When I started sending around my first
mystery-thriller at the end of 2011 to a few friends and relatives in
preparation for public release, I had no intention of continuing any of the
characters in a second or third book. To
be completely honest, I was modeling my work very much after early John Grisham
and, as far as I know, he creates new characters for each book. At least that was the case for his earlier ones
(The Firm, Pelican Brief, etc.).
So, I was immediately thrown into a
conundrum when the first readers (other than my wife who had read chapters as I
wrote), assumed that subsequent books would be based on the same main
character. Once that book, Project Moses, hit Amazon and started to
get readers, this became a familiar pattern.
Readers assumed, in fact, that I had written in certain aspects of the
plot so that the protagonist, a San
Francisco
I was pleased in some ways. Obviously, many readers felt attached enough
to Enzo and the detective, Bobbie Connors, to want to read more about them and
future adventures. Chief among my
worries when I started writing was that I wouldn’t be able to draw convincing
characters. I tend to be very analytical
so I thought my main strength would be architecting plots that held together,
seemed credible and didn’t leave loose ends.
Most of my rewriting focused on refining the characters, making them
believable to me so they were acting and interacting in ways that didn’t seem
false or contrived. I would write
elaborate back stories and then delete them, convinced they had too much
detail. But, often I would return a
third time and drop in a detail or suggestion of the more elaborate back story.
For instance, a key part of Enzo’s past – what happened to him earlier in his
journalism career that almost cost him his job and drove him back to reinvent
himself in San Francisco – went unexplained until the middle of the second
book, Divine Fury.
And, of course, there were the marketing
aspects. One of the first concepts I
learned in the crash course on self publishing that I began when Project Moses went live in January 2012
was the supposed power of multiple books, particularly in a series. The conventional wisdom is that if you can
get people hooked on one of your books, particularly if it’s part of series
implying even more consistency, readers will likely buy the rest, giving you a
powerful multiplier effect. I guess the
same wisdom would say that this effect is most powerful when it comes to true
sequels (say, Hunger Games or Harry Potter), with the next level being an
ongoing main character (like Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch books).
So I decided not to buck what seemed to be both
the popular choice (per Amazon reviews) and the business choice. I stuck with Enzo. I’m working on my third book now, and it is
another Enzo Lee mystery thriller.
However, I’m thinking very much about taking a break from Enzo after
this one.
As I plan my books, I find myself operating
at two somewhat contradictory levels because of the series approach. At one level, I’m thinking about Enzo’s life,
career and relationship. Permanent relationship? Kids? Discoveries about his family’s past
that are troubling? At the other level,
I’m thinking somewhat abstractly about possible conspiracies or suspenseful
themes. A political thriller? A science-driven plot? Massive corruption on Wall Street? I think of Michael Crichton’s work in this
vein – very much concept driven. (Jurassic Park
If nothing else, I certainly understand now
why some writers who do focus on a particular main character sometimes make a
switch. Connelly comes to mind as he
sometimes takes a break from Harry Bosch and has attorney Mickey Haller as his
main character.
We all need vacations.
Robert B. Lowe is a Pulitzer-prize
winning author whose fiction is based in San Francisco
Robert will be awarding a $25 Amazon Gift Card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour so I e
ncourage you to follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/01/virtual-book-tour-divine-fury-by-robert.html
