I'm completely rewriting "Freedom's fall" and it is going 100% better then the original. The main plot is the same, with some beefing out, and slight changes. However, I'm thinking over something before I do it. The novel has four "books" which cover different sections of Kate Almir's life (yes the character name is that). The first "book" covers her being rebuilt with bionics after nearly being killed, the second "book" involves her time in Intelligence and time spent as a CAG, including being shot down on a recently colonized planet, with bad guys pursuing her, and good guys trying to reach her. Throw in a few predators, and you get the idea. The problem is that by the end of the last chapter in "book" two, Kate knows someone wants her dead, but not who. Am I going to cheat the reader by jumping to the present, which books 3-4 are in? I am thinking of covering the actions of the conspirators be saying that since they have now tried 3-4 times to kill her without success, they might send her into unofficial exile, while she's in the middle of nowhere, far removed from their plans. Do you guys think that adequately covers the situation, or do I need to go further into her knowing someone wants her dead? As it is, I'm looking at a novel that will probably tip the scales in excess of 200k words... that brings up another question, when do you know its time to split a novel up into two novels, instead of one?
Typically a story should be rounded off at a climax. If, in your "books", you have more than one scene that draws upon everything that came before, or seems like a final showdown, then you might want to cut it into two books. In short, each seperate book in a series needs its own climax and resolution, while "books" or parts of a larger novel don't need to. Usually, though, writers who employ the "book" technique you describe include a smaller sort of climax in each one, but there is only one (capital-c) Climax in a book.
