What I really want to see is a movie trilogy...

First movie:  Vasari hits the TEC empire, epic battle sequences, lots of lovable characters die or go through hardships, and the last scene is the arrival of the Advent...

Second movie: Several years after the first, Vasari front is at a stalemate, movie focuses mostly on battles and stuff with the Advent...hell you could even have some Advent-Trader romance where some Advent chick thinks the war is wrong and changes sides...

Third movie:  Picks up where 2nd left off, and basically you have rebellion and civil war everywhere...Advent could be at civil war of whether attacking Traders was right...TEC maybe have to deal with labor revolts and politics and sectarian violence...Vasari have to deal with insurgencies...and at the end you have a sketchy Advent-TEC alliance to drive off the Vasari once and for all...

Believe it or not I actually have given this quite some thought, but only specific scenes or characters...I've never found macro plot to be quite as interesting so I never really connected all the dots in my mind...

In general though I think the characterization and thematic elements of Battlestar Galactica would be a good bar to try and meet...movie or book, people are going to appreciate following specific and dynamic characters...an old grizzly TEC commander, a young rebellious Advent, a diehard TEC insurgent whose lost his whole family to the Vasari...you get the picture...

Anyway that's my two cents, best of luck to you!

What I was kind of thinking was that in movie/book/part 1, the focus was on the Vasari front (and the characters involved)...then in part 2, the focus was on the Advent front (mostly different characters involved)...part 3 would include all surviving characters from parts 1 and 2....

For example, a Trader who lives on one of the first planets hit by the Vasari in part 1 may end up fighting in the insurgency in part 3...an Advent who rebels in part 2 may end up leading a joint strike in part 3...at least, those are some possibilities...

To be honest, the type of plot that works in a single book/movie is probably very different from what you might do when you know you can revisit characters in sequels...so, what makes a good trilogy may not be applicable at all if you are just doing a single book...

And of course as you pointed out what works for movies (trilogy or not) doesn't always work for books...I figured I'd just throw some ideas out there...I for one much prefer movies over books (if of course the plot is meant for a movie) so I really haven't put a lot of thought into making any sort of literature of the sins universe...

Take it in major phases.

Book 1: The Vasari attack

Book 2: The Advent attack

Book 3: The forces entrench

Book 4: Diplomacy starts up

Book 5: The rebellions erupt

Each would have plenty of flashbacks and allusion to give greater detail to the past. For stories like entrenchment and diplomacy, there will be more focus on the turning tides of battle or political intrigue. You would have a series of characters that are built up in number as time goes on, not worrying about hovering over the shoulder of any single person. Something of an ensemble cast. Although not all need to be major players every time, characters will be recurring in some capacity or another.

Just a thought.

I like the snowflake method for writing. One line description (great for pitching the story), then branch that into a handful of major plot points, then break those down and so on. The outlining can take a while and all, but when you start writing, it breezes by in comparison to what it would be otherwise. And Excel or Quattro Pro allows you to insert rows to make this all easier.

Do keep a separate sheet of character descriptions handy. It's useful for pitching, and you can start with a few characters and grow both the number and complexity of the characters as you go, keeping track of details along the way. Remember that character descriptions include personality traits, physical traits, how they are when they start, how they are when they finish, personal flaws and strengths, and major turning points in their characters.

For a series, it's good to get down to chapter by chapter overall, then start focusing in one novel at a time, remembering that the end or beginning of a novel can be shifted as need be. Nothing is set in stone until it's published.

to be fair, we both made the same point. I just elaborated.

The snowflake leads you to a flow chart.  Eventually you have to stop branching out and focus on the main plot line and characters.

Start with snow, then carve a path.

I like the time traveler in another time but unaware he's in an alternate reality all happening while he is dreaming in still another reality where ultimately he is plugged into a machine that feeds reality to him.  See?  You'll need that flow chart.

Also watch what tense you tell your story in--try not to switch between narration, first person, etc. going back and forth all the time.

Lol--I made the time traveller comment tongue-in-cheek...to illustrate how a convoluted storyline with too many directions can end up an unreadable mess.

I was just snowflakin' it.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year. I'm late, but I didn't log in at all over the weekend. That's a sign of social success in my book.

Yes, not only watch what POV you choose to give it, but also past vs. present tense. You want to pick one and stick with it. That can be easily checked on editing, whereas POV is something you have to nip in the bud from the get go. If you have trouble telling a first person story without switching from person to person, I suggest third person omniscient. That way you can tdescribe anything going on anywhere and give away character thoughts at will.

It is possible to switch from person to person, BUT you have to make the transitions smooth and disctinctive. You also have to keep from doing it a lot within a small timeframe. Think Starcraft, how the story was broken into thirds, each telling the story when it was at the height of their given conflict. But that's if you feel practiced or confident with the experiment.

I was actually planning on writing a book based on the Advent POV and hopefully coming up with some ideas that would be considered cannon by Stardock, if it ever came to be that my life would be complete

I was sort of planning on doing something like that.