Writing a Series - or a Series of Series by Diane Bator

I wrote this article for the June Sisters in Crime Newsletter and thought I'd expand on it a little and share!

I didn’t start off with a plan to write one series, let alone four so far. My first novel, The Bookstore Lady, began as a stand alone book, but when I pitched it to my agent at the time, she asked me to give her some ideas for two to three other books that she could submit to publishers. Just in case. I had to think fast and write some blurbs for what later became my four book Wild Blue Mystery series.

What I love about writing a mystery series is that I am able to push characters further in each novel and give them even more depth, including the minor characters. As they go through mystery after mystery, they grow as they move forward while they reveal a bit more backstory. I’ve written books where I’ve had readers ask what happens to their favourite characters next, writing a series gives them the opportunity to find out. If they don’t like what happens, they don’t hesitate to give feedback.

I have learned a few tricks to help me keep things straight, which evolve as I go. Since I’m a tactile person who prefers paper to e-book, I keep a binder as well as a file in my computer where I keep specific information about my series.

·       A series summary that includes titles and blurbs for each book. Once they’re published, I also keep ISBN numbers, images of the cover, and any other information I will need.

·       A list of all characters including the protagonist, villain, secondary characters, and suspects. I make a new, updated one for each book. These include name, age, hair colour, eye colour, occupation, height, weight, birthdates—all of those little things that we can easily forget, particularly for minor characters.

·      A list of settings that includes descriptions and names of locations, character homes and places they hang out like coffee shops, restaurants, and police stations for mysteries.

·       Images from websites of characters, settings, paint colours, news stories, and links that I find interesting or important to my story or research.

As far as having one main protagonist for an entire series, I end up following my character's lead. In my Wild Blue Mysteries, it seems to be couples that take front and center. Katie and Danny, Christina and Leo, and so on. For my Gilda Wright Mysteries, every book is in Gilda's POV. It's her life story and she gains more strength book by book. My newest series, Sugarwood Mysteries, will be Audra Clemmings' perspective. Unless I get overtaken by another character.
My Glitter Bay mysteries have taken me by surprise. Where my plan was for the books to be in Laken's POV, her sister Sage has shanghaied the second book and wants to tell her own story. Since she's been keeping me awake at nights to do so, I'll go with it. I kind of like where it's going.
 When it comes to ending a series, I’m not so sure I can follow in Janet Evanovich or Sue Grafton’s footsteps and write over twenty books in one series. I think at some point I’ll need to end one series to focus on others or I'm worried I'll get tired of one set of characters and feel the need to find a happy ending for them.
How am I going to do that?
I’ll have to get back to you when I figure it out!

Diane Bator

https://bookswelove.net/bator-diane/

http://penspaintsandpaper.com

http://dbator.blogspot.ca/