Series Love
I love series books. Sequels are fine, but my favorite series books are the ones that don’t necessary continue a story but rather feature the same characters over and over and over again. My favorites books as a kid were Enid Blyton’s Five Find-Outers series and the Sweet Valley High series and later, Sweet Valley University. Of course, there was continuity, but each book was self-contained and it was just so nice to hang out with the same characters again. And again. And again.
As a writer, the one of the many hard things about writing more than one book in a series is that pesky character development thing. In ROAMING AROUND THE COUNTRY WITHOUT GROWNUPS, Tiana and Stacey go on a fun road trip and sure enough, do change and grow and develop from the start of the book to the finish. There’s no reason why they can’t go on another fun road trip with a different itinerary in a second book, and then another one in a third, fourth, fifth, etc. But, conventional writing wisdom says, they’d have to change in each book. So, by the tenth book in the series, would they be completely different?
Tiana: Stacey and I assume that’s a rhetorical question and Writer Tessa doesn’t seriously expect an answer.
Stacey: So while Writer Tessa was reminiscing about her childhood and being philosophical about our future, Ti and I were working on a way more fun blog post for you. Look out for our post entitled ‘What A Bum!’ later on this week.
As a writer, the one of the many hard things about writing more than one book in a series is that pesky character development thing. In ROAMING AROUND THE COUNTRY WITHOUT GROWNUPS, Tiana and Stacey go on a fun road trip and sure enough, do change and grow and develop from the start of the book to the finish. There’s no reason why they can’t go on another fun road trip with a different itinerary in a second book, and then another one in a third, fourth, fifth, etc. But, conventional writing wisdom says, they’d have to change in each book. So, by the tenth book in the series, would they be completely different?
Tiana: Stacey and I assume that’s a rhetorical question and Writer Tessa doesn’t seriously expect an answer.
Stacey: So while Writer Tessa was reminiscing about her childhood and being philosophical about our future, Ti and I were working on a way more fun blog post for you. Look out for our post entitled ‘What A Bum!’ later on this week.