Going it (Stand)alone. When it comes to an ongoing series, there are two broad schools of thought. One (which I prefer, and I have used in my DCI Warren Jones series) sees characters evolve over the years. Secondary characters come and go, your protagonist perhaps has life-changing experiences that resonate in later books. Ideally, each book can still be read individually, in a different order to when they are published, but there is an ongoing narrative and readers gain additional insight if they read the books in order.
The other approach is to 'hit the big red reset button' at the end of the book. When you pick up the next in the series, the character is largely unchanged from where they started in the previous book. This can work extremely well. Jack Reacher is not a static character, in terms of development, but generally speaking you can pick up Reacher books in any order without really feeling you've missed something.
But for each of those approaches, there are still some limits to what you can do. Your police inspector can't do anything too outrageous or they will be sacked before the next book in the series. Your gun-toting hero can't die in a hail of bullets, unless book two is about zombies.
For a standalone, anything goes! You can kill off who you want. Your characters can finish the book in such a way that they could never realistically return. Your corrupt copper can be thrown in jail for twenty years and barred from ever serving again. You can also write stories that simply wouldn't fit into the universe that you have established for your series. I have a list of ideas for books that I simply couldn't shoehorn Warren Jones into.
Standalones also allow a writer to experiment with different writing styles. My Warren Jones novels follow a loose format. They are fairly accurate police procedurals, so operate within the 'rules' for UK policing. There is humour in the books, but it isn't overt or farcical. They are written in the third person and the narrator's voice doesn't use profanity (although characters do in dialogue). The worst violence typically takes place off the page, and they aren't especially gory. I don't resent these supposed constraints - in fact I regard them as a comfortable, established space where I am free to be creative. I would even argue that they force me to be more creative. Warren doesn't carry a gun, for example, so I can't solve a problem by having him run in, bullets spraying.
Furthermore, many authors who have taken time out from an established series to write something different, have spoken of how they return to their series with renewed vigour. Karin Slaughter has successfully published multiple standalone novels alongside her popular ongoing Will Trent/Grant County series and it is great to see her stretch her wings with something really different. Some of these standalones have been turned into limited-length TV series, whilst her Will Trent character has been developed as an ongoing series.


What are your thoughts on series authors writing standalones? Do you think it is a welcome change? Or would you rather they spent their energies and time writing more entries in their series? As always feel free feel to comment here or on social media.
Until next time,
Paul
If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.