by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I always hesitate to post on these kinds of topics, knowing that not everyone is as crazy as I am and writing several series at once.
I’m just figuring it out, myself. I usually juggle two series, but this year I decided to make it even more complicated and continue writing Myrtle Clover books in addition to the others. Why not? It’s already nutty around here.
Here are some ways I’ve found to make it work:
If you have any control over your deadlines at all, try to make sure that your deadlines don’t hit at the same time. It’s just very stressful. Get your agent onboard with that if you can and if you have one. I’ve done it this year and I did manage to get the deadlines 2 months apart, but it was still tough.
If you do get the deadlines that close together, try to deliver the first deadline earlier than promised, if you can. That will give you more time with the second and will also give you a little leeway when your edits for the first book come back in (if they come back early.)
The ideal situation is different for every writer, but I usually like to be drafting one book when I receive edits on another. I get the work done on both, but I’m using different parts of my brain so I don’t get that burned out feeling. That’s just how it works for me, anyway.
If you have time, consider skimming over the previous books in the series before writing the next book. At least enough to pick up the character voices and remind yourself of the tone of the books.
Develop a style sheet for your series. This has been the most helpful tool for me when writing my series. Penguin has been great to send me style sheets for each book, which I’ve downloaded and refer to often. These sheets include character names, descriptions, and ages; business names, connections between characters—all the little things that we can forget but shouldn’t forget. Sort of a little cheat sheet to get yourself going in the right direction.
If you’ve written a few books in the series, review the storylines for the previous books. It helps to keep from accidentally writing too closely to a previous storyline. Or to a similar storyline in another series you’re writing.
One other thing I like to do is review my Word file of copy/pasted notes from reader emails, reader Facebook and Twitter messages, and reader reviews on online retailers. This way I can remind myself what readers liked about the series…and didn’t like. Then I can deliver more of what they liked.
Write quickly. There are, obviously, a few reasons to do this. One, you don’t get frozen—worrying about how to approach the next book in the series. Jump in, write it, fix it later. Also, the next book for the other series is waiting on you to work on it.
Keep a Word document of each book you’ve written, in each series. And back them up. You need to have a searchable document on hand. Many times I’ve been busily writing in a little detail that I think belongs to one series, frown, do a search on the book I believe the detail comes from, and find that the detail/minor character is from a different series. I know that sounds ridiculous, but when you go from book to book and series to series it happens. And it’s hard to search a paperback book for a small detail. I’m keeping Word docs from years back just for the ability to search them.
This is what I’ve learned so far about juggling series. I’d love to hear from others who do the same. And I’d aslo love to hear from those of you who write a single series— your tips for keeping series continuity without repeating the same formula for each book.
Image: vpickering
Great advice! I always have a billion irons in the fire. I’d add one thing for those who have the opportunity to shift deadlines around (mainly unpublished and self-publishing):
If you aren’t sure which series to work on next, think hard about your momentum. If you’ve got momentum going on one, take advantage of it.
For instance, I always regretted listening to the advice “don’t write the second book until you’ve sold the first.” I now have a bunch of first books which would have been easy to follow up if I’d written at least a partial draft of the second right after the first – while I was excited and had momentum.
It takes a lot longer (and much more energy) to rev up a cold series than to continue one that’s hot.
I write three different series in three different genres. It does help that they are so different because I don’t have that possibility of mixing details. I do worry that I repeat a story in one series from another and keep my eyes open for that as I write.
I self publish so I have complete control of my deadlines. A good thing for my sanity, but a bad thing because I can procrastinate.
Thanks for the insight.
Elizabeth – I have no idea how you manage to write three good series at once like that! Thanks so much for your insights. I think it’s a good idea to keep style sheets and notes even if one’s writing just one series. As I write I’m constantly finding that I look back to earlier stuff I’ve written just for consistency.
And what a good idea to keep track of what readers have said! It’s a good way to learn and improve one’s work.
Excellent advice. I’m still a ‘one at a time’ writer (given I’m not under any deadline constraints). I really need to stop and get my style sheet/Bible/Continuity stuff up to date. I had to rethink my entire concept for Danger in Deer Ridge because when I searched to see what I’d already written about Grinch, the hero, I found out I’d given him a kid in a throwaway line in the first book, where he didn’t appear on the page at all. But there was that dang mention of him having a kid.
Terry
Terry’s Place
OMG, Elizabeth, I’m having so much trouble working on just one novel, I cannot even imagine juggling multiple ones. But if I were to tackle it,this would be great advie.
Karen
I’ve not written multiple series, but for my YA serie I created a detailed timeline for all five main characters. It showed what each one was doing every month for a span of 8 years, even when that character wasn’t involved in the beginning of the timeline.
More than one book at a time scares me, let alone more than one series.
The most difficult thing about writing more than one project is getting into that story and then getting into the other one when I need to. For me to really understand the story and the feelings of the characters, I need to just focus on one world at a time. Maybe if I set my projects where I write one project for one week and another for another week.
The Daring Novelist–Such a good point. Yes! Sometimes we get on a roll with a series. When we’re in that zone we should just keep going with it (unless there’s a deadline on something else due.) It’s always tough to get into the flow again after you haven’t written a series for a while. It’s almost like you forget the characters a little.
P.A.–I know what you mean. Sometimes I feel like I’m getting this really great, original idea and I think: “I *know* this is going to work!” Then I realize that I know it’s going to work because I’ve already done it before. I really have to watch myself with that.
I saw one self-pubbed writer recently…might have been D.D….who had this amazing production schedule she’d set up for herself. I think something like that could be really useful for staying on track.
Margot–Thanks! Yes, I do like to review the criticisms and the compliments and the emails that ask if such-and-so is going to have a bigger role in the next book. It’s easy for me to lose perspective and the readers frequently nail it.
Diane–Now that was a really organized way of handling it. Timeline errors are so easy to make.
Alex–I bet you’d do great at it, Alex! You multitask so well…
Clarissa–I think alternating weeks would work out really well, with the understanding that the first day of the week might be a rough one…trying to get the voices for the other project right, etc. I always get so frustrated with myself for the time it takes me to jump back into the other series…but it’s just not an easy task sometimes.
Terry–Ha! Yes, that’s the kind of stuff that gets away from me, too. And messes me up for future books! The readers have amazing memories, so I have to triple-check myself, always.
Karen–Best wishes for your book! Hope the writing is going great. :)
This is such great advice–thank you much. I have one series going, but am thinking of starting another while waiting to get repped. Can’t wait to try out your ideas!
Steph–Good luck with it! I think that’s the best way to keep busy while waiting. :)
I haven’t written a series yet, and I’m amazed at your juggling skills!
Julie–Juggling is right! But if I’m really careful, it’s not too hard. I just have to review my notes a lot!
I enjoyed reading this post. Lots of great advice. Thanks for sharing this. I always wonder how other writers manage to write more than one book at a time.
Susanne–Either they have much better memories than I do, or they take copious notes, like I do! :)