compared to the outlined or projected story. Tad Williams worked out a solution for his own special case: if it looks like three books, it will actually take four. Extrapolating this to cover other situations is the tricky part, and that problem has not yet been solved. Of course, even with a general solution, we would still need the wisdom and the will to do what it prescribes. That is, I think, largely a matter of courage: it means having the guts to wrap up a successful series while the readers are still calling for more, instead of spinning it out to greater and greater lengths for easy profit. It means trusting our talent and our skill — knowing that if we can finish this one tale, the Muse will not desert us; there will be other tales to tell, and if we choose the best one available, our audience will follow us there.
So for DEMONSOULED, it’s time to reach the destination. One more book, and then the series will be done.
(Though I do plan to continue THE GHOSTS for some time yet, since they’re a completely different kind of books than DEMONSOULED.)
-JM