There are series, and then there are series – and the technique for writing each type is different. First I’ll explain what the types are, and then I’ll go into a little bit of detail about the the way I write mine.
First, you have your open-ended series. You see this a lot in mysteries, in thrillers, and in YA books, as well as in many TV series. In each book, or in each episode of the show, a strong main character or ensemble is placed in a new situation, and must work toward some resolution by the end of that book or show. The key here is in characterization – the characters must be appealing enough that readers/viewers will come back again and again – and in coming up with inventive plots for each episode. The danger is that after a certain number of outings, things become formulaic. Formula fiction can be comforting to the reader or viewer, because they doesn’t have to think too hard, but it can also become tired and predictable. The challenge is to inject enough new twists in setting or plot to keep the series feeling fresh.
Another kind of open-ended series is typified by the Harlequin romance. In this type, the characters are different in each book, but the plot is essentially the same: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back. Again, appealing characters and an interesting setting will help the author mask the fact that this plot has been done many times before.
Then there is the kind of series I write. Often found in fantasy or science fiction, this type of series has an overall story arc: a goal that the protagonist is working toward. Each book in the series both has its own internal goal, and advances the overall story toward the final goal.
I’m a plotter – someone who needs to work from an outline, however rough. So when I began working on the Pipe Woman Chronicles, I knew that the overall goal was to prepare the main character, Naomi Witherspoon, to mediate a power-sharing agreement between the Christian God and the pagan gods and goddesses. But I needed a framework on which to hang the plots of each of the books in the series. I realized that because a Lakota Sioux goddess, White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman, is the catalyst for the novel, I could use the Lakota medicine wheel as my framework. So the first book, Seized, represents East, the place of new beginnings. Book two, Fissured, is in the South, the place of anger and passion. The third book, Tapped, represents West, which is the place of both emotions and family. North is the home of wisdom, and of White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman, which goes a long way toward explaining why there’s a white buffalo on the cover of the fourth book, Gravid.
That covers the cardinal points. But the Lakota also recognize the center of the wheel as a point, and that’s the place for the final book, Annealed, in which the heart of the matter – the big mediation – is resolved.
There are other qualities associated with each point on the wheel – South is the element of Fire, West is the element of Water, and so on – which gave me more stuff to weave into each book. That’s why oil and natural gas drilling figure in the plot of Fissured, and also why a mysterious entity is draining the Ogallala Aquifer in Tapped.
I don’t pretend that this is the only way to plot a series with an overall story arc – it took a fair amount of advance planning, for one thing, and a pantser is unlikely to want to sit still that long. But if you’re having trouble getting a handle on the direction of your series, you might think about where you want your protagonist to end up, and the challenges he or she needs to overcome in order to get there. The process of meeting each individual challenge can then become the plots for your books.
If you’re writing this type of series, there is one more thing to consider: whether your second and subsequent books ought to include a synopsis for the earlier books. You can try to incorporate enough backstory into the new book to clue in new readers. But you need to be careful that you don’t turn your first chapter or two into an infodump, thereby bringing the plot of the new book to a screeching halt and annoying your loyal readers who already know what’s going on.
And I am here to tell you that the longer your series is, the harder it is to get enough backstory into a new volume. I sent Tapped on a review bloggers’ tour without a synopsis, thinking I’d put in enough details of the first two books. But some bloggers still said the book needed a synopsis. So I now have one as part of the front matter for the final four books. It wasn’t much fun to write; I had to summarize four novels of about 160 pages each in two or three paragraphs apiece. But I hope readers will find it helpful.
About the Post Author:
Lynne Cantwell grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan. She worked as a broadcast journalist for many years; she has written for CNN, the late lamented Mutual/NBC Radio News, and a bunch of radio and TV news outlets you have probably never heard of, including a defunct wire service called Zapnews. In addition to writing fantasy, Lynne is a contributing author at Indies Unlimited. Lynne’s vast overeducation includes a journalism degree from Indiana University, a master’s degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University, and a paralegal certificate. She currently lives near Washington, DC.
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