Why write a trilogy? The Gift Legacy didn’t start out as a trilogy. When I wrote Awakening, I concentrated on producing one story that was strong enough to call a book. It was a personal project for me—a bucket list accomplishment. Publishing wasn’t even on my radar at that time.
I Missed Writing
But in the lull after I’d sent the draft off to the editor, I realized that I missed writing. I don’t know why that surprised me. After all, I’d been writing almost every day for six months and loving it. It had become a habit. Soon, I found myself back at the computer picking through the story, rewriting, adding bits, and rethinking scenes.
The writing process, and writing fiction in particular, is harsh. With each re-write, perfectly good, but ill-fitting or excessive ideas and scenes are cut. But with computers the cuts are never really gone—just pasted inside another document.
While I was busy incorporating the editor’s input into the next draft, I realized that the document I had titled “discards” could be renamed “ideas for book 2.” That’s when I started toying with the idea of a continuation of the story.
Book 2 Takes Shape
Before I knew it, an outline for a second book took shape. It surprised me and at first I didn’t even tell anyone (friends and family were still reeling from the revelation that I’d written the first one!).
There were huge holes in the second outline, but I knew a good and unique story was there. From that point on I knew The Gift Legacy would be more than one book*. I didn’t know three books were lurking, and perhaps there are more, but what I do know is that I’m not going to stop writing. It’s too much a part of me now.
Tap here to learn more about JP McLean.
Update to Why Write a Trilogy: There are now 7 books in the The Gift Legacy. You can get started with Book 1 here.
JP (Jo-Anne) McLean’s debut novel, Awakening, is coming soon. JP lives and writes from her home on