Writing a crime fiction series – when should you stop?

There comes a time in every series of novels when it’s time to let the characters lie to rest. Crime fiction is a genre well-known for its series and character creations that keep popping up from one book to the next. In many ways, it’s one of the great things about the genre.

Yet we can probably all think of a series or two that’s gone on for longer than might have been wise. Knowing when to end your crime fiction series is something of a talent that crime writers need to develop.

It can be hard to say goodbye to characters we’ve written about for so long and had so much fun exploring along the way, but the last thing any of us would want to do is write a poor book or drag things out longer than we should. It’s a bit of a cliché to say that less is more, but sometimes we just have to be ruthless and say ‘enough’ before our readers say it for us.

But how do we know when we should stop? In some cases, a plot line might present itself that makes coming to an end a natural choice. In others, you might come to the conclusion that you’ve written all you wanted to about a certain character. It might happen accidentally – you might turn your attention to a different project for a time and end up deciding not to go back.

I think one of the key things is not to feel tied to a particular character or series. Even if that one crime fiction series is all you’ve ever written, that’s not going to stop you writing about something else in the future. And if we keep that in mind – if we remind ourselves that we could write that story with different characters or in a different setting to our usual – we should be okay.

Because at the end of the day, the important thing is that we tell the story we want to tell as well as we possibly can. It might be that your series is the best way to do that, but it could also be that you decide you need to do something new to make it work properly.

We have options, especially as independent publishers with ultimate control over what we write and when. With any luck, as long as we remember that, knowing when to end our crime fiction series should take care of itself.

What do you think?