By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
There are many things that I really like about writing series. For one, readers seem to love them. I think that’s because they have more of an opportunity to really get to know the characters and become invested in them. They also enjoy becoming part of a familiar world…the setting we’ve created in our books.
As a writer, I like series because they’re much easier for me to write. I establish my regular characters, create a world, and then come up with fresh adventures in each book.
The problem is that, after a while, either the readers seem to get restless (at least their customer reviews tend to reflect this sentiment) or the writer feels a little restless. This has happened to me a few times. In Memphis Barbeque book four, I decided that I would (clearly, since the series mentions Memphis) set the book in Memphis, but I would center the book’s action around a large barbeque festival/competition there instead of the barbeque restaurant the book is usually centered around. In Southern Quilting mystery three, I took my characters out to a remote location in the mountains and stranded them there the entire book. And now, for my 7th Myrtle Clover book, I’m planning for most of the book’s scenes to take place at a retirement home.
The good part about doing this—it makes the story feel a little fresher for series writers. It makes things fresher for readers, too.
The bad part about doing this—editors aren’t wild about it. And readers may think they want something different, but not realize that there’s actually a comfort in familiarity. They may not want things as different as they think.
How these road trips went for me:
In the Memphis book, Rubbed Out, it went the easiest. I had some of the book’s action back at the familiar hangouts. The regular characters that the readers loved were all still in the book—and in a believable way, because they were all attending the local festival or competing in the barbeque contest. I had the best of both worlds there.
In the Southern Quilting book, Quilt Trip, it was admittedly tough. My editor raised several concerns when I shared my outline with her. She commented that readers love the familiarity of a particular setting and that they enjoyed seeing all of their favorite regular characters in a book. She had a point—I know I feel the same way when I’m reading a series or watching a television show and a book or episode leaves out one of my favorite characters. I feel a little cheated. So I revised my outline to incorporate as many of the core group of regulars as possible on the road trip…while trying to keep it believable. And I offered to set half the book back in the old setting if she still wasn’t wild about it. But I’d sold her on it. And I was glad because I was so gung-ho to write that book.
The only problem was that it’s very hard to write a book from one limited setting. This was a Southern Gothic inspired book with a crumbling Victorian mansion as the setting—and an ice storm that cut off the house from the rest of the world. You have to work especially hard to make things lively and keep conflict and excitement going. It’s tough. About halfway through the book, I wasn’t sure if I could keep it up any longer, but then I got an idea for an additional obstacle or two to throw at the characters. It ended up being one of my favorite books and I haven’t yet gotten any direct reader complaints about the way I handled the road trip.
I’m a little more nervous about the 7th Myrtle Clover book that I’ll be writing in about a month (it’s fully outlined now). Readers of that series are very set in their ways and I do hear directly from them if I make any changes. And this will be a change. But I realized how much easier it was to write the Memphis story by having the story’s action switch between the new setting and the older, familiar one. So I’m planning to make it more like that story and less like the (difficult to write) quilting mystery.
In Summary:
Readers like series regulars. Unfortunately, those regulars live in the town that you’re leaving behind as the character(s) go on a road trip. Is there a way that you can either believably bring some of them along, or incorporate those characters into your novel in other ways?
It can be tough to sustain a story at a limited location (or a country house mystery…which is what I was trying to create when I wrote Quilt Trip) for the span of a whole novel. Could you have half your action in the old, familiar setting and half on the road?
Basically, you’ve probably considered this because you either wanted to world-build a little or experiment somehow. We just have to make sure it works. It’s a risky proposition, really—we’re taking something our readers find familiar and comforting and pushing them to expand their boundaries.
Have you ever taken your readers on a road trip? How did it go? How did you satisfy your series’ readers?
Image: MorgueFile: andi
Hi Elizabeth – it’s very clever to actually move the series on, yet retain so much of the warmth and familiarity that your readers enjoy. It sounds as though you’ve a template that you can use with your other books in one way or the other …
Congratulations and this was fun to read .. cheers Hilary
Hilary–It took some experimenting, but yes I think I do have a bit of a template now for approaching it. Thanks for coming by!
In the series I’ve read, sometimes they do start to grow stale with the same setting after so many books. I think a new setting is a good idea. Of course, I threw that at my readers in book two, with the main character the only constant. Most liked it, a few didn’t. Probably why I kept the action in the same location for the third book.
Alex–I think it’s tricky, for sure. I definitely wouldn’t want to try it for every book unless I was writing a continuous story arc series.
Elizabeth – First, I think Rubbed Out really did go very well. Nice blend of the familiar and the different. In general, I think road trips are tough for just that reason: as a writer, you have to balance what readers are accustomed to and like with adding a bit of freshness. I have my Joel Williams take a road trip in my third novel from the university town he lives and works in to a large city a couple of hours away. He’s doing a research project there. So most of the action takes place in the city. But he returns to his usual setting a couple of times too, since it’s only a two hour drive. For what it’s worth, that’s how I handled it.
Margot–I like the way you handled that…he can go back and forth from a new location to a familiar one. I think that can be the best of both worlds.
I tried to place part of each of my five books in familiar locations, and all but one returns to Greenville, SC.
Diane–I think readers respond well to it.
Greenville is a great town! Grew up in Anderson, just down the road from there.
I love road trips. So much fun.
Where I went to school, we had a great hole-in-the-wall family bar 45 minutes down a two-lane “road of death” that served fantastic ribs. I made the trip a ton. Bar-b-que, road trip, what’s not to like?
And of course, you have those big smokers that just look like somewhere to discover a body. Does everyone open one of these and expect to find their brother-in-law….or is it just me?
Great topic. I love road trip writing.
Jack–Ha! This sounds very much like our family road trips to see my grandmother. You weren’t on the way to Macon, GA by any chance? :)
Yes, I think of places to stash bodies *all* the time! Mystery writers are something of a psychological mess, I think…
I don’t write series, but I love road trips, both in real life and in my reading life. I don’t mind if the character is in a different setting at all.
Karen–That’s good to hear! I like to read them too, as long as my favorite characters figure into them somehow.
I have a WIP where I literally send the characters on a road/rail/sea trip. Two old men escaping from the nursery home, to embark on a trip to the end of their lives. Kind of inspired by Jack Kerouac, except that the protag is an old man rather than Sal Paradise >:)
CA–Sounds like a fun book! I like stories with older protagonists. Road/rail/sea sounds like quite a trip, too.
What a fun idea! I’ve never done this because I’ve never written a series. Readers have requested a sequel to my book so I’m actually considering it :)
Julie–Hope you will! Series are fun to read and write. :)
Elizabeth–
I guess everything I’ve written has been a road trip of sorts. I think I’m motivated in this direction for a selfish, probably “anal” reason: I want to save or preserve places I’ve been to and lived in, and the way to do this is to make those locales the settings for stories. But what you’ve said in this post is probably of real importance to me, because I am in the process of publishing a series. I need to remember that readers (if I get some) will like the idea of familiar places and characters.
Barry–I think they definitely get attached. I guess it’s sort of a homey feeling for them–a comfort in knowing what to expect. I think it’s present in a lot of stories–I think about how I loved 221 B. Baker Street, for instance. Holmes and Watson would go off for their adventures (the moors, odd spots in the city), but then returned to the safety of 221 B.
This is all good to know. In a few months I’m starting work on a trilogy. While not a full series, some of the same things will apply. Thanks!
Thanks for coming by, Carol!
I’ve always loved reading series – starting with good ol’ Encyclopedia Brown :)
I do like the familiarity but I also love the road trips – it’s fun watching the characters outside of their comfort zones! :)
Jemi–I hadn’t thought of it that way…you’re right, it does help to take characters out of their comfort zones! A little added stress is a good thing.
Well, my western mystery series is always on the road — Mick and Casey are saddle bums. They don’t have a home to stick to. I suppose I could do a special not-on-the-road episode where they revisit places they’ve been….
For the Man Who books, it will mostly stick in and around Potewa county, but I like to use different locations around the place with maybe an occasional jaunt. (Kind of like Miss Marple.)
I think the question is how much of a pattern you create up front. Which things do you do every time, which do you do once in a while. Also, if you have a signature thing — like Columbo saying “Just one more thing….” — then you can have fun bringing it in in unusual ways. (Maybe making the audience think you’re going to leave it out and then finding something different to do.)
I suppose the key is to recognize which elements are the ones the audience is waiting for. Then you can more freely play around.
Camille–Maybe it’s that I have a fairly specific pattern in my books. Then change is tough.
The Myrtle Clover series is full of signature stuff…and readers write me if I leave it out in a book (usually accidentally…ugh). Now I’ve got a list of things that I incorporate into those books–a checklist. Otherwise, I’ll be sure to drop the ball somewhere.
I think people underestimate the value of a pattern sometimes. At least you know how to exactly satisfy your audience!
And for your own sanity, that’s why you have different series. (Also, if you ever had to go crazy and write something completely out of character, you could use a pen name.)
Camille–Well, that’s true. And if I forget how to satisfy them, they’ll email me to let me know!
I will *definitely* be writing another genre and *definitely* under a pen name. Not sure when…maybe a year. I think my brain needs a bit of a break. And I definitely don’t need my cozy readers accidentally stumbling into a zombie book or whatever it is I’m writing… :)