I've made a start on a romantic suspense series. The first book is published, Book 2 is nearly ready to be beta read, and Books 3 and 4 are sketched out, in my head anyway. They all feature the same couple, first as they fall in love, then as they get married and weather challenges to their relationship (and to their lives, of course, given the suspense element). But I've grown fond of a secondary character and I'd like to write him as the hero of his own story. It would overlap with the second half of Book 2 of the series as presently understood, while the lead couple are away on their honeymoon. I've gone so far as to set up some situations in Book 2 that will lead to the story problem Mr. Secondary Character will have to solve. But he's not the MCs that readers expect. I could say, "Who cares?" After all, the series title is "The Architects," and that's what he is. The bigger problem is I've established the series as romantic suspense, and the story I'm envisioning will have plenty of suspense, but not much romance. The character is married, with an infant son, and he's not the type to have an affair. I could make out that his wife feels neglected because of his involvement in the suspense plot and he has to win her back, but the problem he has to overcome will last only three or four weeks, not more, and I don't see her as the kind of idiot who'd break up her marriage over that. What would you do with an idea like this? Put it in as Book 3, alter the genre, and let the chips fall where they may? Or should I make sure it comes in as a novella or a long short story and give it a related but different series name, so readers of the main series don't get confused?
I wouldn't label it as Book 3 that should be for the main couple. I can't think of too many times I've seen this off the top of my head, but one that does come to mind is the Star Wars movies. While all the mainline entries are labeled as Episode I and so on, the two standalone entries have the subtitle of A Star Wars Story. Now, A The Architects Story, sounds a little clumsy, but something like that could tell your readers that this story is set in the same universe and will likely touch on some already established characters story, while not being a continuation of the main storyline with the main couple.
I would say it's crying out for the novella treatment. A friend of mine did exactly that with a fantasy series - he wanted to explore one of the characters in more depth which didn't really fit with the thrust of the series (also, I suspect that his publisher was crying out for something to release to keep the momentum going and a 50k novella was a quicker win than a 150k installment...) Alternatively, if it is a long-short, could you use it as a give-away on your website? A freebie to lure people into your world and want to pay for the main event?
I was thinking, if I did an offshoot collection, of calling it something like "The Architects' Sketchbook."
Yeah, there are two different directions that you could go in, but I would be wary of trying to mush them together. The first one is your initial idea, to follow one couple as the MCs through various books. The other is to explore different couples in the same universe, based on secondary characters from earlier books. The second idea is very common in genre Romance (think the Bridgeton saga by Julia Quinn) , though your first is similar to JD Robb's (aka Nora Roberts) In Blood romantic suspense series. If it were me, I would hold off on going in the secondary character driven story until I'd exhausted the books for my original MCs. Then it would be a way to keep the universe going even if the original couple's story had more or less come to a conclusion. They could always show up as side characters themselves, but they wouldn't be the MCs anymore.
Would you do that even if the secondary character's timeline overlapped with that of the primary characters? I mean, like saying, "Remember when A and B were doing that a few years ago? Well, at that same time, C and D were doing this other thing"?
I would, but to be honest I am an extremely linear writer. It's really more of a personal preference than me thinking that it's objectively wrong, if that makes sense.
Sounds like you're talking "linear" in the sense of "one series at a time." Whereas I'm thinking "linear" in the sense of "chronology in my story universe." I could go your way if I were a faster writer . . . but for me it'd be safer to knock out this offshoot story while the events are fresh in my mind. There's also the possibility of my writing the offshoot now, but saving it to publish once the four-book main series is concluded.
Oh yes, I vastly prefer to finish something and put it to bed before I start something new. It's limiting but it works for my brain.
Series stand alone perhaps? I thought about doing that with a secondary plot early in my series involving a minor character that plays an interesting "it's a small world" role after we meet her in the first book.
