Creating Characters for an Open-Ended Fiction Series

Senior citizen cat Niki is quite a character.

An open-ended fiction series--- unlike a trilogy which is essentially one long novel--- requires characters which are suited to the form--- characters which can reasonably be expected to come back in book after book.

By contrast, a character in a single novel or a closed series such as a trilogy (or the Harry Potter series) is facing a unique challenge in his life. Bringing that character back can be anti-climactic, although some writers have fallen in love with a great character and managed to turn him into a series character.

A good series character is the sort of person who can come back and have many more adventures after the first book. Think Conan the Barbarian, or Sookie Stackhouse, or Sherlock Holmes, or the Stainless Steel Rat, or Bernie Rhodenbarr.... Mystery/crime fiction is a genre that lends itself to the open-ended series centered around a central character.

A series character that's successful must be launched in a powerful Book One (or short-story one), but unlike in a stand-alone novel, you must not utterly blow up a character's life in that first novel. Imagine Sherlock Holmes if his first adventure had ended in the burning-down of 221B Baker Street and the killing of Doctor Watson, with Holmes having to slink off to Australia to start over. There probably wouldn't have been a second story. (Though if there was, the author would have had to establish a new stability for Holmes.)

A series character must have a motivation for continuing to participate in the new adventures. In series centered around a cop or private eye or a barbarian warrior, they have to participate because it is their job. In other series, it's because the character is an adventurer or adrenaline junkie.

But what about the ordinary-citizen character? In mysteries, it's believable for an ordinary person to be caught up in one murder and solve the crime. But when it happens again and again the reader may start to wonder why he doesn't just stay safe and leave the investigating to the police. And when bodies turn up whenever this ordinary-citizen is around, you might think they'd be suspected of somehow being an uncaught serial killer. (I always suspected Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote--- she lived in a small town and murdered corpses kept turning up. They should have locked her up just as a precaution.)

In the Bernie Rhodenbarr series by Lawrence Block, Bernie starts off as an ordinary burglar who happened to burgle a place with a corpse in it. Ray, the local crooked cop, is certain that Bernie did it, and so Bernie must solve the case to keep his freedom. In later books, Ray's telling Bernie that he's sure Bernie didn't do it, but because of the evidence he has to take Bernie in. Finally, in the most recent book, Ray actually takes Bernie to the scene of an unsolved murder because Bernie's so good at finding solutions to such things. At this point, solving crimes becomes something Bernie does, like burglary.

The series hero needs a group of friends and associates. In the Bernie Rhodenbarr series, besides Bernie we have Ray, the crooked cop, Carolyn, Bernie's gay friend and sidekick, and usually Mrs. Hersh, Bernie's neighbor who doesn't mind Bernie being a burglar since he confines his burgling to the rich side of town where the momzers deserve it.

You may see that each of these characters serves a function. Since Bernie is dealing with crimes, he needs a link to law enforcement. For a burglar like Bernie, Ray is ideal since he's not entirely law-abiding but still a cop in good standing. Carolyn plays the sidekick role, which often involves just being someone that Bernie can confide in about the case. At other times she can go out and do things for Bernie that he can't go out and do for himself. As for Mrs. Hersh, she's a very minor character who serves to provide a bit of local color, and sometimes proves useful when there is action happening at Bernie's apartment building.

One factor you might consider when designing your series character--- how comfortable is it for you to write him? You don't want to sentence yourself to time inside the head of a series character that you see as nothing but creepy and evil. You must find something you can like about your character. After all, even Dexter, the serial killer in Jeff Lindsay's series, has endearing traits like confining his serial-killing to other serial killers, and being kind, loyal to, and protective of his sister Deb, brother Brian, wife Rita, and his stepkids and baby.

Also, don't give your character too many characteristics and traits that will involve you in constant research. Don't make your series character have growing orchids as his hobby/obsession when you don't know anything about growing any sort of plant and don't want to. Save those sort of things for your stand-alone novel's characters. If you like baseball well enough, and have a brother who's obsessed with the game, you probably won't have any difficulty writing a character with an intense interest in baseball--- even if you keep that character going for twenty books or more.

A final suggestion: you might want to 'road-test' your series characters by sketching out a number of potential adventures for them, just to see how well they work in a series. You don't need to write all the sketched-out adventures. Use them to see if your characters are likely to be suitable for a series.

Right now, I'm at the early stages of creating some series characters. So far, I've come out with some rather firm ideas for two stories--- one to become a novel, and one a short story. And I have some tentative ideas about other stories and story fragments. I think this work will help me create characters that I can use.

Have you ever tried to create a series character? How well did that work out for you? What series characters do you most like to read about? 

Links:
How to Create a Series Character in Fiction  
5 Tips for Creating a Must-Read Fiction Series


Cat Notes: Niki the cat, along with her nearly identical sister Viki, was born in a barn. She gave birth to a litter of kittens in the flowerbed, but she was OK with it when I moved her and her babies into the barn. One of those kittens was a white male with a neurological disability. I named him Claudius. In the early years I could only tell Niki and Viki apart because Niki was the friendly one. Later I discovered that their tabby patterns differed a little and Niki had a black spot on the back of her head that Viki didn't have. So when Viki disappeared, I knew Niki was the one I had left. 

When Niki grew older, she decided she didn't like the other barn cats, and ran away. While walking the dog, Niki came out of the woods--- she still liked the dog. I carried her home and let her into the house. I allowed two of the kittens born in 2012 to stay to keep her company, and she liked that pretty much. She also likes the newer kittens including our new disabled kitten Therese. But she was REALLY upset last spring when I let barncat Gwen into the house and she promptly had 5 kittens. Niki hissed and growled for months over that.


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