Blogger: Rachel Kent
I have been reading Lois Lowry’s The Giver series. I read The Giver when I was in junior high and really enjoyed it and only recently saw that it is part of a series. The Giver was published in 1993 and the second book in the series, Gathering Blue, wasn’t published until 2000. I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think that Lois thought that she would ever be writing more books as a continuation of The Giver.
This got me thinking about how unpredictable publishing can be. A character or story can be hated or loved by the readers and it’s the response of the readers that often dictates what is written by an author in the future.
We all hope our characters will be so loved by readers that they will be begging us to write more books about them, and this may seem like a wild dream, but I believe it’s best to be prepared. Make sure you like your characters and that you leave openings in your story for future ideas to sprout.
I doubt Robin Jones Gunn ever thought she’d still be writing about Christy Miller and Todd Spencer 25 years after the first book, Summer Promise, was published. Her characters spoke to the readers and became so real that many fans–myself included–consider them friends.
And Agatha Christie ended up writing more than 40 Hercule Poirot stories. I read that some readers have done a timeline of her stories and estimate that Poirot would have been 150 years old at the end of the last book. This is a sign of a character that has been extremely well-loved in an unexpected way.
If you are writing fiction, could you see your characters in future books? Have you left enough questions in your book to spark ideas for future books in a series?
As a reader, what are some long-lasting series that you have enjoyed?
Carol Ashby
Excellent points here, Rachel. I’m not writing with a continuing lead, like Poirot or Marple. Each story in my series has a different set of lead characters, but they are related by blood or friendship to earlier ones. Some of the continuing characters are easily loveable, but others make evil choices that drive the plot lines.
*I find it fascinating how a character, even a relatively minor one, can spawn new stories. A noble character with a small but vital part in the one I wrote first (publishing second) became the lead for the first third of another until his son arranges his death. Then that son becomes a continuing villainous presence through the next four stories by his own choices and through the son he inspires to be like him. Some characters from the first return 8 years later in the fifth, giving one who blew it in the first a second chance to try to get it right.
*It’s fun to create an interconnected set of characters who take on lives of their own that spontaneously lead to the next story. But I would recommend taking the time to write down the outline of any future stories as soon as they pop into your brain while you’re working on your WIP. It might affect the details of what you have a character do/say/experience in your WIP to prime the reader for the later novel. And events in the next novel might make you go back and edit the first as long as you haven’t published it yet.
Kristen Joy Wilks
I love the Redwall books, the Artemis Fowl books, The Percy Jackson books, The Anne of Green Gables series, and the 12 How to Train Your Dragon books are so hilarious and yet they also make me cry. So so good. Oh, and the Inkheart trilogy, but that is only three books, a little shorter than what you mean I think.
David Todd
I wrote and published my baseball novel, intending for it to be a stand-alone book. A friend who read it e-mailed me and said, “You’ve set this up so well for the sequel.” I told him there wasn’t going to be a sequel. He then wrote and told me about six things that were set up to be resolved in a sequel. I saw that he was correct, and wrote the sequel. Those who read both say it’s better than the first—as it should be if I’m improving.
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I also have a series, about to publish the second in it, that has continuing characters much as Carol described, characters who overlap but who also pass the torch, in this case to the next generation. It continues on in the family. I’ve decided to write a prequel to bring in an earlier generation.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Chronicles of Narnia.
Shirlee Abbott
My favorite!
Janet Ann Collins
i love that series, too.
Shelli Littleton
Yes, my second novel’s main characters are introduced in my first novel … and my third has main characters from my second …. As a reader, I loved Becky Wade’s Porter family series based in Texas … 🙂
Jodi
I have been writing for what feels like a long time. My main wip is almost finished, and I have a few others that have outlines, summaries, and even some chapters written. Sometimes I get discouraged that I have been writing for a decade without fully completing and publishing any one book, but in a way this is a good thing. Because I have split my attention among different books, I have been able to create connections between events, plots, and characters, intertwining the stories in a way that I think readers will appreciate.
Thanks for the subtle reminder that there’s always something to be thankful for, even when I’m not quite where I want to be yet!
Janet Grant
I read an article a long time ago in which the writer disclosed that Agatha Christie had a strong dislike for Poirot. She made him super quirky but thought she would just write one book with him as the detective. She later came to lament that Poirot was such an oddball, whom she had to “live” with through so many books.
Kristen Joy Wilks
Ha! That’s funny. Very similar to what I’ve heard about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. My main girl in my current WIP is super cranky and a total hypocrite who finds God despite her best efforts to avoid him and she can get to be a bit much. I’m working on building sympathy despite all of her grumpiness. Kinda hard.
Renee Garrick
Lauraine Snelling’s Blessing series comes to mind first. I appreciate how she introduces characters who move to Blessing–some purposefully and some not. Over time, it seems as I’ve gotten to know the extended family and friends, but the core characters remain–we can count on seeing them in every book.
As I write, it seems that my characters have their own ideas of what they’d like to do or say, where they’d like to go . . . it’s easy to imagine young characters growing up. With that, I take notes for the sequel–and book number three–and . . . I still need to finish the first one.
Jennifer Deibel
Great thoughts, Rachel!
There is room in the backstory for a prequel novel to set up the event that caused all the issues in my current WIP. I think there could be room to explore other characters on their own beyond this WIP as well. And I can see how the main cast could have more stories hiding within as well.
Jennifer Zarifeh Major
I can definitely see my characters in future books, as there are already 3 books in the first series. If more books are requested, I have room to grow.
Series favourites of mine? Tamara Leigh’s Age of Faith Series. Laura Frantz’s Ballantyne Legacy. Bodie Theone’s Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles.
Andrew Budek-Schmeisser
Susan Howatch, ‘Starbridge’ series. First book is Glittering Images.
* Continued prayers welcome. In trouble here. Resp and cardiac compromised.
Jodi Bracken
I visit this blog often, though I rarely post. I even read the comments, so while I have become familiar with you, you don’t know me. I see your comments regularly and you always take the opportunity to say something witty to make someone laugh, or compliment someone else for their insight.
You are noticed. You make people smile. You make a difference.
I just wanted you to know that people are actually praying for you.
Keep fighting.
Davalynn Spencer
When I was in junior high, I *taught* The Giver. That would be my second time in junior high. Love Lois.
Connie Almony
The problem I tend to have is that every time I create a character, no matter how small a role he or she may have in a novel, their back story starts flooding into my brain with lots of questions I know I will have to one day answer. Most of my novels are tied together in some way. The one that wasn’t, will be with my next release–the second in that series.
April
Currently writing my first novel, I can’t imagine picking these characters up again for a sequel. If I had anything more to say about them, it would go in this book. In fact, I can’t wait to be done with them and move on to other stories. Am I selling myself, and my characters, short?