Trixie Belden was my gateway into mysteries. I was ten when I met her. Days were spent borrowing books from a friend after swim team practice and returning them at our swim meet that night (until I started buying my own).
My penpal and I would stalk K-Mart—remember when they carried books?—for new releases. Not having learned the term “back cover copy,” between new releases we made up “Trixie Belden Book Backs,” imagining crimes around Sleepyside-on-the-Hudson for Trixie to solve.
Several children’s mystery series had a stable of authors writing them, and different authors means different ideas. But what about an author who writes one character over a series of ten books? Twenty? How does a writer keep it fresh?
Rhys Bowen says, “There are several things that help my two long running series to stay strong and fresh: both are not limited to one narrow setting even though they have a cast of familiar characters. Both incorporate real history. The Royal Spyness with the Mrs Simpson drama, Molly Murphy is set in New York City with endless real drama (also I now write with my daughter and her great research and fresh approach).”
Terry Shames says, “I usually have a theme of social justice in mind. There’s never a shortage of those issues, and they never get stale. My last book was about the consequences of the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade. I foresee a book about undocumented workers in the near future.”
Lisa Regan says, “When you get very deep into a series, keeping things fresh becomes a huge challenge. With every new book, I ask myself, ‘what haven’t I put these characters through?’ And ‘what haven’t readers seen yet?’ In addition to that, I make sure that every new premise is exciting to me. If I’m not excited about what I’m writing, readers won’t be excited to read it.”
Julie Mulhern says, “Over the course of nineteen books, my main character, Ellison Jones, has found a backbone, a new husband, and an adopted son. All big changes. That said, I can’t pull out the big character-character development guns in every book. So, how to keep things fresh? I think the secret is to let the secondary characters develop as well.”
Sooner or later, every series author reaches a point where familiar plot elements show up in a draft—I have a tendency to kill off husbands!—but one question always remains: how can I make this one different?
The spark of my character Samantha Kidd came from the idea of writing a grown-up version of Trixie Belden: an amateur sleuth with a nose for trouble, doesn’t always make the right choices but is determined to keep going until she does. I wanted her initial ignorance to allow for growth. In addition to the mysteries that are set in her hometown of Ribbon, Pennsylvania, she’s gone to Las Vegas (book 8), New Jersey (book 15) and Italy (book 16).
No author wants to write the same book twice, which means more fun for you, the reader! Maybe it’s time to revisit a beloved character—or to escape into a new series character and see how much trouble authors can dream up.
