How Do We Know When a Series Should End?--Reb MacRath
That good advice sounds simpler than it often is. Let's call the inner voice IV. Anyone who's quit smoking or drinking will tell you that the road to hell is paved with the devil's whispers: Go on, one more smoke or drink won't kill you...This isn't the right time to quit...With all the stress you're under, you'll die from a heart attack or stroke instead of cancer or cirrhosis...Etc.
That IV is every bit as seductive and compelling as the one that says it's time to move to a new city or write a book unlike any other book you've done. You'd be just as foolish to turn a deaf ear as you would to act without thinking.
In the past twelve months I've made decisions based on two IV Siren calls. For brevity's sake, I'll deal here with the second. Besides, the first seemed to be a no brainer: moving from Seattle after eight years to Tucson, AZ. Cost of living and rent are far cheaper...the hot, dry weather will be kinder to my new knee and underlying arthritis...the crime rate in Seattle keeps rising every year...
But the second IV took me completely by surprise. This one told me that the time's at hand to close out the Seattle BOP mysteries. Three have been published so far, with a fourth now being formatted and a fifth already drafted. Why say goodbye to Chief Armstrong and the colorful gang at Seattle BOP?
These considerations led to my accepting the second IV call:
1) Over the course of five Seattle BOP Mysteries, I've taken the series as far as it can go.
2) Readers who've grown from the start with a series by a popular, best-selling author--be it Sue Grafton, Robert B. Parker, Michael Connelly, or Claude Bouchard--eagerly await the latest entry and know that they can count on a timely delivery.
3) If readers haven't discovered or taken to a series within the first three to five books, they're as unlikely to try a series of twenty titles as I am to start watching Game of Thrones. Too big a time commitment--especially if the characters have gone through profound changes.
4) It seemed time to move on from the present tense narrative style employed in all of the BOP mysteries.
5) I've grown too disenchanted with Seattle to continue setting books here.
6) The change will allow me to move one or two new characters from Seattle BOP to a new outfit in Tucson.
Comments
1. Coffee
2. Space Needle
3. Frasier
4. Microsoft
5. Puget Sound
6. It rains all the time
Let us know how you get on. Have you got another WIP?
One of my Canadian cousins used to spend the winters in Arizona because of his arthritis, and I can also sympathise with this (especially living in Edinburgh as I do! - even going to Spain for a holiday is a real treat).