Series writing is serious business.
Series writing encompasses the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The good? You really know
your characters. You hear them in your head. You write without false steps
because you know how they’re going to react in situations you throw them into. Your
writing group knows them so well they speak of them as friends. Also, your
readers come to expect certain reactions and dialogue. Characters’ foibles are
adorable to your fans. Fans also like getting to know your setting and, if a
real place, they revel in identifying where that particular gas station is.
The bad? Your characters’
foibles, so adorable to fans . . . Not so much for you after a while. Must she
always open the door where everyone knows the bad guy is? Must he always ignore
the advice of those who know better than he does? You’d think they’d learn,
right? Also, if your setting is a small town, you are likely to encounter the
Cabot Cove Syndrome, so named for Jessica Fletcher’s small town that no
rational insurance company would ever provide coverage for, given the death
rate per capita. And speaking of murder, can you run out of ways to kill
people?
As an aside, I tackled that
one for you. Go to April, 2016 in this blog and you will find 26+ Ways to Kill
(in Mysteries).
And the ugly? Well, let’s
just say the bad can deteriorate to the worst. Fans will berate you if you
forgot he had hazel eyes in book two and by book four they’ve turned glacier
blue. Much worse is that your concept is not big enough to last for several
books. What are your themes that stretch across the series?
What to do about these and
other limitations of series writing?
Surprisingly, a Google
search turned up very few articles about issues in writing a series. Maybe
people don’t have trouble with series writing and so there’s no need for such
articles. Nah. That’s not it. There are too many series writers out there. I
think it’s because we figure out what to do and don’t go hunting for or writing
articles about troubles in series-land.
Across these articles and
with my own experience, I’ve identified several major features to approach
series so that you can be successful.
1)
Consistency is a blessing and a hobgoblin.
Readers
like consistency. They want expectations for characters to be met. They
approach the series as encounters with old friends. However, don’t be so
consistent that there are never surprises. In book two of my culinary mystery
series, I have a character drop a bombshell. The revelation is consistent with
some earlier clues planted in books one and two. However, this one would never
have been predicted. So, be consistent but allow for new information and
character changes consistent with the behaviors to keep characters fresh. And
if you have someone being totally inconsistent, you should be able to explain
it with the onset of dementia, for example.
2)
Time can trip you up.
Both within
and across books in a series, time is a lurking peril. Kinsey Milhone is a
wonderful example. I believe I read long ago that Sue Grafton said if she’d
known the alphabet mysteries she wrote were going to take off she wouldn’t have
chosen the alphabet. She was committed to writing a series with 26 books! Is
that a record? I can’t say for sure, but if not, it’s close to a record. And
Kinsey is the same. It’s as if we are seeing her work on these crimes over the
period of a few years instead of decades. If you have grand plans along those
lines, avoid events, characters, car models and the like that will tie your
book to a specific time. Within a book, make a calendar for your
protagonist/antagonist so they don’t do too much within one day or week.
3)
Expand your characters’ world.
Some series
authors find the created world of the cozy to limiting. Especially in cozies,
the death toll can be high. I took my cooks to the Aegean in book four. They
were demo cooks on a high-end cruise ship and they could get into all kinds of
foreign trouble. Some series authors have their characters in a job, like being
a travel writer or airline personnel so they can be in different locales. Lots
of times mystery writers kill off traveling visitors or itinerants instead of
regular residents.
4)
Keep a running log on characters, cars, and conflicts.
Oh, yeah,
that 25-year-old silver Camry cannot become 20 years old and blue in book four.
Eye color, body type, tics—all of these need to be logged so that you have a
reference for checking. The running argument with Aunt Mabel in book two can’t
be the same one your character has with Uncle Glenn in book eight. Make a
spreadsheet (electronically is my preference, but paper works) and jot down
everything that could conceivably be changed across books. Is this a pain in
the sweet patootie? You betcha. But you’ll be so proud of yourself for not
screwing up details.
5)
Allow for some mystery. Not everything has to be
answered by the end.
We’ve
all seen movies that, as the final credits roll by, you say, “Oh, yeah. There’ll
be a sequel.” Things left raveled, hanging threads, unresolved issues. That’s
like real life. So wrap up the biggies, but don’t feel you have to let your
readers know everything. And just like in real life, characters can change
given the right circumstances.
6)
Decide how much readers need to know if they read
book five first.
This is the
toughest one, frankly, for me. I want the reader to know EVERYTHING. But that
is impractical and boring. Make character sketches for your ensemble, recurring
cast. Those are the things that need to be known. Sprinkle them in here and
there. Show personalities through actions and reactions. If there is need to
explain the mystery in a past book, sprinkle that even more lightly. I ran into
that problem in book two. How do I explain Alli visiting her brother in prison.
Remember that each story must be able to stand alone. Someone reading the
series gets value added by reading these connected standalones.
What have you had to deal
with in your series writing? Comment below to share with others.
Resources:
http://www.nownovel.com/blog/how-to-write-a-series-mistakes/
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