Series Pt. 2

See what I did there? I made that post about writing a series into a series. Tricky, huh?

Continuing thoughts from that previous blog entry, I’m not thinking of writing a series just for the sake of writing a series. Writing and editing a book is not something done on a whim. It’s a commitment. And writing multiple books with an ongoing story, and presumably ongoing characters, is a multi-year ordeal. I don’t want to get a few books down the road and decide I’d rather be writing something else.

Which means mapping out the story arc. Gosh, that sounds like a lot of work. Only kidding, I usually have a general outline in my head and sometimes on paper when I write a book. But with a multi-book series I need to have more guardrails and there are a couple of ways to go about it.

One way is that the series is an ongoing narrative, kind of like life. It can be a single-threaded story or there can be multiple threads all contributing to the overall tale. Think Lord of the Rings. Even though it’s a series of only three books, each one is an entry in a single overall story.

Another option is to write books that could stand alone but all exist in the same universe. Oftentimes this type of series has personal growth or slight changes to characters over the course of multiple books. For example, one series I’ve read is based on a private detective. The world around him is consistent, such as his neighbors, the bars and restaurants he frequents, his parents, etc. But he also goes from a single guy to being interested in a cute neighbor to marrying her. And other neighbors help him with surveillance, get new jobs, and take on more responsibility in their own personal growth. So even if the series I write isn’t a continuous storyline it still needs to have some changes over the course of the books.

Which is better? Depends on the story I want to tell. I’m still mulling it over.