Hi guys.
So I have considered my first book a lot and I'm really feeling that the point where I suddenly found "A possible ending" to the first book in the middle of my book 1 outline is actually where I want it.
Here's some questions.
1. If I cut the book here, book 1's conflict will be protagonist vs self with a secondary protagonist vs antagonist (including a physical conflict) that does NOT result in the antagonist being caught/captured/killed/destroyed, or necessarily even identified for sure (suspicious of who the antagonist is, but can't prove it).
Is that okay if the rest of my series is going to have more protagonist vs antagonist external conflict main with a lot of protagonist vs self secondary?
My worry here is that if my first book has one kind of conflict but the rest of the series has more of another, it will be misleading and maybe jarring or turn people off when they pick up book 2 and it's more of a different kind of conflict.
Some of the advice I've seen so far says "If it's a good story with a complete character arc, it's fine." other say it should be more consistent.
I'd really love some more advice on this point. If anyone has thoughts, please share.
2. I'm really rethinking my series title. Dreamweave Chronicles is a name I came up with literally a decade ago when we'd made up enough stories in this world that it needed a better nickname than referring to it by the characters in it. I named it Dreamweave because I always said my wife was a storyweaver and this was essentially our dream setting. Heh. Yay. But I'm not sure it's the most marketable, or even best description for the series setting or world. It's an urban fantasy. It's not really about dreaming. The only element that is about "Dreaming" is that most of humanity is "Unawakened" which means they are blissfully unaware of the supernatural. The fact that they are not aware of the truth is a major theme, and thus, the "Dream" makes a lot of sense, though that terminology is not referred to directly in-world.
I can't think of a better series title though. This world is going to house several series with a main character per series. I was going to do the titles as stuff like "Dreamweave Chronicles: Awakened" for my book 1 of the Dakota series. I have another character I intend to write about later who would also be "Dreamweave Chronicles: Title" with "A Charactername Novel" involved.
Maybe I shouldn't do it this way?
Maybe I should name the series on a per-character basis??
If so, should I name my "Universe" at all?
Thoughts, suggestions, other name ideas all welcome.
3. Does anyone here want to beta read my first novel (very soon if so) and tell me if they feel the first book is "Complete"? I have one friend who might read over it, but I'd like a non-friend reader as well to tell me if the first book feels like a full book or not and if they like how it's reading so far. Any takers?