Here is Barbara Kyle<\/a> sharing her experience and advice on writing a series…<\/p>\n How Fenella Became a Star: Thoughts on Writing a Series<\/p>\n by Barbara Kyle<\/p>\n books. Nancy Drew? The 175 installments of the beloved mystery series have had sales of over<\/p>\n 200 million. Of Twilight\u2019s four books more than 100 million copies have been sold.<\/p>\n Publishers love series because readers love series. Just like TV, where viewers eagerly welcome<\/p>\n the same characters into their living rooms week after week\u2014be it Downton Abbey, Breaking<\/p>\n Bad, Game of Thrones, or The Good Wife\u2014readers of series by master storytellers like George<\/p>\n R. R. Martin, Diana Gabaldon, and Bernard Cornwell have the same addiction. They get to know<\/p>\n the continuing characters so well they can’t wait to find out what happens in the next book.<\/p>\n What happens in the next book can sometimes surprise the author. The surprise for me was<\/p>\n Fenella Doorn.<\/p>\n born entrepreneur who salvages ships. This is the sixth book in my Thornleigh Saga <\/a>which<\/p>\n follows a middle-class English family’s rise through three tumultuous Tudor reigns. In Book<\/p>\n 4 Fenella played a small but crucial role in the plot, and then I forgot about her. She didn’t<\/p>\n appear in Book 5. But when I was planning Book 6, and focusing it on one of the series’ major<\/p>\n continuing characters, Fenella sneaked up me. A warm-hearted, determined, courageous woman,<\/p>\n she’s also rather cheeky and she insisted that I include her in the new story. She reminded me<\/p>\n that she’d had past connections with two exciting men in the series, Adam Thornleigh and Carlos<\/p>\n Valverde, which promised some dramatic sparks.<\/p>\n So, I did more than include her in the new book. I made her its star.<\/p>\n That can happen when you write a series \u2014a secondary character can take over. I was glad<\/p>\n Fenella did. She offered me an opportunity to create a complex, admirable woman who doesn’t<\/p>\n fit the ing\u00e9nue heroine so common in historical fiction. She’s not a young thing; she’s thirty.<\/p>\n She’s not a pampered lady; she rolls up her sleeves running her business of refitting ships.<\/p>\n She’s attractive but not a smooth-faced beauty; her cheek is scarred from a brute’s attack with a<\/p>\n bottle ten years ago. And she’s not a virgin; she was once the mistress of the commander of the<\/p>\n Edinburgh garrison (he of the bottle attack). In other words, Fenella is my kind of woman.<\/p>\n But making her the star of the new book in my series meant some serious recalibrating. How<\/p>\n could I fit her into the Thornleigh family? Writing a series opens up a vista of opportunities but<\/p>\n also a minefield of traps. I’ll share a few with you here.<\/p>\n 1. Every Book is New<\/strong><\/p>\n Don’t assume that readers have read the previous books in the series. My agent always reminds<\/p>\n me of this when I send him the outline for a new book in the Thornleigh Saga: “Many readers<\/p>\n won’t know what these characters have already been through.” So, each book has to give some<\/p>\n background about what’s happened to the main characters in the preceding books, enough to get<\/p>\n new readers up to speed. However, you can’t lay on so much backstory that you bore readers who<\/p>\n have followed all the books. Getting the balance right is tricky.<\/p>\n I like the way episodes in a TV series start with a helpful recap: “Previously on Downton<\/p>\n Abbey…” It’s perfect: it refreshes the memory of viewers who’ve seen the previous episodes, and<\/p>\n is just enough to tantalize those haven’t and bring them up to speed. I wish I could have a nice<\/p>\n announcer give a recap at the beginning of my Thornleigh books! The point is, each book in a<\/p>\n series must stand on its own. It has to be a complete and satisfying story for any reader.<\/p>\n 2. Create a Series Bible<\/strong><\/p>\n Before writing full time I enjoyed a twenty-year acting career, and one of the TV series I did was<\/p>\n a daytime drama (soap opera) called High Hopes. The writers on that series kept a story Bible: a<\/p>\n record of the myriad details that had to be consistent from show to show concerning the dozens<\/p>\n of characters. It’s a wise practice for the writer of a series of novels, too.<\/p>\n My Thornleigh Saga books follow a family for three generations (and counting), so it’s easy<\/p>\n to forget facts about a character that were covered three or four books ago. That’s why I keep<\/p>\n a Bible that keeps track of the characters’ ages, occupations, marriages, love affairs, children,<\/p>\n ages of their children, homes, character traits, and physical details like color of hair and eyes . . .<\/p>\n and missing body parts! Richard Thornleigh loses an eye in The Queen’s Lady, Book 1 of the<\/p>\n Thornleigh Saga, yet in later books I would often start to write things like, “His eyes were drawn<\/p>\n to …” So I keep that Bible near.<\/p>\n 3. Consistency Can Yield Rewards<\/strong><\/p>\n When I had a brute cut Fenella Doorn’s cheek in Book 4, The Queen’s Gamble, I never expected<\/p>\n Fenella to reappear in a future story. Two books later, when I brought her back to star in The<\/p>\n Queen’s Exiles, I could not ignore the fact that she would have a sizable scar on her cheek. So I<\/p>\n used that scar to enrich her character. She’d been a beauty at eighteen, relying on men to support<\/p>\n her, but when her cut face marred her beauty she realized that it was now up to her to put bread<\/p>\n on the table and clothes on her back. I made her ironically aware that the scar freed her from the<\/p>\n bonds of beauty; it made her independent. And she became a successful entrepreneur.<\/p>\n 4. Let Characters Age<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s hard for readers to believe that a detective can fight off bad guys like a young stud when<\/p>\n the decades-long timeline of the books he appears in make him, in fact, a senior citizen. J. K<\/p>\n Rowling was smart. She let Harry Potter and his friends grow up. I’ve enjoyed doing this with<\/p>\n my characters. Through six books I’ve taken Honor Larke from precocious seven-year-old to<\/p>\n wise grande dame as Lady Thornleigh. Her step-son Adam Thornleigh’s first big role was in<\/p>\n The Queen’s Captive where he was an impetuous seafaring adventurer, but by the time of The<\/p>\n Queen’s Exiles Adam has become a mature man, a loyal champion of his friend Queen Elizabeth.<\/p>\n He has been through a loveless marriage, adores his two children, and falls hard for Fenella.<\/p>\n 5. Embrace Cliff-hanger Endings<\/strong><\/p>\n Each book in a series must be a stand-alone story, with an inciting incident, escalating conflict<\/p>\n developments, and a satisfying climax. But if you can end each book by opening up a new<\/p>\n question for the characters that will be tackled in the next book, readers will love it and will look<\/p>\n forward to getting the next in the series.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Barbara Kyle is the author of the acclaimed Tudor-era Thornleigh Saga novels. Over 425,000<\/p>\n copies of her books have been sold in seven countries. Her latest, The Queen’s Exiles, will<\/p>\n be released in June 2014. Barbara has taught writers at the University of Toronto School of<\/p>\n Continuing Studies and is known for her dynamic workshops for many writers organizations and<\/p>\n writers conferences. Before becoming an author Barbara enjoyed a twenty-year acting career in<\/p>\n television, film, and stage productions in Canada and the U.S. Visit www.barbarakyle.com where<\/p>\n you can watch an excerpt from her popular series of online video workshops “Writing Fiction<\/p>\n That Sells.” The first workshop is free!<\/p>\n Follow Barbara on her website<\/a>\u00a0 Facebook author page<\/a> and on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had the pleasure of meeting Barbara Kyle in person […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258,85],"tags":[131],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-we-write-a-series-of-essays-by-guest-authors","category-writing-and-publishing","tag-writing-historical-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1957,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions\/1957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"BK\"](\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/BK-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>Publishers love series. No wonder. The Harry Potter empire has sold more than 400 million<\/p>\n![\"BK](\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/BK-Queens-Exile-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Fenella is the heroine of my new historical thriller, The Queen’s Exiles.<\/em> She’s a savvy Scottish-<\/p>\n![\"BKs](\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/BKs-books.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n