Writing a new series is hard.
When I was writing the Changeling books I was confident that I could ‘slip into’ Trey and Lucien and Caliban’s heads, and do so without too much trouble. I found my voice and was comfortable with the worlds I had created for those works.
Now all that has gone. And I have to start all over again.
I was in a bookshop the other day and noticed a title (paranormal romance for YAs) that proudly stated it was number twelve in a popular series – number twelve! At first I wondered how any writer could come up with enough new material to sustain a series across that many books (these are not small books). I wondered if they were formulaic and if it was merely the characters’ names that changed in the later books. I inwardly scoffed at the author’s lack of ambition (I do a lot of that inward scoffing, you know). But a part of me also thought, “Why not?” Hey, if an idea is a good one and your readers want more of the same, why not keep flogging that horse until the legs fall out from under it and the glue it is subsequently made into is used to wallpaper your living room walls with crisp banknotes?
I wanted to do something different after the Changeling books. I wanted to explore new worlds and new characters. But it’s not as easy as you might think. I keep finding elements of those previous books nudging at my subconscious, demanding to be heard. When I write a sentence I find myself asking, “Is that voice really so different?”
I was speaking to another author about this the other day over a couple of cold beverages, and they pointed out that you don’t want your book to be too different from those you’ve written before because if you do you run the risk of losing the audience that liked the other stuff so much. I buy that, but if you don’t challenge yourself with trying to write new stuff don’t you run the risk of geting fed up with the whole writing experience?
So I’m in a bit of a pickle with my work in progress. I want it to be different from the Changeling books, but I also want people to be able to identify that the books are written by me in a style that they have enjoyed before.
As with all writing, this new project is a leap of faith. I have to believe that it is going to be every bit as good as I imagined it would be in the first place, and hope that the publishers will put up with my scrambled ideas about what the book will eventually become.
Who ever said this writing malarkey was supposed to be fun?
Writing a new series is hard. 
I have just read your first book of the Changeling series.
It is one of the best books i have read in my life! and am ordering the rest of the series off Amazon right now! You are an amazing writer Steve, you honestly are.
See? Lewis is a reader, and a fan, and he's hit the nail on the head, Steve. You're an amazing writer, so no matter what you right, you will subconsciously apply the same set of Feasey rules to the project, no matter what it happens to be about. Learning what is 'your style' is all part of finding confidence in your singular entity as an author I guess…I don't know how far into the MS you are at the moment, but i think you'll get to a point where it doesn't feel like a Changeling book with just the names being different. And, establishing yourself as an author is all about building up a fanbase that want to read whatever you put out there…when the author becomes as important as the work.
Thanks Darren,
You're correct. I think I've turned the corner with my new project now (having to rewrite the entire beginning of the book as a result), and it does feel different.
Onwards and upwards, eh?