How to Extend the Life of a Story Series

There are a number os ways you can extend the life of a story series. This post is a basic guide to help you brainstorm ideas and presents various options to extend a story series you’ve already written or a well known series. Sometimes it’s hard to end a series because fans want more of the characters they love and you don’t want to disappoint them, but there are limits to stories and authors as creators.

A great reasons to extend the life of a story series is well known characters , like Robin Hood, Zorro, Frankenstein, and Tarzan already have a fanbase you can tap into. A second reason is to tap into the equity of older work by sparking new interest in it. Both options can help you grow your writer fanbase platform. And a third is to quite a series before you, or it, wears out.

Write a Character Spinoff

One of the easiest ways it to write a spinoff of a character. You can do this with stories you’ve written or when writing a fan fiction piece. Note, if you plan on publishing it or selling it make sure the characters are out of copyright and now part of the public domain, like Sherlock Holmes and many fairy tales are.

If fans had a favorite character in your last series, maybe it was the villain, write a new series about them. This can also help refresh your enthusiasm for a long running series. Writing a long running series can be hard on writers when they don’t want to diss point fans, but are tired of coming up with new ideas. Taking a side step can help get your creativity flowing again.

Extend A World

You can extend the life of a seres by writing a new story that takes place one, or more, towns from where your original story takes place. Have your main character move. You could write a subplot about the politics between the two towns, or pull in cameos of characters from the original series that fans already love.

You could also write a parody of a classic series, like Emily McIntire did with Hooked, part of her Never After Series. This series is actually stand alone books of fractured fairy tales under a theme. If you like dark romance with a twist, give it a try. They are a bit steamy.

Write a Prequel or a Sequel

Prequels and sequels are great way to add life to a series by jumping your series forward or backward in time. This could be a small jump in time to when your characters are younger or older, or even a much bigger jump. Linking to the original series through the history or future of place or an organization can be fun and you’ll get to write new characters. If you have a well developed world that is character like in it’s own right this is a good choice.

If you want to know more about writing a series Sara Rosett wrote a very informative little book that gives you the basics: How to Write A Series: A Guide to Series Types and Structures plus Troubleshooting and Marketing Tactics.