4 Pros and Cons to Writing an Epic

Hey everyone! I’m back with another writing related post! This time, I’m going to be talking about epic novels. Basically, the term “epic”, in the way I’m using it, refers to a super long plot which usually consists of a series of books to tell the complete story. Think of the Lord of the Rings series. Unlike the Chronicles of Narnia series, in which each book has its own separate plot, the Lord of the Rings series has one overarching plot, the books in the series picking up where the previous ones left off.

I’ve found there are pros and cons to writing an “epic”, and so in this post, I’ll be mentioning four of each.

Pro #1: It can be encouraging to see the length of your story.

I have a rough draft of a story which is now epic-length. Obviously much of the length will be cut away as I edit, but it will still remain in need of multiple books to tell the full story. However, it is encouraging to see how much I can actually write for one plot, one story.

It’s also encouraging to see how your writing improves over time. I started this story six years ago, and just by returning and reading my work from four years ago versus two, I can see a major improvement. (Also the chapters kept getting longer and longer the more advanced I got…)

But when you write an epic, it’s just encouraging to see that you can write so much for just one book.

Con #1: You must ensure the length of your story is truly necessary.

It’s definitely impressive when you have 500,000 words written for your story. However, if 400,000 of those words are unnecessary and fluff, then it will really damage it. It’s better to have a 60,000 word stand alone novel which uses every word brilliantly, than a 400,000 word epic which is mostly fluff and unnecessary details.

The length needs to be justified by the story. You shouldn’t attempt to write an epic just to impress your friends. Allow the story to evolve that way if it’s truly necessary. If it’s not necessary, then take it out.

I know when I edit my story, I’ll be removing a LOT of unintentional fluff words, unnecessary scenes, and other things which will make my story much tighter, clearer, and better told.

Pro #2: Epics can provide a rich, immersive writing experience.

This isn’t to say those who just write average length novels don’t have a rich, immersive experience. They do. But from my own experience, it’s a little bit different. Oftentimes with epics, the reason they’re so long is because of the delightful complexities and numerous characters within them. In fact, most epics are either fantasy or sci-fi in genre because of the necessary world-building which goes along with them.

Worldbuilding especially takes up a lot of book space, but, for me, it’s one of the funnest things to do. You can create your own histories, languages, cultures and peoples, landmarks, etc, etc. Oftentimes in epics, these things are especially focused upon, more so than in just an average-length fantasy novel, which also adds to their length.

Con #2: Worldbuilding can be hard.

Even in books which may be set in the “real world”, some slight worldbuilding is necessary. You must build and create the world the character lives in, whether it’s a colony on Mars, 16th century France, or a completely fantastical world.

However, worldbuilding can be hard. For me, for example, I love reading historical fiction. However, I hate writing it because of the “worldbuilding”. Historical fiction “worldbuilding” consists of research rather than creating something from scratch like fantasy worldbuilding is. But it’s still developing the world in which your character lives.

As I said before, however, most epics are fantasy because of the worldbuilding. If someone struggles with creating new worlds and their cultures, languages, and peoples, writing a fantasy epic may not be the best thing to do.

A second point on this subject ties into Con #1. You must ensure all your details are truly necessary. Worldbuilding takes up a lot of space because its the framework in which your characters live and work, but if a part of the world is not necessary to the plot/characters in the book, then leave it out. Don’t add so much worldbuilding it overshadows the main plot and characters. It should compliment and enrich the story, not overtake it.

A third and final point which I will make on this topic is to implement the worldbuilding right. No matter how cool the worldbuilding is, no one wants to read ten pages of nothing but describing a forest or complex language with no action or dialogue interspersed. (Okay, maybe there are a few people out there who would be patient enough to read through that, but not me.) Make sure to intertwine the worldbuilding the best you can with the story, so it doesn’t feel like a separate element.

Pro #3: Epics give lots of characters time to develop.

In shorter novels, oftentimes the major characters get most of the focus, while the side characters do their jobs and don’t change that much. While this is definitely a good thing in most cases, there’s always that one book where you wish your favorite side character had gotten just a little more attention from the author, even if the story and plot wraps up nicely. I don’t know about you, but if I’m invested in a character, I’m willing to read a lot more about them. Epics, because of their length, usually afford more chances to develop these type characters.

As I said before, obviously don’t waste time develop a side character who is only needed for one or two scenes. However, if a side character is more involved in a story or has a major role at one time or another, an epic affords the opportunity to develop these characters. It’s up to you as the author to decide if you want to or not, or if it’s truly necessary for the story.

For example, in my epic, my main character is a part of a group consisting of seven individuals, including him. The other six characters have roles of varying importance, but they all have a significant part to play in fulfilling the plot. Therefore, I develop them and give them character arcs according to what I see is necessary to the story and characters. And through this, sometimes I even get more ideas which intertwine with the main plot which increase the story even more.

I heard one person say once, the more characters a story has, the more complex it gets. I’ve discovered, at least in my experience, this is definitely true.

Con #3: You can have too many characters.

Just like you can choose to develop too many characters, you can also have too many unnecessary characters. Each character needs to play a role.

As a pantser, I’ve had both characters I create for the plot, and those which I create and force into the plot. Most of the time, I create a character for the plot; I see I need a character to fulfill a role so I make one. However, there are a few times where I’ve made a character solely because I got inspiration for them, and I’ve stuck them in my story. While a couple of those have actually solved some great issues and added a whole lot more to the plot, I know of a few which I will unfortunately have to remove when I go back to edit because their existence is unnecessary. Another, already existing character can do their role just as easily, so why do they exist?

Having too many characters can also confuse the reader, especially when they have a similar first name. The Legends of King Arthur excels at this. For example, four of his nephews have the following names: Gawain, Uwain, Gaheris, and Gareth. There are also multiple Elaines and Isoldes (Iseults?) in the legends. Oh, and how about Galahad and Galehot? It’s kinda crazy unless you really know the story.

So like with everything else, make sure your characters are necessary, and pick the ones who are necessary to develop. It can definitely be tempting to want to create character arcs for every character one comes across.

Pro #4: The story can be delightfully layered.

My favorite thing about writing my own story is all the layers within it. For example, I have a character who is adopted, though he doesn’t realize it. He mistakenly believes his adopted father is dead, and when he comes across a grave, he jumps to the conclusion that it’s his father’s grave. A friend with this character tries to calm him by suggesting the grave isn’t his father’s. The hilarious thing about it is how his friend is right on multiple levels–it’s not his adopted father’s grave, and it’s also not his biological father’s grave, like he believes. However this is not discovered until the very end of the series.

There are plenty of other layers in the story too, and, for me, it makes it fun to both read and write. I love reading stories where things have double meanings and everything connects so smoothly, especially in epics where so much has happened, yet things all throughout the series connect.

Con #4: The story can become too complex.

This con is probably the hardest for me to gauge in my own writing. As the author, everything seems to make sense in my mind, therefore I need others to tell me if everything is clear and not confusing. This is even worse with an epic, because you have so much spanning over so many books, it’s easy to forget what you’ve written or create small plot holes or have redundancies.

Currently, I am starting to edit my epic. Perhaps someday I’ll do an advanced post on how I’m keeping track of everything, but for now, the easiest thing to do to help with this, especially if you’re a pantser, is to create an outline of your chapter. Obviously outliners will already have this, and pantsers can just write the chapter first, then notate as little or as much as they feel they need to keep track of down in an outline.

And the easiest way to see if your story is too complex is to have multiple people, preferably fellow writers and those in your target audience, read at least some of your story and give you their thoughts on it. If multiple people remark it was confusing, then something probably needs to change.

There’s a lot more I could say on the subject of epics, but I think this is suffice for now. (Don’t want this to turn into an “epic” length post!) Do you have anything to say about epics? What is your favorite epic? Are you a writer? Have you written an epic? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks for reading! God bless! ~ Kay Adelin