I'm Pretty Sure This Book Tried to Kill Me: Writing the second book in a series

What is it about second books?  Anne R. Allen and I got musing about that, and this blog post was the result:

The second book of the Merry Widow Murder series, The Silent Film Star Murders, came out this year.  I'm pretty sure this book tried to kill me (some might say, rather appropriate for a crime series...)

It's not as if I'm a virgin to series.

 (Probably, I should reword that; I am a happily married woman, after all.) 

What I mean is,  I've done this before.  The Merry Widow is my 4th series.  The first three didn't kill me, so why should this darn book?

The trouble with second books is four-fold:

1.  The Expectations are HUGE.

We all dread the following review: "It was okay, but not as good as the first book."   

Everyone - and I do mean everyone -expects the second book will be just as good or better than the first.  In fact, they demand it.  You've set their high hopes with the first book.  If you didn't, then they wouldn't buy a second book in the first place.  And if they don't buy a second book, your publisher won't want a third.

I was lucky with the Rowena Through the Wall series.  The second book (Rowena and the Dark Lord) garnered better reviews than the first.

And I was even luckier with The Goddaughter's Revenge.  That novella (part of The Goddaughter series) won the Derringer and the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence.  Several more followed.

But will that luck hold?  I have no idea how Silent Film Star will do, compared to the first book, and the suspense may just kill me.

2.  You have to be a bit of a magician.

Meaning, you have to weave in enough backstory about the first book so that people who read this book without having read the first will not be lost. At the same time, you have to weave backstory in a way that is quick and lively, so as not to bore the people who read the first book.  

It's a learned skill you get better at with practice.

 3.  You lose an important suspense element of stand-alone books.

The trouble with a crime series is your protagonist must survive to be in the next book.  Whatever happens, your protagonist must live through it.  And if your reader knows this is a series, they know this part. 

 For some readers, it's why they like series books.  They WANT the reassurance that they are not reading for four hours, just to find out their beloved protagonist kicks the bucket in the end.  I'm in that category.  I don't like books that end badly for the main character.

BUT - it also means an important element of surprise has been eliminated from the story.  In a stand-alone, when you start reading, you won't know the reason it's a stand-alone.  Could be the main character didn't survive to be in another story.  That adds suspense.

4.  What about Character Arc?

If you study how to write a novel, you will probably come across the concept of Character Arc.  Basically, it means that by the end of the book, your protagonist should be changed in some way by his experiences in the story.  

A classic example would be:  A woman is a very nice, kind, unassuming mother.  But then her child is kidnapped and she becomes a fierce fighter in his recovery, finding violence in her that she didn't know possible.

That's an extreme example. You can probably remember a popular sci-fi movie with this theme.  

Our problem with series books: some lit courses teach that every book should have a character arc.

Trouble is, if you have six book series, is your character going to change six times in six different ways?  That becomes impossible, if not darn silly.

So in a series,  I try to make my characters become even more what they are.  As the series grows, they become even more determined in their goals, more devoted to their individual causes.  And in The Merry Widow Murders series, more determined to see justice done, whether inside or outside the law.

 SO WHY DO WE DO IT?

By now, any reasonable person must be wondering why anyone would want to write a series, taking into the account above.

For that, I can come up with two reasons:

1. We're insane.
2. We cannot leave our beloved characters behind.

I don't know about the first, but the second is me.  I'm a suck.  I love my characters like wayward children.  They stay in my mind for years and years, begging me to write more about them.  I've had readers tell me that reading the next book in The Goddaughter series was like revisiting old friends.

So forgive me now if I leave this post.  I'm just finishing up book 3, and my characters are calling.
 

 

Compared to Agatha Christie by The Toronto Star, Melodie Campbell hopes to survive book 3. In the meantime, you can see how she survived the above by ordering book 2, The Silent Film Star Murders.  Available at all the usual suspects (Barnes&Noble, Chapters/Indigo, Amazon, etc.)

What Do *You* Want from a Protagonist? (Finally I figure it out.)

Oh a high today, as The Toronto Star (Canada's biggest newspaper) has compared me to Agatha Christie!  If I could have dreamed of anyone to be compared to, that's who. Now back to our regularly scheduled post…)

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I don't know why I should have to be over 60 before I learn what I truly want from a protagonist.

Taking into account that I've read at least 30 books a year for 50 years, that is a hulking number of books to read before figuring it all out.  But figure it, I finally have, and I'm keen to share, to see if others feel the same.

This goes for the books I write myself, but more particularly, it goes for books I pick up to read for pleasure.  Back to that at the end of this post.

1.  A protagonist I can trust.

I was the first to admit this among my set, and I'll continue to say it:  I HATE unreliable narrators.  

I want to root for the protagonist.  I want to be their friend. When I find out the protagonist has been lying to me, it feels like a friend has betrayed me. Yes, I'm talking about Gone Girl, and others of the like.  While I admit The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is clever,  it is my least favorite book by Christie, and I don't want to read another like it.  It's been done.

I don't like being tricked by a protagonist. I don't want to become part of an author's experiment.

2.  A protagonist I can enjoy becoming, while I read.

This perhaps is the most important thing.  I read to escape.  I particularly like first person books because I can slip myself into the skin of the protagonist and become that person for the length of the story.

For this reason, I need to respect the protagonist.  Yes, they can be flawed, but I don't want to be forced into the skin of someone who is lacking in the morality I think is so important in life.  For the same reason, I want that person to be the sort where I can find what they think about intriguing, with knowledge that interests me.

I discovered this recently while reading the first book of a current series that is doing very well, which features a young, naive maid (current day) who solves crimes by noticing details.  Lovely premise, and I did respect the protagonist, but I found being in the mind of such a gal for three/four hours to be somewhat limiting.  In a short story, I could manage it.  But in a long work, I need the protagonist to be someone I want to *be* for a time.

 3.  An ending for the Protagonist that isn't going to make me cry.

This is why I write the sort of books I do.  I find the world a scary place.  If you have watched the person you love the most, die painfully far too young, it does something to you.   I want to know - that at least in my fiction - my beloved protagonist is going to survive and overcome the things that threaten them.

How does all this manifest itself in my own writing?  If I am writing a novel (I've written 20) then there is going to be humour as well as crime in the story, and the outcome will not be a bad one for my protagonist.  

There is enough dark in our world today. I want to add light.

So readers can pick up my books knowing that they won't read for 4 hours, only to find the character they have come to care about has kicked the bucket.  Instead, they will live to tell another tale.  And the reader will hopefully leave the book smiling.

Finally:  my husband just asked me what I was writing about for this blog, and I told him the topic, being what I want from a protagonist.  He immediately said: "Sales."

How about you?  Do you relate as strongly with a protagonist?  Or do you like to get into the skin of someone entirely different, no matter their morals? 

Compared to Agatha Christie by The Toronto Star, Melodie Campbell writes capers and golden age mysteries. Now available everywhere! Book 18, The Silent Star Murders

"The pacing is brisk, the setting is vivid, and the dialog is sharp. The Silent Film Star Murders is an enjoyable read with a conclusion that—even though I should have—I simply did not see coming."   

--Greg Stout , THE STRAND MAGAZINE

Killing People is What I Do (well, in my fictional world...) More humour...

 "Why would you ever want to write about murder?" asked the horrified relative, on the launch of my 18th book. "Why not write a nice little romance?"

As I start the round of promotional tours for The Silent Film Star Murders, I quickly add another relative to the hit list for my next novel (you would be shocked how often that happens.)  It occurs to me that there were many reasons to write about murder.

1.  It's the challenge of creating the clever puzzle.  Plotting a mystery is like playing a chess game. You always have to think  several moves ahead. Your reader is begging you to challenge them, and is working to beat you to the end, meaning guess the killer before your detective does.

2.  It's plot driven.  Murder mysteries start with action - a murder.  Yes, characterization is important, and particularly motivation. But murder is by nature an action, and thus something happens in the books you are writing.  And quite often, it happens again and again. 

3.  It's important.  This is murder, after all.  We're not talking about a simple threat or theft. A lot is at stake.  Murder is the final act, the worst that can happen. The end of it all.

4.  It's a place to put your darkest fantasies.  There are a few people I've wanted to off in my life. (Forgive the vernacular - I'm Italian, after all.) They did me wrong. And while I do have a wee reputation for recklessness, I value my freedom more. So what I can't do in reality, I get a kick out of doing in fantasy.

5.  Finally, it's fun.  This is the part I don't say in mixed company (meaning non-writers and relatives.) I can't explain exactly why it's fun - you have to trust me on this part. But plotting to do away with annoying characters in highly original ways...well, I'm smiling just thinking about it.

 Of course, I can understand where some of the relative angst comes from.  In my 4th book, A Purse to Die For, a gathering of relatives for a funeral results in the death of one or two. It was entirely accidental, that use of relatives. Honest.  I wasn't thinking of anyone in particular.

How about you?  Do you find writing about murder fun? (are we allowed to say that?)

The Silent Film Star Murders contains no deaths of relatives! (After all, they weren't born yet in 1928.) 

Now available at all the usual suspects, in all formats!  On Amazon:

 

 

 

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