Starting a Series?

You’ve decided. Your fiction story will become a series. The decision could have been made when you realized your characters have more to say than one book can hold, or you may have decided at the outset that a series is the best way forward. Either way, here are a few hints and suggestions to help make that series a successful one.

Timeline Structuring

It’s logical to think that books in a series continue where the last one left off, but if your series is going to span a significant amount of time, you’ll need to have your characters age and perhaps the world around them will change as time passes. Maybe a decade passes between one book and the next. In the popular Harry Potter series, each book is dedicated to a year of Harry’s life.

Before you begin, you may want to create a basic timeline that covers all of the books: the first one introducing the conflict/goal/challenge and the last one resolving it–and the other stuff that will happen in the books in between. Ask yourself:vWhat is the unknown that will sustain my readers’ interest throughout the entire series?

Continuing Conflict

The conflict of your protagonist’s unfinished business should be introduced in the first book and must continue (unchanged) until the end of the series. Subplots can be introduced; they have the power to propel each book toward the main conflict of the series. Each book can have its own, self-contained struggle and challenges for the characters, but the overall challenge/conflict should remain unresolved until you get to the end.

World-Building

Will your series take place in one location, or will your characters move around as they face challenges and conflicts? The main location focus for the Harry Potter series is Hogwarts Castle. That being said, sub-plots of the story found Harry and the other characters at engaging, plot-related locations like Diagon Alley, aboard the Hogwarts Express, and under the stairs at the house on Privet Drive.

Whatever worlds you create for your characters, make them worlds that readers fall in love with and enjoy spending time in. They can be mini-worlds that your characters inhabit while they’re on the quest to achieve the ultimate goal of moving toward that final conflict.

Characters

Aside from your main cast of characters (think Harry, Hermoine, and Ron), your series can host any number of secondary characters who can come and go–and perhaps return. These characters may even be protagonists or antagonists of their own subplots, but their primary role is to reveal more about the primary character by motivating them, creating hazards/stumbling blocks along the way, and maybe even help to define the setting by their appearance and actions.

Choose them carefully, reveal them gradually, and think about the role(s) they have in the overall story. Do they start out as an ally, then transform to enemy? Were their actions mis-interpreted/did someone jump to conclusions? Have fun with ancillaries, but don’t let them outshine the main characters or run the plot of the story into the ditch.

Final Thoughts

Each book should have a focus of its own but still move toward reaching the final conclusion/solution that is revealed/solved in the last book. That unknown needs to sustain readers throughout the series, so give each book a bit of unique focus and identity as it resides in the world of your series. Your characters are ready and waiting, in it for the long haul!