Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Infnite Series

Series Spotlight: Themes and Research for Success!
Sometimes a story is too big for just One Book

You have an idea. Not just any idea, a big idea! We’re talking ten thousand pages, hundreds of thousands of words, the next Great Doorstop of a novel!

Consider breaking that up into a series!

It might be easier to split up the book digitally

Smaller books are more accessible, and a series keeps you in the front of your readers’ minds. With books consistently coming out, winning awards, and receiving reviews, the marketing for those happens much more naturally than having to bring out a backlist of unrelated novels. When a book takes place in a series, a reader who read an earlier book already knows they’re going like what they pick up.

With the incredible versatility of a book series, we now offer the Book Series Awards for Genre Fiction in addition to progressive discounts on multiple book reviews.

But where to start? How do you link your series together? What goes into finishing an actual series?

Enter Your Series Today!

Series Theme

Theme is the central idea of the series. Your theme informs the main character’s goal, their motivation to pursue that goal, and the threats to their success.

Your stories are grounded in the theme. A hero who saves the world from evil plans will experience different challenges than two teenage friends who love to solve small-town mysteries. The theme helps you maintain the tone of each book in the series. If one book is filled with irony and another is deadly serious, your readers will be disappointed and stop reading. That’s why your theme is important to the success of the entire series.

There’s no guaranteed formula, but you can start out by doing some serious research into great series that have already succeeded. The tools you discover will help fashion unique work for you and your voice.

Let’s Dive in!

Research and Read

All good story research starts somewhere

Everyone will tell you to be a great writer, you should be a great reader. Think about the series you want to write, and ask yourself: What authors do I admire who are doing something similar? You’re going to want to look through their books for all that we will discuss here, as well as comparing it to your own understanding of structure and what makes a good story.

If you aren’t sure where to start, you can reference this wonderful article on plotting by Jessica Morrell here.

Jessica Page Morrell

In it, she covers some of what authors need to consider when writing, such as:
- What is the inciting event or threat?
- Environment
- Risks to take with your characters
And if you want more, you can refer to this article on story structure by David Beaumier that looks at
- Dialogue
- Character
- Plot
- Voice
- Beats
- Show vs Tell
Now that you have your list and a running understanding of what’s making the books work, you can take notes on what your favorite series are doing that makes them your favorite series! Your notes should cover the important events in each book, and then ask yourself what the overall point of the book was, and finally how did that book fit into the series as a whole.

The Chanticleer Authors Conference is the place to go to hone your writing skills!

With regards to character, you’ll want to examine which central characters return, and how many new characters come on the scene (these are named characters where you receive background on them and they have a non-trivial impact on your main cast).

At the end, do a comparison of themes between books and ask how they relate to other books in the series.

Here are some of our favorite series that also won First Place in the Series Awards! you could look through for ideas. Let us know if any of them are similar to what you want to write!

M. K. Wiseman – The Bookminder series

You can read the review here for The Bookminder

Kaylin McFarren – Threads

Read the reviews here for Buried Threads, Banished Threads, and Twisted Threads

Mark Newhouse – The Devil’s Bookkeepers

Read the reviews here for The Noose, The Noose Tightens, and The Noose Closes

Nicole Evelina – The Guinevere’s Tale Trilogy

Read the reviews here for Daughter of Destiny and Camelot’s Queen

Have a Book Series that deserves recognition? Submit now to our Book Series Awards here by the end of November!

The 2021 Series Grand Prize Winner was Nicole Evelina, author of The Guinevere’s Tale Trilogy.

See the 2021 Series Award Winners here!

Enter before the end of November!

Helpful Links Recap:

Prepping to Write – Plotting, Inciting Incidents, Atmosphere, Characters – Brainstorming Tips for the NaNoWriMo Season by Jessica Morrell

Understanding Story Structure by David Beaumier

The traditional publishing tool that indie authors can use to propel their writing careers to new levels? https://test.chantireviews.com/2016/05/15/the-seven-must-haves-for-authors-unlocking-the-secrets-of-successful-publishing-series-by-kiffer-brown/
November 4, 2022
Spotlight on the Book Series Awards | Part 1 of 4
The First in a Series of Articles on Writing a Book Series

Writing a series of books and writing a novel are similar processes, though of course the series, as you may expect, is on a much grander scale.

A series is an excellent choice for a writer because you keep your readers! It’s always easier to maintain a connection with people who have already decided to read, not only your book, but a book in the same world!

By writing a series, you offer the reader a familiar product that they already know they like from an author they already love. It is because of the power of the book series that we have begun hosting the Book Series Awards for Genre Fiction, and it’s why we offer progressive discounts on multiple book reviews.

Let’s begin by talking about different types of Book Series

Two Variations for Book Series

There are essentially two types of book series out there. One is the Finite Series, and the other is the Infinite Series.

Finite Series

These Series have a story arc that expands beyond one book, and each one relates directly to the one before or after it. Examples of this are N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth Series or Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files. Series can be as short as two books or as many as twenty-three, but the main thing is that the order they come in is highly recommended to best understand the plot.

N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy is a triumphant achievement in fantasy literature according to Verge

Infinite Series

This is a group of books set in a universe, but where each book can stand alone and be read in any order. Examples are Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern or Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. For the most part, these books will follow the same rules of the universe between volumes, just as a finite series would.

These also are called an anthologized series as I learned in a discussion about writing craft with Chanticleer Editorial Assistant Scott Taylor during our Roost book group meeting discussing Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. They happen often if someone just decides they enjoy continuing to write in an established world with established characters –David

Honorable Mention

Terry Brooks’ Shannara series is both finite and infinite! He has finite quartets and trilogies that all take place in an infinite series universe. You can read each finite mini-series in the universal infinite series in whatever order you want, and they all offer hints about the other books.

Terry Brooks, author of the Shannara Series

Did you know? Series don’t need to be italicized while writing them! Only book titles require it.

The Overlap

Obviously the key here is that both of these are series. A series will always have central themes that overlap across books, and what happens in one book will affect the world at large, even if the books can be read as stand alones. Even in an infinite series, characters will have cameos, such as the character of Death in Pratchett’s Discworld universe.

It’s recommended that in an infinite series each story has a strong, independent story to help it stand apart from the other books set in that universe, but even in a finite series, it’s important that each book avoids being too repetitive. The concern about repetition is important to keep in mind, though many successful series often rely heavily on repetition to help the reader orient themselves to a familiar landscape. For example, in The Dresden Files, almost every book follows this pattern:
1. Harry hears of a strange mystery that’s way beyond his ability to comprehend
2. Then he finds a simpler mystery, one he can manage, or so he thinks.
3. His team assembles slowly over the course of the book, Thomas the vampire, Murphy the cop, Michael the knight, and John the mobster.
4. The simple mystery turns out to be much bigger. Harry is defeated and ready to give up.
5. Suddenly Harry understands the bigger mystery by solving a key point in the smaller mystery.
6. Day is saved.
7. Hint about how the day wasn’t totally saved.
Paul Blackthorne as Harry Dresden holding Bob the Skull

Likewise, Terry Brooks often follows the character pattern of making sure there’s someone with the fabled Shannara bloodline, that person receives help from someone who is a bit of a nomad, a druid is introduced, and then we have a couple more magical characters who help out the heroes.

Further Reading?

Looking for more? Check out this article titled “Outline Your Book Series to Sell More Books and Keep Readers Buying”

Look for our next post about SERIES!

Join us soon for Part 2 in writing a Book Series!

Have a Book Series that deserves recognition? Submit now into our Book Series Awards here by the end of November!

The 2020 Series Grand Prize Winner was Mark Newhouse, author of the Devil’s Bookkeepers.

See the 2020 Series Award Winners here!

When you’re ready, did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis. Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information available here.

And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn more here.

If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Review here or to one of our Chanticleer International Awards here.

Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be June 23-26, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today! CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!

Writer’s Toolbox

Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Writer’s Toolbox article.

Writers Toolbox Helpful Links:

Outline Your Book Series to Sell More Books and Keep Readers Buying by Zara Altair

The traditional publishing tool that indie authors can use to propel their writing careers to new levels? https://www.chantireviews.com/2016/05/15/the-seven-must-haves-for-authors-unlocking-the-secrets-of-successful-publishing-series-by-kiffer-brown/
November 29, 2021