Any Which Way But Done: Writing a Series for Fun and Flavor

By William L. Hahn

We often think of writing as a life filled with the once-and-done. There’s this book, we must write it; Muse willing you finish, then jot “The End” and it’s on to a completely different story. Each tale is complete, the characters exist only so long as you were penning more words about them. Some of the greatest books ever written are one-offs: Moby Dick, A Christmas Carol, the Bible (OK, kind of cheating on that last one but you get the notion).

Going Series: So Much Yes

How is it, then, that we so often find ourselves thinking about series? And why on earth do we so often think that we won’t or can’t do them? First, the reasons why—oh, let me count the ways!

• Reader Feedback- you finished what you thought was the love story, but reviewers are all saying “wow, can’t wait to see what trouble she gets into next”! What comes after happily ever after?
• Loose Ends- here you did all this work researching your world, but the editor said “lose 20k” and now it’s on the proverbial cutting room floor. Good stuff, darn it, seems a shame… and then you start to think about–
• The Efficiency- all that background on your characters, the setting, the things you decided about magic or police procedure or time-travel? You don’t have to reinvent those wheels, this carriage is already rolling.
• The Power- the indie author game is about discovery. Readers who find you, want the next thing you write in the same vein. Agents and publishers love that. You can bundle series books too. Bundles are attractive on Amazon, and practically like flypaper on Audible (the way they work with credits, it’s a win-win).
• And Hey, You Loved Them!- remember the cool series books you read before (or maybe are still reading)? Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 stories about Sherlock Holmes over the course of 40 years. Edgar Rice Burroughs slapped out 751 thousand words about John Carter, 11 books in 22 years (without considering the other 69 books he wrote).

The more you think about it, the less you can see a reason NOT to aim for something series-worthy. This article is about how you might write a series, you know, on purpose. Your choices in designing and executing a good one are all driven by the same “no”; many authors I’ve met believe that series are a good idea yet still don’t write one, because they can’t see the trees for the forest.

You can’t write all series at once.

So here are three types of series for you to consider. I’m hoping you gravitate to one of these based on your experience, preference and goals. Are there others? Without question: but here are three I’m going to bounce off your brain, to see if I can knock some ideas loose. Or if you just suffer a concussion, in which case Anne made me do it.

Status Quo Series: The Under-the-Sun Flavor

Examples- TV: Gilligan’s Island; Books: Hercule Poirot mysteries

Most people think of a series in this way, sometimes called an Episodic series. Your characters, their interactions and the situation they’re in remain the same. Inciting events and plot turns are chiefly threats to change this status quo. But by the end, the castaways are still on the island, the murderer did not get away with it. Nobody we know dies (not really): yes, Watson eventually marries and Sherlock dies at the end, until Doyle decided to bring him back. Then he quite simply reappears, and the game is still afoot. It was all a dream, remember that one?

Genre Gravity: Mystery, Police Procedurals, and certain kinds of Paranormal/Urban Fantasy books are well suited to Episodic series.

The Emphasis: In a Status Quo series, it’s primarily about Character: some aspect or energy that we enjoy time and again. The guarantee that no matter what the others have thought up, Gilligan is going to ruin it for them. Alternately, no matter how dimwitted the noble-born detective behaves, his remarkably-talented loyal butler will dig him out of trouble.

Litmus Test: Does it matter what order you read them in? For Status Quo series, no. (Of course there are variations and hybrids, but we’re just trying to set the center of the target here.)

Question to Answer: Is this the “old” kind of series, essentially dead today? Here I can’t offer prescient advice, but I do think there’s a tendency to be embarrassed about a true, 100% Episodic series today. My generation grew up on the raucous sit-com and comic book titles: we may be thinking that it’s really kid stuff. But I’m not sure, I just note that there could be a bias here. At worst, if you get to book 10 and the readership falls off, that’s nine books more than you would have written originally.

Still, this leads to the consideration of the second type of series.

The Sneaky Epic: A Character-Arc in Disguise Flavor

Examples- TV: The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time; Books: Game of Thrones

Sometimes you finish the book but you weren’t done! Many times our characters, like Athena, spring into the story full-grown adults (and not coincidentally, causing you a headache as they do). How did they get here? Where are they going after this story is over?

In an Arc series, many of the characters and the overall setting are similar, but events drive matters forward and things change. Time passes in a meaningful way. Characters die and new ones enter, fortunes change dramatically, and matters move toward a conclusion, however slowly.

Genre Gravity: Epic Fantasy is the ancestral home of the Arc series, and other genres that make use of it, by virtue of that characteristic, become more epic. Literary fiction tales that carry over to multiple titles are also Sneaky Epics.

The Emphasis: In an Arc series, the focus is primarily on Plot: the specific way events unfold carries all before it. The chain of events binds the series together and draws the reader into the next book. Each book ends, yes, but there’s one ending ahead.

Litmus Test: Does it matter what order you read them in? For Sneaky Epics, that’s a huge yes.

Question to Answer: Would it be better to just write the whole novel in one go? For indie authors particularly, this is the crucial question. Nobody at a publisher or editor can tell you it has to be either split or cut down, much less whether one is better than the other. You must envision the tale and decide where each book ends.

And for the true professional there’s one more series to dare to think about.

Only the Kitchen Sink: The Series with One Lasting Flavor

Examples- TV: Hallmark Christmas Movies; Books: Regency Romances

Every tale in some series completely changes everything: new characters, countries, settings, situations, eras. All is up for grabs, they look in every way not like a series. Yet there is an essential… something, a formula or rhythm there that abides. Sometimes the actors are the same, or even the names of main characters.

Genre Gravity: Certainly, Romance sits near the center of the Kitchen Sink series. Some Crime and Mystery types could also be here, especially if the focus is on the law. When a Literary Fiction author finds her tribe, it’s probably because they’re reacting to this mysterious something. I would also suggest Fairy Tales, and some of their cousins the Fractured Fairy Tales, do this.

Emphasis: this series looks primarily on Theme, usually one simple lesson like “true love conquers all”, applied to endless scenarios. Theme is the highest level of your writing, and to preserve this element, across all the other changes, means you must know exactly what you’re doing. Control over the theme becomes almost a moral, you can’t go off the path or readers will tell.

Litmus Test: Can you start to watch or read in the middle and still tell what’s going to happen by the end? For Kitchen Sinks, yes. And it’s OK!

Question to Answer: Are you comfortable with that litmus test? There are readers who love to know, basically, what will happen—can you write to that?

Series Writing for the Win

I’ve blogged a bit about these three levels of writing, and that might also help you set things in order as you plan your series. Remember that series flavors are lurking everywhere. In that novel you wrote years ago. In that scattered set of notes you never fleshed out but that have something in common. It could be a prequel or a sequel, a spin-off or a backwards-universe variant.

If you see that impenetrable forest is actually a choice of perfectly-climbable trees, then I’m glad for you.

And if you leave me a comment to say so, I’ll be happy for me too.

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Born in the Vermont winter to a family of five sisters, Will Hahn fought deadly challenges from an early age. So far he has proved victorious, though it was a near thing on several occasions in high school when his exuberance for heroism far outpaced his physical agility and his common sense.

In fact, if you see Will’s common sense running around loose any time soon, please point that out to him. They haven’t spoken in years and it would be good to catch up.

After an early career in teaching and two decades as a high-technology market researcher, Will began in 2008 to chronicle the Lands of Hope, an heroic fantasy setting with a lifetime of adventure in it. He has written four novels and a series of novellas about the current Age of Adventure in the Lands, as well as shorter works exploring some of its earlier eras going back thousands of years into its history.

Will has a Master’s Degree in Medieval History and currently works primarily from his home in Newark, Delaware; he teaches courses in History and Writing, narrates audiobooks of his own and other authors’ tales, and sometimes searches for a cat-free chair so he can think about the next tale to tell.

Find out more (with epic fantasy, there’s always more) at Will’s website.