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So. you want to write a story with a family at its heart? I’m not usually in the business of giving advice but I was looking back over my digital archives and thinking: this is where I started.

I started by creating a family … and then I drew a family tree … and by the end of the first book, this is how it looked.

Three marriages, three births and one death later, the family tree evolved over book 1 and would go on evolving significantly (just as real families do).

And just as real families would do, the one illegitimate birth in the book was not recorded.

It’s fun to be able to control fictional lives. But even that has its constraints. I would admit to changing the ending on one person’s story in the final book, Winds of Change, because it didn’t sit right with me. 

I’d like to hear from other writers if they’ve encountered similar situations. You start off thinking you’ll take a character in one direction, and then decide it doesn’t feel right.