Let’s talk series. I don’t know about you, but I love to read books in a series. I find myself investing in the characters, the town, and everything else and can’t wait for the next book to come out so I can return to that world. If you’re thinking of writing a series, there are some things to understand and consider before you get started.
The first step is to choose the type of series you plan to write. Are you going episodic or sequential or hybrid? Let’s talk about the differences.
Episodic Series
Definition: An episodic series is a collection of books featuring the same protagonist and/or recurring characters, where each book tells a self-contained story, but with elements that connect them to the larger series.
Key Features:
- Standalone plots in each book
- Recurring characters or locations
- Minimal need to read previous books for context
- Often used in genres like mystery, detective fiction, and romantic suspense
Examples:
- Nancy Drew Mysteries (Carolyn Keene): Nancy investigates a different mystery in every installment, with no significant carryover of plot.
- Jack Reacher Series (Lee Child): Each novel follows Jack Reacher through a new case, often in a new town, with new characters. Readers can jump into any book.
- Love Inspired Suspense Series (not counting the continuity series which you would definitely want to read in order): While sometimes grouped in small arcs or trilogies, most books are self-contained romantic-suspense stories with recurring settings or themes but different lead characters and plots.
Why write this type of series? Because it:
- appeals to readers who want flexibility in reading order
- is ideal for long-running series with a consistent hook
- is easier to manage with multiple authors or publisher guidelines.
Sequential Series
Definition: A sequential series tells a continuous story across multiple books. Each installment builds upon the previous one, often featuring cliffhangers, ongoing character arcs, and a central conflict that escalates throughout the series.
Key Features:
- One overarching plot spans all or most books.
- Character development progresses across installments.
- Books are best read in order.
- Common in fantasy, science fiction, dystopian, and serialized thrillers.
Examples:
- The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins): Follows Katniss Everdeen’s journey through a dystopian rebellion, with events in one book directly affecting the next.
- Harry Potter Series (J.K. Rowling): Each book follows Harry through one school year, but the story, relationships, and conflicts build toward a final confrontation.
- Left Behind Series (Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins): Chronicles the tribulation period from beginning to end in a linear, progressive fashion.
Why write this kind of series? Because:
- it encourages deep investment in characters and long-term plots
- it is deal for exploring complex world-building and high-stakes arcs
- readers often binge the series in order.
Hybrid Series (what I write)
Definition: A hybrid series combines elements of both episodic and sequential storytelling. Each book typically introduces a new lead character or couple with their own story arc; but all books are connected through a shared world, timeline, central event, or overarching thematic thread.
Key Features:
- Each book focuses on a different protagonist(s)
- Shared universe or community
- Overlapping character appearances or events
- May contain a loosely connected series arc or emotional throughline
Examples:
- The Riverwood Chronicles: Each book features different main characters (law enforcement officers and survivors of violent crimes), but all are connected by a shared past event and support group called “The Survivors.” The setting and recurring characters create continuity.
- Romantic Suspense Series (this is what I write): Each book features a new romantic pairing and a new suspense plot but takes place in the same town, organization, or family, creating thematic and relational ties across books.
Why write this kind of series? Because:
- it offers both familiarity and freshness—readers get new stories but within a beloved world
- it enables greater flexibility in character focus while maintaining series cohesion
- it encourages exploration of different viewpoints while building a larger narrative puzzle.
Some think writing an episodic series is easier and new writers should start with that. I don’t agree. You have to track details no matter what, so if you want to write a series, go for it. I started with the big hybrid series and you can too. But having a tracking system will save you a lot of work and a lot of headaches. Trust me. I’m speaking from experience.
How about you? What kind of series are you writing and what drew you to that type?
To the world of hybrid series, I’d add Susan Howatch’s Starbridge stories. They’re terrific.
***
I’ve been thinking, more and more
about what I will find
when I go through Earth’s final door…
will what I leave behind
be waiting for me, like the tears
that God with care preserved?
Will the work of earnest years
serve once again, as it had served
to bind me to the mystery
whose form I darkly saw…
will what I was now walk with me,
cleansed of sin and flaw,
the perfect circle now completed
beyond the death the Christ defeated?
Sequential Series is my forte. As a discovery writer it is much easier to create a series because it can build on the ‘simple’ idea. I try to write my chapters like episodes, roughly around 2,000 words each,so each one will have a climax. Right now I’m in the process of writing four such stories but the universes aren’t connected on purpose.
Ideal concepts would be closer to 12, including the four mentioned but they are possibly one shot novels. Probably take them to 75,000 just to get the idea out of my head, which is the reason why I write.
But my question is, when you have multiple diverse science fiction stories like this, how do you attract an agent or means to get it published without the self-publishing trap?
I have envision these characters being implemented in all forms of media. Mainly video games, action figures and in Time Life action.
Stories that can bring morality, rationality back to entertainment.
Thank you for explaining these three categories of series. My Love Shines Through series would fit the Hybrid category.
I started by writing the middle book, Something I Haven’t Told You, with a Main Character who gets pregnant as a teenager.
Then, I wrote a short prequel novel, Ed’s Hopeful Journey, which takes place five years earlier, with her father as the MC.
In the third book in the series, Something Old and Something New, the girl’s grandmother is the MC. It’s a dual timeline. The main story takes place from the time she learns her granddaughter is pregnant, and she reflects back on her own teen years in the 1960s.
Now, I’m working on a fourth book in the series, based on the girl’s sister. It begins toward the end of the original story, when she embarks on a trip to Switzerland and falls in love.
Each book can be read as a standalone. My theme is Poignant Stories with Splashes of Humour and Threads of Romance.
Pearl Ada Pridham
What kind of tracking system do you recommend to keep up with the critical info and timeline in a series?
I am finishing the first book of my inspirational romance trilogy set in 1880 Dakota Territory. I am a lifelong resident of southeast south Dakota and live outside Dakota Territory’s “Mother City,” Yankton. This area is rich in history and my husband and I have raised Belgian draft horses and farmed our acreage here with the horses. So naturally my first trilogy and subsequent series will be set in the Dakotas and this time period. Its so gratifying to weave my Christian faith into these stories and share the gospel in a format that draws people and gives them opportunity to consider their own faith journey. Thank you for this informative post!
I am finishing the first book of my inspirational romance episodic trilogy set in 1880 Dakota Territory. I am a lifelong resident of southeast South Dakota and live outside Dakota Territory’s “Mother City,” Yankton. This area is rich in history and my husband and I have raised Belgian draft horses and farmed our acreage here with the horses. So naturally my first trilogy and subsequent series will be set in the Dakotas and this time period. Its so gratifying to weave my Christian faith into these stories and share the gospel in a format that draws people and gives them opportunity to consider their own faith journey. Thank you for this informative post!
Thanks Lynette for naming my series type—Hybrid Series. It was suggested by Janyre Tromp even before she so beautifully edited my manuscript and I changed a trilogy to a duology with scope for additional stories within the world. Gee—I think I learned that from reading all YOUR series!
Thanks for the info. I’m going to do some research and consider which would work best for me. I never knew there were different types of series!
This post is quite helpful.
My sequential series is a trilogy. It is a Christian fantasy in which Jesus shows up as a 15-year-old sophomore at a Long Island high school in 2010. The central character is a 15-year-old girl with a painful home life who is drawn into joining a small street gang. Her name is Tryphena Simon. The changes in her life caused by Yeshua Davidson Carpenter, known to his friends as Shu, result in her adopting a new path in Book I, “War of the Roads,” though her family difficulties are not yet resolved.
In Book II, “Identity Crash,” Shu continues to instigate further change, which starts to have powerful and helpful impact on Tryph and her family members, as well as on other troubled teens at the school. But the school administration forces Shu to leave because his constant following of friends causes disruption in the halls and cafeteria.
In Book III, “Life After Shu,” Tryph, along with Shu’s disciples at the high school, and a student named Henry who is a gang member, find resolution in their family lives because Shu, though absent in person from their daily lives, remains with them inwardly. He guides them to forgiving their flawed caregivers, while protecting themselves from further mistreatment. He also guides them to asking forgiveness for their own problematic ways. They can then progress forward on their life paths.
I wrote this trilogy because I saw kids in a former church hit their teens and start heading in negative directions that utterly surprised me. One of them joined a street gang. I researched gangs extensively and read the Gospels more intensively than I ever had before, in both English and Spanish, to write the trilogy.
I am in the process of mounting the trilogy through Book Publishers Plus.
Well, this is refreshing and informative. I started writing a story 10 years ago. After it ran to over 320,000 words, I divided it into a trilogy. Sequential, obviously. 1968-1978. Time and places I am personally familiar with.
My working title is “The Three Kisses”. It works to cohere the story but I want titles for each book. This is more difficult. And the subtitles–supposedly part of the “hook”–flit around in my head without taking form. I’m in the editing process of Book One, so I need to get it hashed out.
WOW! How wonderfully timely this post is. I literally just pulled out and dusted off a manuscript I’d written about 10 years ago but put away because I still had some brainstorming to do regarding the series. It is historical fiction, but also 19th century spy-novelish in nature, for lack of a better way to explain.
I’m going to save this post to revisit but I think my series is sequential, and yes, there’s an over-arching problem that won’t be resolved till last book in the series, but my intention is for each book’s story to be resolved by the end of the book (minus the over-arching issue that won’t resolve until the final book).
In any case, writing a stand-alone book can be complex enough, but writing books in a series is quite a challenge. But honestly, I rarely come up with stand-alone book ideas. They’re usually always part of a series.
Thanks again for this very helpful post.
I write hybrid too! I love sharing a new hero and heroine each time but connecting with the characters and setting of previous stories. My books are chronological, but you can read them in any order and they are self-contained. It’s fun to go back and read what happened to favorite characters in the past, though. Just like your stories, Lynette! 🙂
In a Sequential Series, wouldn’t you have to include quite a bit of information from previous books so that if a reader picked up book #2 as the first read, they would still be able to understand what the back story is and what the characters are all about?