Writing a murder mystery series requires logistics. You need to keep track of who is who, what is what, etc. Don’t say a character has a certain skill set and then mix them up with someone who doesn’t. You will confuse your readers. Be aware of your location. Don’t have it snow at the wrong time of the year. Make it clear to your readers who the characters are and how they function in the series.
All good advice, but how do you manage it?
I write the Lamb’s Bay Mystery Series and that means keeping track of a small town on the eastern seaboard, its landmarks and its townspeople. It is not always easy. But here are a few tricks I have found helpful.
Know your location: If the action will take place in a city or a town, on a farm or in a rain forest, make sure you understand what you are writing about. I know we have global warming, but it is asking your readers to really stretch their imaginations if rain forest dwellers suddenly have to dig out of a 40-foot snowfall – unless you are writing science fiction or fantasy – but that’s a whole other area of writing. Let’s stick to murder mysteries for n
Draw a map: It doesn’t have to be a perfect map worthy of use in National Geographic, but a map you can understand. I find it very helpful, when directing the actions of my characters, to check my map.
Lamb’s Bay is a fictional small town on the eastern seaboard. Some of the main landmarks are a lighthouse on the point, a boardwalk along the main public beach and a mansion that belongs to the Lamb family.
If Hilly and Brody are on the boardwalk, they are not too far from the lighthouse, but to get to a nearby community, such as Fair Haven, will take longer. And that impacts how the story’s action works.
You can update the map as you add in new landmarks, new characters’ homes and the location of the crimes committed. You don’t have to put it in your published books –but if you do, then you should have an artist make it look more professional. Here’s mine:
Use character sheets: I develop these for all my characters. I will attach a sample at the end of this blog. With this tool, you document each character by name, occupation, residence, special skills, hobbies, and relationships.
If my main character needs some expertise in a certain area, all I have to do is to see who has the necessary skills, and plop them into the action. It is sort of like a football coach having a bench full of players and, by knowing their assets, he can call them onto the field as needed to advance the play, er, action.
These basic tools can be immensely helpful when getting started on the opening book of a series and they will prove their worth as you progress through subsequent books.
You need to update your character sheets and your map when necessary. For example, if character A marries character B, or the town hall burns down.
Below is the character sheet I mentioned. It is an amalgamation of many others out there, but cut down to a simplified version. If, at any time, the story line requires more information on a character, you can always expand your notes. How do you keep track of your characters if you are writing a series?
