Learning About Myself As A Writer

Now that I’ve been in the world of the “published author” for a year and a half, I’m starting to learn a few little tidbits about my preferences as a writer. See, I started out thinking, “Well, if it’s something I’d want to read, then it’s something I’d want to write.” And, to some extent, that’s still true.

There are two basic kinds of series (in my mind, at least – if you can think of another, please chime in!) First is the type where the main characters are related between volumes but the focus switches. Typically these are romance series – you have the brothers/sisters/friends who all meet someone and fall in love and each couple gets their own book. That’s what I did with my first trilogy and related novella. I love reading those because you still get to see your old friends while learning more about new friends who you met but didn’t really get to know in the first books.

Then there’s the second kind of series, where the main characters are the same and you follow them from book to book watching them grow while they handle external obstacles of some sort. Most often I find these types of novels are anything but romance series (so your thrillers, fantasies, speculative, mysteries, etc.) You do see a few romance (or, more often, romantic suspense) novels that take this tactic, but it’s a tad more rare.

Still, having enjoyed writing the first type, I was looking forward to writing the second type. And that’s firmly where my women’s fiction trilogy falls. Faith Departed, Hope Deferred, and December’s release, Love Defined, have the same main characters in June and Toby and July and Gareth. I was excited about really digging into those characters and seeing where life was going to take them, because I’ve loved series that I’ve read where you can follow that growth and firmly feel like you know the characters–like they’re real people–by the end.

Here’s my secret…as much as I love reading these types of series, I don’t love writing them. Apparently, when it comes to characters, I’m a love ’em and leave ’em type of writer. It’s been a sad thing to realize about myself. So maybe I should simply view it as an area for future growth. Because I’m not saying I’ll never write another series where the characters remain the same throughout all the books. I love June and July — they’re incredibly dear to my heart. But at the same time, I’m really looking forward to my 2015 series where I not only return to contemporary romance, but I go back to books with related, but different, main characters. (And really, I’m so looking forward to finishing the final twiddles on Love Defined and diving into Jackson and Lindsey’s story. Plus I’ve got the beginnings of the plot for one of Jackson’s roommate’s books starting to ferment. I think–hope!–you’re going to love their stories as much as I already do.)

What kind of series do you like best?