Writing a Crime Series

When I decided to write a crime series, I didn't really think about the problems it might pose. I had a character that I'd lived with for some years in various short stories and false start novels and I knew that the character warranted more than one book. I am now two thirds of the way through writing the second book and I have to say that I have found this more difficult than the first, pictured above. I had a brief synopsis when I started but never knew the end. I wasn't worried about not having an ending because I was more than half way through the first book before I knew what the end was going to be.

Free Writing

I always try and do some free writing first thing in the morning, even if it is only half a page or so. It was the practice of free writing that gave me the ending for the first book. Up until yesterday, I had only a vague idea of how the book would end and what had to happen before it did. Yesterday morning when I was doing my writing exercise and thinking about the second book, I managed to get not just the ending, but all the chapters that lead up to that part, so I am now feeling a lot more positive about getting the second book finished in the next couple of weeks. I don't know what the third book will be about but I think I will leave that up to my subconscious and my free writing. The first book has not been a massive success but has been selling at least one copy a day this month, so we will see what happens when the second book goes up.

Writing the Second Lambeth Croak Book

I started writing the second book in the Lambeth Croak series during NaNoWriMo but I didn't get as far as 50,000 words, currently I am 36,000 so only 4000 words so far this month. I am finding the second book harder to write than the first. When I wrote the first book I started by the seat of my pants and about a third of the way through developed a plan for the rest of the book. For some reason the goal posts keep changing with this one. I think I know where I'm going and then something happens to take me in a different direction, which is all very well but a bit unsettling because where I thought the book was going isn't where it's going at all.

When I began it was with an idea that East European gangs would try a takeover bid on Yardie territory, noe, it's more of a police conspiracy involving a character from the last book so I don't really know where it's going. Anyway, what's it all got to do with me, I'm only the writer.

Lambeth Croak: Lambeth Croak: Writing a Crime Series

Lambeth Croak: Lambeth Croak: Writing a Crime Series: The reasons I decided to make Lambeth Croak into a series rather than a stand alone book were three fold. 1. I Love the Main Character ...

Lambeth Croak: Writing a Crime Series

The reasons I decided to make Lambeth Croak into a series rather than a stand alone book were three fold.

1. I Love the Main Character

I first came up with the main character and principle investigator in the series Bev Stone, twenty years ago when I wrote a Chandler pastiche for a writing class. Over the years I have written a couple of short stories and three unfinished novels before I came up with Death Came Stalking and the idea of the Lambeth Croak Series. 

I can't explain why this particular character is so important to me. Yes, there is some of myself on the page as there will be for many writers, particularly those with a series in mind, but at the same time she is nothing like me. She's childless for instance, while I have a large family, we're both dog lovers and have both survived domestic violence. Originally I wrote her as a simple private investigator but over the years that has changed, she is now a writer and social researcher (again like me) and a reluctant detective (not me). I don't know how the series will fare, nor how popular a character Bev might be, but I intend to keep growing with her over the foreseeable future.

2. I Love and am Familiar with the Setting

 I grew up in South London and as a child was often taken on shopping trips to Brixton in South London. Later, during my first marriage I lived in the area, and for a while in the actual road where Bev has her flat. if you've never heard of Brixton, the area became infamous during the riots of the nineteen eighties. I just love the feel of the place and its (as a rule) well adjusted multicultural atmosphere.

Situating my character in Brixton meant that it seemed sensible to me to make her of dual Irish and Afro-Caribbean heritage. As I have four dual heritage grandchildren I am well aware of the difficulties they face growing up in Britain. Having a character of similar background means that as time goes on there are other issues to explore.

3. Alter Ego

To some extent Bev is an alter ego for me. She does things that I have never really managed, I still can't drive for instance and although I can be as stubborn as she, I don't have the courage to get involved in things in the same way. Whether readers will feel sympathy with this particular character I don't know. Beta readers did find her engaging and sympathetic, it remains to be seen whether others will do the same. What does your series character mean to you?