The Mystery Writers of America, New England chapter, have their annual New England Crime Bake today. I’m on a panel with the topic: How to Sustain a Collection? What should I say? Help!
There is a whole lot that can be said here, but let me first try a couple of things.
First and foremost is character development. For the longer series that I have followed, what brings me back is relatability to the characters. Reading each new book in a series is like getting reacquainted with an old friend. It is that compelling “friendship” that keeps me coming back.
Second, the characters do need to grow and evolve. There are a few series where I read a few books and then stopped because I lost interest. The reason for that is that I either stopped caring for the characters or the story lines just became too predictable and therefore boring
One thing that distresses me is that a lot of authors I like a lot started with series but have abandoned them to write primarily stand alone novels, largely because their publishers have told them that readers just want something new. I think that advice is seriously misguided and misunderstands readers’ desires, particularly in the mystery genre, but I certainly understand the impact it has had.
Hope this is helpful.
Spence, keep your secrets to yourself so you can maintain your position as king of the series!
Thank all of you for your kind words yesterday about our current situation. To clarify, he had already been on Hospice Care at home, but having 24 hour professional care is a giant leap! He was mad at me yesterday for leaving in the late afternoon. I hope he adjusts to his new environs, people, and routine very quickly!
I really appreciate the comments from the doggos! They are so smart, talented, caring, charming, and dear. I love each of you lovable miscreants so much! And your humans aren’t bad either. Jilly is here with me in Huny Punkin’s room and she is anticipating the parade! (Boise is having it’s Veteran’s Parade today, a few blocks away, so don’t get lost in the traffic!)
I think a series lives on the same way great pieces of music become immortal.
The perfect balance of repetition and contrast.
Something familiar that makes readers comfortable and something new and creative that piques their interest. Something familiar and something different.
Always a Porsche but occasionally a new one under interesting circumstances, always different ones.
Regular characters but not all the times. They pop up now and again. New characters. Familiar locations and new ones.
Repetition and contrast. Creative ways to bring in the repetition and creative ways to present new things.
We are hosting the quarter finals today with the vets at HPs new facility. We’ve called up many from our lot to do the pulling of the vets’ wheelchairs. We called dibs on teaming up with HP (we have vast experience with wheelchair races with the Storyteller) so the smart bet is on Team HP!
9 Comments on “???”
There is a whole lot that can be said here, but let me first try a couple of things.
First and foremost is character development. For the longer series that I have followed, what brings me back is relatability to the characters. Reading each new book in a series is like getting reacquainted with an old friend. It is that compelling “friendship” that keeps me coming back.
Second, the characters do need to grow and evolve. There are a few series where I read a few books and then stopped because I lost interest. The reason for that is that I either stopped caring for the characters or the story lines just became too predictable and therefore boring
One thing that distresses me is that a lot of authors I like a lot started with series but have abandoned them to write primarily stand alone novels, largely because their publishers have told them that readers just want something new. I think that advice is seriously misguided and misunderstands readers’ desires, particularly in the mystery genre, but I certainly understand the impact it has had.
Hope this is helpful.
Spence, keep your secrets to yourself so you can maintain your position as king of the series!
Thank all of you for your kind words yesterday about our current situation. To clarify, he had already been on Hospice Care at home, but having 24 hour professional care is a giant leap! He was mad at me yesterday for leaving in the late afternoon. I hope he adjusts to his new environs, people, and routine very quickly!
Perhaps you can time your departure for when staff come in for some sort of routine thing, so it is just a changeover.
I really appreciate the comments from the doggos! They are so smart, talented, caring, charming, and dear. I love each of you lovable miscreants so much! And your humans aren’t bad either. Jilly is here with me in Huny Punkin’s room and she is anticipating the parade! (Boise is having it’s Veteran’s Parade today, a few blocks away, so don’t get lost in the traffic!)
Who is taking bets on the Wheelchair Parade?
Wheelchair Race, I mean.
I think whether it is a race or a parade may be in the eye of the participants.
I think a series lives on the same way great pieces of music become immortal.
The perfect balance of repetition and contrast.
Something familiar that makes readers comfortable and something new and creative that piques their interest. Something familiar and something different.
Always a Porsche but occasionally a new one under interesting circumstances, always different ones.
Regular characters but not all the times. They pop up now and again. New characters. Familiar locations and new ones.
Repetition and contrast. Creative ways to bring in the repetition and creative ways to present new things.
We are hosting the quarter finals today with the vets at HPs new facility. We’ve called up many from our lot to do the pulling of the vets’ wheelchairs. We called dibs on teaming up with HP (we have vast experience with wheelchair races with the Storyteller) so the smart bet is on Team HP!