The Evolution of a Series

Hey writers and readers. I've been crazy busy the last month writing, prepping for the release of Secrets in the Valley, as well as working on a few secret projects. Those are always fun, right? While writing, I also started to think about The Chindi Series from Deep in the Hollow to Secrets in the Valley. It's wild how far we've come! It's also wild how far a series can go.

The evolution of a series is one of the things I not only enjoy writing, but also reading. Watching characters grow into themselves, their beliefs, and finding lasting relationships helps us grow into our own views and gives us hope for the future we want, even into our own relationships. To some it may sound silly. You can’t compare fiction to real life. Or can you? I know I have taken ideas from stories, thought them over to a realistic view, and then applied them to my own life.

While writing Secrets in the Valley, I couldn’t help but reflect on Jo’s demeanor from book one to book two. The relationships she had formed. The romance. I knew when starting the series that it would never be a romantic series. However, adding small highlights of the forming relationship was a thread in the weave of the story I had to add. It added growth to not only Jo and overcoming her past, but also to Cooper and his fears. Jo also mended old relationships she had thought were forever broken. Plus, the supporting characters and their own stories of change. The changes, the growth, are what make a series even more. It’s why I often choose to write a series.

However, I have read series where it seemed the character regressed rather than grow. I found myself asking myself this many times while writing Secrets in the Valley. Was I doing the right thing? Was I moving forward? Was Jo becoming the old Jo? It’s not what I wanted for her. Luckily, I realized she was facing something different and we were still moving forward.

Jo has doubts and fears, just like she had doubts and fears in Deep in the Hollow. The difference, these are different doubts and fears. Jo has grown from her fears in the book one, but as in life, we develop new doubts and fears. In Secrets in the Valley, Jo has to overcome these new obstacles while still moving forward. It makes her grow even more into a confident adult.

As a writer, I often ask ‘are my characters moving forward’? It’s an important question writer’s need to ask themselves as readers will ask why the author didn’t move the character and plot forward to growth. I know I’ve asked this of some stories.

How about you?
Do you do this with your own writing?
As a reader, have you come across a character who didn’t grow and it hurt the book?