So, you’re writing your book and burning through your story like an author possessed by a word-obsessed demon. You’re nearing the end of your manuscript with a twinkle in your eye that is just slightly brighter than the bit of anxious drool in the corner of your mouth. Then you stop like somebody slapped you. The story will end and the characters will no longer be at your fingertips. You contemplate slowing down or not finishing the story. Possibly a lifetime of edits can stave off the horror of completion. Once this insanity passes, you come to the only logical conclusion:
You’re going to write a series.
Welcome to the major challenge of developing characters and extending a story beyond a single book. It works differently in this world. You can’t end with finality. You need to end on a balance of closure and cliffhanger. The adventure for this book is done, but the heroes have more trials ahead. You need to make that clear and that isn’t always easy. If your heroes have achieved everything then they have no reason to move into another book. If they have accomplished nothing then you just wasted your readers’ time. Even a step back for the heroes can be appealing because it means they have a mess to fix in the next book. The point is to make the reader want more.
There are various ways you can embed your story in your reader in terms of an ending. Some methods are ending on a villain scene with them hinting at future plans. You can have the heroes end with a feeling that something is coming. Is it possible to continue a series while having complete closure in a book? Yes, but that typically requires you make a time jump, so the hero has time to settle before the next threat arrives. Another trick is to put a message at the end saying, ‘The Adventure Continues in . . .’ Truthfully, making it clear that another book is coming is one of the hardest tricks for an author with a series.
Coming in a close second is actually planning the series. If you didn’t plan on it beforehand then you will find that you need to change some things. Add some foreshadowing and a few events that give you an opening for a series. You could very well be on the fence about writing a series, so just leave these openings in case you get the urge. Don’t make them too big or blatant because that makes them plot holes. Maybe a mention of a bigger threat from the past or the hero loses an important item that he/she manages to win without. It’s all about subtlety when you aren’t sure.
When you are sure about writing a series, you can get away with a few blunt events. Characters that appear and practically have a sign screaming, ‘We will be main characters in the future!’ or ‘I’m really a villain!’ Remember that you’re working a long game with a series, so you have to play Time Master. You need to consider the past, focus on the present, and keep an eye on the future to make sure continuity is held. This is why you want to keep notes and return to older books whenever you feel a twinge of doubt. Forget a character’s eye color? Go to their debut and NEVER guess. I did this with Luke once where he started with green eyes and by book 3, he had blue. Readers notice these things. Having notes about future events helps too because these are what you would use for foreshadowing. Is a character going to be faced with his fear of spiders in the future? Then make sure there are a few incidents with spiders before you reach that plot point.
Patience is definitely important for writing a series. You need to make sure your chapter scenes are deep enough to develop your characters because the readers are going to be with them for a long time. Give your cast hopes, dreams, fears, quirks, and various subplots that will gradually play out alongside the main quest. By the end of the series, you want the readers to look at the characters as old friends that they have to say good-bye to. To this end, you also have to be careful not to overstay your welcome. If it looks like the heroes are never going to reach their goals then the reader will either quit or start rooting for the villains. A good example of this is Inuyasha. An anime series (and manga, but I never read it) where every season, the heroes are rushing to gain a new power to permanently kill the villain. Every time, they get the new power and the villain is already too strong for them. Doing this repeatedly can turn your series into a joke instead of a serious form of entertainment.
Now, you might be wondering how you can develop a character through a series. If you aren’t wondering then you need more coffee. Again, patience is key. In a series, a character can develop slowly. The first book should not see them reach their full potential, but they can step on the right path to get there. You can even have them evolve in the wrong direction at first to make the crash and rebuild later in the series. For example, a hero that gets very cocky and arrogant with every victory only to be defeated in book 5 and then needs to rebuild his courage for the rest of the series. As long as your character doesn’t peak too early or stay in the same position for the entire series, you’ll be fine. Truthfully, there are so many ways to do this and some ways that haven’t even been invented yet.
The series isn’t for everyone and some series aren’t even directly connected to each other. You can write a series that takes place in the same world, but with a different set of characters for each book. I would recommend having a few characters make cameos either physically or by character conversation in the other books. You need to give a sense of connection between the series.
So to all of you series writers, good luck and remember to enjoy the journey. In other words, proceed forward in a calm, rational manner and no rushing ahead because you have an amazing idea. If it really is amazing then it will be there when you need it.
Legends of Windemere 
Thanks for sharing your knowledge in this area. I’m working on a romance series. Each book is about a specific couple within a group of family and friends. In each book I try to create interest in a particular secondary character, so… hopefully reader will be wondering what happens next with that secondary character.
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Secondary characters are very helpful with a series. Those characters that appear in every story, but not in the spotlight seem to get odd fan followings. I wonder if it’s because they aren’t in the spotlight, so there’s less stress and pressure about creating them.
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Could be. I never thought about that.
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Reblogged this on The Ranting Papizilla and commented:
Some advice on writing a series from Charles. Check it out people!
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This makes me truly grateful to be a picture book writer. If anyone can do it, though, you can.
Kelly ♥
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Thanks. I gravitate toward series because I keep thinking of other stories and subplots. Maybe it’s really that I don’t want to leave my characters too quickly.
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Gotcha! I have ideas that are in no way linked. You have ideas that grow and build from the original one.
Does that basically explain our different thought processes?
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More than likely. I connect things left and write to weave everything together at some level. I guess one of my goals is to create a set of stories in one world that is amazingly expansive.
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Whereas I have disjointed thoughts that have no way of connecting together. I create many stories because the world is amazingly expansive.
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Reblogged this on When I Became an Author and commented:
Important information if you want to write a book series. You should visit Charles’s blog to learn basically all you’ll ever need to know about writing and self-publishing your book.
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When I started writing my first book, I never thought it would turn into a series…but I loved one of the secondary characters so much (his part was small, but his personality took over the page), that I realized I needed to tell his story. From there, I realized all the family histories I had written for the book had potential too. Maybe our subconscious keeps us on track like that.
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Good chance of that. It’s funny when secondary characters rise up to get attention. That really makes me think my subconscious is up to something that I’m not in on. How many books did your series turn into?
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Right now I have 5 books (writing 6 and 7 this year), but the possibilities feel endless. I have deep family histories for both core families and so many different characters. Its less of a traditional series, since the stories follow different characters but involve the same core group. I just need to get in a solid cadence of writing and editing quickly so I can publish twice a year and keep up with myself.
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That’s a great way to do a series. You can go on forever since you focus on so many things. My series is more core-centered, so eventually I have to end it. Going up to 15 books, which will tell all the stories and adventures.
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I’ve always preferred a little of both. Stephen King is who inspired me on the concept of creating a world that isn’t exactly sequential but is interconnected. I took that a step further and made everything very interconnected,but the stories could stand on their own just as well.
Although SK might be a bad example of the anti-series, since his actual series, The Dark Tower, are my favorite books of all time.
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I think it could still work. 🙂
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While I love series, I sometimes find that each book just adds more questions than it provides answers.
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That depends on how it’s done. There should be a balance where questions are answered, but a few are left or created to be answered in the next book. Without a few questions/plots remaining, it’s hard to build up suspense for the next book. At least that’s what I’ve found with my own writing.
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I can relate. I’ve finished a story , a graphic novel actually, that I plan to submit to a Japanese publisher of mangas. It’s almost complete, and that includes the script. My only problem is I cannot draw. * grins* Anyway, I said I could relate. I actually fell in love with my character. I was supposed to cast him off because he was a douchebag, but I made him such a complex character that I just couldn’t throw him uhder the bus and forget about him. I made an alternate ending, and created a plot where he could redeem himself. Happy ending,
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That’s so cool that you’re making a manga. As for the character, it’s always fun when a cast off becomes too big to get rid of. Only character I can think of in manga is Vegeta, but I’m biased on that one. Is your guy going to get a spin-off manga?
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I’m searching for an artist who can draw a rough draft for me. Big, big problem.
No, not a spin off, just alternate ending… actually 2 endings for him. One is redemption, but still an unhappy ending for him, and one that i had to reboot, ha ha, to make it a happy ending. But for the main story, he gets cast off , and another one will come in. It’s a romance genre. … a story of love, betrayal, and revenge… with a happy ending. But it’s truly heartbreaking.
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Cool. What happens if he becomes the most popular character? 😉
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