How to write a historical series that will hook readers

In today’s publishing landscape, publishers are looking for writers who will establish a following amongst readers, to create loyal fans who will come back every time you release a new book.

One of the ways to encourage this kind of loyalty is to write a series, so that every book of yours a fan reads will leave them waiting avidly for the next one. But there’s a lot more to writing a series than just writing a bunch of books. There needs to be a connection between the books. This could be either a recurrent protagonist or set of characters, or an over-arching story that continues throughout the series and yet also satisfies new readers. 

And that’s an important point: while we’d all love our readers to have discovered our stories from the beginning, that doesn’t always happen – so any series is going to have to please new fans as well as long-term ones.

How do you write each book as a standalone while simultaneously serving series fans who’ve read the others?

Publishers often want readers to be able to pick up any book in the series and still be able to read it without prior knowledge. Why, though? 

The reason is simple: every time a new book in a series comes out, if readers have to have read the previous books, then many people won’t buy the book as they don’t want to be forced to ‘do their homework’ to read the others.

There are exceptions to this, of course, such as mega-blockbusters that are already hugely popular and whose readers will wait and buy every book in the series as they go along. But for most of us jobbing novelists, we have to write books that can be read as a stand-alone, as well as part of a series. 

In my first three-book deal under my saga name of Mollie Walton, I wrote the opening three books of what came to be known as The Ironbridge Saga. Set in Victorian Shropshire during the Industrial Revolution, each book is set around 20 years apart. 

Thus, I decided to have two story arcs: one that lasted across the first three books in the background, and one for each book that was the foreground story and included all three acts in one narrative, which finished at the end of that book.

This meant I was giving the reader a continuing mystery – in my case, who was the baby on the bridge? – and also a one-off story about each generation of the families I’d set up in book one. 

This wasn’t as difficult as it sounded at first. I had two layers of stories to deal with, and created each with its own three-act structure. I needed to add just enough mystery to the background story to keep readers guessing, yet also create enough of a satisfying ending to the foreground story to make readers feel good about finishing each book.

What is a series bible?

It might sound a bit daunting keeping one story going over multiple books, so let me introduce you to your best friend when writing a series, and that is the series bible. 

Luckily, I’d heard about this when I was planning book one, and I’m so glad I did. I started keeping a list of all characters that appeared in each book, along with their birth and death dates, as well as a few details about what they did in each book. 

I also created family trees. As the books went on, I added to these lists constantly, to ensure that I never got a birth date wrong, thus the timeline was never compromised. 

This has become increasingly crucial as the series has gone on; I don’t know about you, but my memory is terrible, so keeping those files of each character’s dates, roles and connections has saved me so much time on each occasion when I’m planning a new book in the series. 

Try to write a series without your bible at your peril!

What do Easter eggs have to do with writing a series?

There is something else crucial in writing a series, and that is fan service. 

You’re juggling two audiences: those who’ve been there since the beginning, and those who’ve stumbled in halfway through. How are you going to reward the loyal fans and also entertain the newbies? 

One crucial way is by delivering Easter eggs to long-term readers. These are little references to previous events and characters that you insert into the narrative that may well go unnoticed by new readers (and it won’t affect their enjoyment of the story if they don’t notice these), and yet loyal readers are rewarded. 

My latest example of this is that I’m currently writing book 8 in my Mollie Walton saga, and I’ve got characters coming back from books 3 & 4 – some major, some very minor. Those very minor ones that get a quick mention in a previous book and then get their own cameo in a future book – those are ideal Easter eggs. Book 8 is set in WW1, while books 4 to 6 were set in WW2. In book 4, one of my characters mentions having an affair with a married man during WW1 but he died in the war. So, guess who turns up in the trenches and starts chatting with our new protagonist in book 8? That’s right, the only once-mentioned married man. Loyal fans will be pleased with themselves that they’ve spotted him, while new readers will still enjoy this new (to them) character talking about his secret lover. That’s an Easter egg.

So, there you go: some key tools to help you write a series. If you’ve never written one, don’t be too daunted. It’s so fun juggling all those characters and serving up Easter eggs. Why not start planning one today? And don’t forget to start your series bible from day one. You can thank me later!