Blog Tour. Dreda Say Mitchell talks about writing and her new series of novels, or as Dreda puts it " How The Show Goes On And On: Writing A Series"

Our latest blog tour hosts Dreda Say Mitchell.  She won the CWA's John Creasey Dagger for her debut novel, Running Hot and showing that this wasn’t just a flash in the pan, Dreda’s novel Geezer Girls was a 2014 World Book Night UK choice and long listed for The Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year.  She was the 2011 chair of The Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and chosen as one of the 50 Remarkable Women in Britain by Lady Geek and Nokia.

Today Dreda is discussing an age old author’s conundrum – the standalone novel versus the series.  This is particularly relevant for Dreda, who has moved from standalone novels to writing the first in a new series with her new novel Vendetta, that has just been released in paperback.

The pros and cons of the standalone novel as against a series of books have been much discussed over the years and there’s much to be said on both sides. Many of the classics of the genre have been one-offs and sometimes an author just needs one book to do want they want to do. But there’s no doubt that the series, usually with a recurring hero, are very popular with both readers and writers alike. When I decided as an author to switch my writing in the direction of thrillers this was one of the decisions I had to take – the standalone or the series?

The advantages of the series are obvious. If you can create heroes that readers can get into, root for and whom you can develop, then they can run and run. Put them in different situations with different problems and you are able to reveal different facets of their personality. If you can create sympathetic characters, including sometimes the bad guys, they pretty much become part of the family for some readers. It also means you can take a long view as a writer. You don’t have to pile all the information about their lives into one book and this is just like life. You may have known some people for years and yet still not be aware of something very important about them.

On the other hand, the series format has its problems too. It’s very easy for a writer to slide into a formula, get lazy and hit cruise control or simply write the same story over and again and hope the reader doesn’t notice (which of course they invariably do). It’s also very restricting for an author who might well feel they need to move on but who are faced with a publisher telling them, “But the readers love Detective Inspector X…”

But there is another alternative and it’s the one I decided to use for my new novel ‘Vendetta’ and the books, which will follow in the series. Rather than use one central character to link the books, I decided to create three. These new characters are all linked as they were at Police College together but subsequently all moved in different directions in different ways. In ‘Vendetta’, our hero is Mac who is an undercover cop working in an international crime syndicate. But there are also prominent supporting roles for Detective Inspector Rio Wray and disgraced cop Calum Burns, who will share the billing in the series with Mac. In the next book, ‘Death Trap’, it’s Rio who will be centre stage and in the one to follow it will be Calum while the others will still be making appearances to a greater or lesser degree. There’s another advantage to this format. Every writer has the experience of the minor character that comes to life and demands a bigger role. As a series like the one I’m planning develops, you can give them one.

This approach is actually in a long tradition. Although Balzac has ended up being tagged as a literary writer, many of his books were in fact crime and thrillers by any other name and in Vautrin he created one of the first great master criminals. Like all Balzac’s characters, he played a greater or lesser role in novels as required. While not many thriller writers would pretend to be in Balzac’s league, it’s a very effective way of writing a series. Will it work? As any master criminal will tell you, ultimately it’s all in the hands of the public; readers make keen jury members. But I’m confident in ‘Vendetta’ and the books to follow, I’ve made a convincing case for the defence.

Thanks Dreda, a great insight into Vendetta and its also interesting to get a sneak peek into the next book Death Trap.  For Crime Warp readers whose appetites have been whetted by this guest blog, Dreda’s novel Vendetta is out now in paperback and eBook, published by Hodder, £6.99. If you want to find out more, please visit www.dredasaymitchell.com.  You can also follow Dreda on twitter @DredaMitchell.

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