by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’m a fan of series…both reading and writing them. As a reader, though, it really bothered me when my favorite series would get stale or if I felt as if the writer was recycling plots and other elements.
I published book twelve in the Myrtle Clover series in January and am planning a 13th release in the same series later this year. This has caused me to be a lot more deliberate with my plotting and with the other ‘layers’ that I include in my stories. The last thing that I want is to disappoint readers.
Thinking it through, I made a list of elements that I either appreciated from other long-running series, or wished that those series would have used to pique my interest. Here’s what I came up with:
Use unique descriptions for staple characters and settings. One thing I noticed in one of my favorite series is that the author seems to cut-and-paste the descriptions of her protagonist and other recurring characters from older books to the new one. In some ways, this can be a fun inside joke (I loved Agatha Christie’s descriptions of Poirot as having ‘an egg-shaped head’, for example), it might be good to come up with fresh ways of describing characters and settings.
Offer up any details that have never been mentioned (and immediately add these details to your story bible). I realized I’d never actually named the street that Myrtle lived on, for example, or talked about her sidekick’s family. Incorporating interesting details can help readers stay interested.
Dig into the protagonist’s backstory. While this is something that would likely be tedious in book one, you have the luxury of a reader’s interest by book 12 or 13. It’s just important that we handle it in a way that we don’t lose their interest. I’m exploring having a friend from a protagonist’s past reappear and cause trouble in a future mystery.
Can characters grow while still remaining consistent? One good thing about being this far into a series is that you really know your characters. It’s possible to have a lot of fun with that by putting your characters in situations that make them uncomfortable…or just new situations, altogether. They could start a new job or a new relationship. The most important thing to consider is … does it feel forced or natural? Does it serve the story and the reader?
Related to the above, but a bit more external: Are there new elements (new characters, new situations, new setting, new setbacks) that can be naturally added to help the characters continue growing and help the readers discover more about them?
Specific to mysteries: Make the mysteries more complex. Have two separate murderers, change the number of victims, increase the clues and red herrings. Add or reduce the number of suspects. Play around with locked room or manor house set-ups.
The point is that we should make sure that the series is still satisfying for our readers (as well as for ourselves). By putting a little extra thought into the process, it’s really not that hard to do.
Do you have a long series? How do you keep it fresh? As a reader, what has kept you reading longer series?
Photo on VisualHunt.com
