The Order of Omega Release + How To Write A Series

It’s finally here! Tuesday, November 8th – The release day for the second book in THE ALPHA DRIVE trilogy, THE ORDER OF OMEGA! I’ve been waiting for awhile for this book to be released into the world and now it finally is! The journey in writing this book was very different from writing the first one, but it was just as enjoyable to write. I love seeing my characters develop and grow, and my goal was to make this book have a story that could stand on its own. And based on the feedback from my beta and ARC readers, it did just that! So that makes me really happy. If you haven’t already you can order both THE ALPHA DRIVE as well as THE ORDER OF OMEGA on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, and Books-A-Million. You can also order signed copies of both books here.
In honor of the second book in my series coming out today, I thought a video topic on How To Write A Book Series would be wildly appropriate. So that is what we’re going to talk about today. If you’re lucky enough to have a bunch of ideas bouncing around in your head where you know exactly how each book in your series will end and begin, then hats off to you! You are much further ahead than most writers. But what about those of us who want to write a series, but have no idea where to start? Fear not, my friends. Here are 7 tips to help get you started in writing your book series. If you'd rather watch the video on this topic, feel free to click play below. Otherwise, read on!

HOW TO WRITE A BOOK SERIES
11.       Brainstorma.       I know I say this in a lot of my videos, but training yourself to brainstorm to eventually become an idea machine is pretty darn important as a writer. In order to write fresh and original stories, we constantly have to be brainstorming our next big ideas. I prefer taking an oversized sheet of paper and writing the theme of my story, the genre, and target audience in the center. From there, I’ll brainstorm and write down any scenes or ideas that come to me for that book or series, no matter how silly or unrelated or bad the ideas may seem. The great thing about brainstorming is that ALL ideas matter. Get them down on paper. This is how I mapped out my new dark fantasy series. It took me about 3 hours because I had to sift through a ridiculous amount of ideas, but you know what? I now have an idea for each book in that series. So it was totally worth it!
12.     Choose a story concept that can stretch across multiple booksa.       If you’re having a hard time brainstorming things that can happen beyond just one book, then most likely that main idea or plot you had in mind unfortunately isn’t broad enough. The idea may be too limited where it can’t be applied to multiple books. Try pulling back on some of the restrictions for that original idea, whether it’s in the world itself, the character’s goals, or even the overarching theme of the story. If you can make it broader, you’ll find that there’s a lot more wiggle room to be able to write multiple stories and create a series.
13.    Outline the main ideas for each book before you start writing the first drafta.       All you pantsers are going to hate this, but writing a series DEMANDS that you plan and outline ahead of time. There really is no way around this one. Crafting multiple stories that are going to be interconnected and woven together takes diligent planning. You’ll have to drop certain hints and clues and foreshadow in each one of the books in order to make the series tie together. If you don’t plan ahead and make an outline for each book, it’s likely that you’ll have loose ends, forget about one of your subplots, and leave your readers feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. I’ll say it again: Writing a series DEMANDS that you plan ahead and outline ahead of time.
14.       Consider the passage of timea.       By this, I mean it’s important to make sure that your characters are going to age appropriately AND that your target audience will still be interested in your story as the series continues over time. If you’re starting your characters off at age 21 and you plan on writing 10 books and releasing one a year, then by the time your series closes, your characters will be 31. Normally, fans that have been with you since the beginning will stick with you, but it’s still critical that your characters and your writing grow and develop in this timeline in order to keep your audience’s attention and ensure it’s still realistic.
15.    Each book should stand on its owna.       This might be a personal preference, but if there’s one thing I hate more than anything, it’s reading a series where half of the books are “bridge books”. Bridge books are those that can’t stand alone. They are merely a bridge between the prior book in the series to the next book in the series. It drives me absolutely insane and I have a feeling I’m not the only one. When writing a series, you need to make sure each book has its own plots and subplots. Continue to foreshadow and drop hints and clues to lead your reader to the end of the series, but make it so that each time your reader finishes your book, they feel satisfied, like they just read a story that came full circle and not one that droned on and on and on with little to no point.
16.    Foreshadowing is your frienda.       I know I just kind of talked about this in #5, but foreshadowing is UBER important when writing a series. In order to have all the books tie together, you have to cleverly place clues and hints throughout each book and then reveal why you placed those clues and hints in there and have it lead up to the big reveal.
17.    You’re allowed to change your minda.       Just because you’ve outlined each of the books in your series doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stick with those ideas. Along our writing journeys, we grow and develop as writers, which means our characters and our writing grows. So an idea you had four years ago for one of the books in your series may not be the right fit once you actually get to writing that particular book. And that’s okay! You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to change your ideas. Actually, if you don’t change your ideas and keep everything exactly the same, that’s probably more troublesome.
So there you have it, 7 tips to help you write your book series! That’s all that I have for you guys today. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to check out both THE ALPHA DRIVE and THE ORDER OF OMEGA on your way out. As always, I will see you in the next post!


Until next time,