I recently visited the island of Guernsey, in the English Channel. It was a great trip—a pilgrimage, in the company of forty-four other book lovers, to the home-in-exile of Victor Hugo, author of such classics as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables. It got me thinking that the same things that make a tourist destination attractive are what draw readers to a book series! And keep them coming back, like the numerous members of my traveling party who were on their third or fourth visit to the island. Let’s take a trip, shall we, and see what we can learn?
Picturesque Scenery
That’s a biggy. People like to look at dramatic geography and quaint villages. And readers, too, want to see a colorful world, full of sensory detail. Fantasy series especially are judged on this quality, because the author has a blank canvas to start with. It also makes a huge difference in the authenticity of a historical novel. But any book is improved by a setting that seems real and atmospheric, whether it be rich in rain-glassy cobbled streets or the soaring, sea-gnawed cliffs of the Norman coast. If you question this, see the success of the Harry Potter series! The world-building keeps readers coming back, volume after volume, to this setting that is both familiar and very eccentric, and the fan fiction overfloweth, because no one can get enough of Hogwarts.
Strong, Interesting Protagonists
Guernsey is a little place, with only 65,000 inhabitants. But it has Victor Hugo! People like us want to visit the home of a literary giant because it tells us something about his personality. And don’t we love really memorable protagonists? Their heads are so worth getting into—complex, deeply human, relatable. They leave their mark on us readers long after the book is finished, and we want more of them, like old friends. Hugo gave us men like Jean Valjean. Agatha Christie contributed the inimitable Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Louise Penny gave us Gamache. Any action in their company becomes an adventure.
History! Plot! Action!
The Channel Isles have a history that goes back to the Neolithic, and a novel has a history too—its plot. Is it tight and powerful, with twists and turns and emotional ups and downs, like an island road? Does one event grow out of another believably, without non-sequiturs and deus-ex-machinas? Does the finale feel as satisfying as waving goodbye from the ferry as it pulls out of the harbor? In a series, each book may have a partial ending, but everything needs to wrap up at the end, and this is one device that definitely keeps pulling the readers from volume to volume. They’re so involved, they really, really want to know how everything works out.
Three-dimensional Villains
Guernsey was occupied by the Nazis during the War, and the memory of this trauma still resonates in the bunkers and trenches that scar the beach. Yep, they had their villains, and most books do too. Like the good guys, these should be more than cardboard puppets. Terrifying, yes, but also comprehensible. A mixture of evil and good, with believable motives, like any real human. Maybe it isn’t clear at first that they’re even the antagonist (ooh, excellent plot twist, Lord of the Rings! Penny uses this device superbly in her Gamache novels as well).
So, there’s a brief check list of what helps make any series an unforgettable destination. I’d love to think my novels were that kind of place, where visitors come back again and again. How about you?
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