Writing A Series--Pitfalls and Pratfalls by Liz Flaherty

The things one learns when one undertakes to write a series--

It's a good idea to keep a bible--preferably all in one notebook or one file, as opposed to several. Using several means you lose complete track of the story you're writing, but you can get totally involved in obscure notes about a heroine, hero, and story you never did anything with. Hmm...maybe this time it would work, but, no, contract comes first. Book Three needs to take precedence. Or maybe borrow from the obscure notes, even it that means changing the entire premise, half the secondary characters, and the title of the book. Plus you'll need to update it because pay phones, cigarettes, and doo wop music are slightly outdated for a contemporary romance. Maybe...

It's important to keep track of the colors of everyone's eyes and to give everyone names you can stand to live with from the beginning of the series to the end. In a nod to Wrangler Nan, don't give the name Ben to someone who's obviously a Henry.  

If you name a heroine Kathy, be aware that someone will notice if you spell her name Kathi, Cathi, Cathy, Cathie, Kathie, Cathey,  Kathey, or IQ5Y6. Even if you only do it once with each spelling. Sheesh--some people are so picky. 

If you use a wonderful original turn of phrase in the first book, don't think you can get by with using it again in the third one; you can't. Someone will swear you've plagiarized a writer who's much better and richer than you are and has 12,000 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reviews on Amazon, compared to your seven with a ⭐⭐⭐½ average. 

If you get tired of writing about the same place, alleviate the boredom by forgetting everything you originally remembered so you have to look up Every Single Person, Place, or Thing in the previous manuscripts to make sure you get the right. That will both drive you over the edge and renew your curiosity. Resolve, again, to keep the notes in the story bible accurate and thorough. Once you find the bible, that is. It's a little coil-bound notebook, yellow or blue or purple, with a sticker of...something on its front. Yes, I know you have 12 of them on your desktop, but you need to keep track. I need to add to this, although heaven knows I've gone on long enough, that if you are a linear writer, it doesn't necessary follow that you will be a linear note-taker. This partially explains the plethora of notebooks on your desk and why you don't know any more than if you'd never taken the first note.

As you go through those previous manuscripts, you'll find six typos, one wrong hair color, and yet another spelling for Kathy. You'll wish you'd done this instead of that. You'll wonder why anyone reads your work at all and you'll mourn because more people don't. You'll wonder why you do this to yourself time after time after... 

One of the great things about series is that you get to stay friends with people from previous stories. You get to see them have families--in just six months time sometimes! You get to draw and redraw family trees with lopped-off branches that didn't hold your interest (or you lost the bible to.) You also get to add branches, maybe from those notes you found in that notebook.

If you're not in love with the cover of the first book of the series, you might want to at least become good friends with it, because chances are good the ones that follow will be quite a bit like it.

For writers who are who are still working in their retirement age, contracting for a series can be worrisome. While I'm enjoying writing series, the fear that I won't be able to finish something I've started creates a distracting murmur at the back of my mind. I've been known to spend half a morning trying to think of the word that goes into a blank space I've marked with yellow background. I keep writing, but the truth is I can't actually finish the scene until the space is filled. The word is usually something difficult like relic. 

So, there you have it. Just some of the pitfalls of writing a series. Is it worth it? you ask, if you've read this whole litany of complaints.

Why, yes. Yes, it is. Thanks for asking. What are some of your favorite series?

~*~

Speaking of series, here's a reminder of Book One of the Second Chances series, A Year of Firsts. Syd is one of my favorite heroines ever. I hope you like her, too.

Widow Syd Cavanaugh is beginning a “year of firsts” with the road trip she’d promised her husband she’d take after his death. An unplanned detour lands her in Fallen Soldier, Pennsylvania, where she meets the interesting and intelligent editor of the local paper.

Television journalist Clay McAlister’s life took an unexpected turn when a heart attack forced him to give up his hectic lifestyle. He’s still learning how to live in a small town when meeting a pretty traveler in the local coffee shop suddenly makes it all much more interesting.

While neither of them is interested in a romantic relationship, their serious case of being “in like” seems to push them that way. However, Clay’s heart condition doesn’t harbinger a very secure future, and Syd’s already lost one man she loved to a devastating illness—she isn’t about to lose another. Where can this relationship possibly go?