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.