A Conversation With David Baldacci on Writing a Standalone Novel Versus a Series (Killer Writers)
Recently, Clay Stafford spent some time with bestselling author David Baldacci to talk about his most recent novel, Simply Lies, and other topics related to writing compelling thrillers.
“I’m here with David Baldacci, a number one global bestselling author. David has a new psychological thriller, Simply Lies, releasing on April 18, 2023. David, I had a chance to read an advance copy of Simply Lies, and both character and plot had me from the start. It’s one of those books that, even if you wanted to take a break, this is an unstoppable read. Incredible page-turner. Full of surprises. You don’t see what’s coming next. When I think of you, I think of you as a series writer, but this is a standalone. At Killer Nashville, we have participants come to the conference with ideas for three-book series, etc., and I thought it might be apropos since you are the master of both, to get your thoughts on the difference between writing for a series or simply a single book. Jumping right in, do you start out thinking, when you begin, that it’s going to be a series or a standalone?”
(Read other Killer Writers conversations.)
“No, I think you really have to wait until you get towards the end and ask yourself, ‘Is there any juice left in these characters, or any unanswered questions they have, or any more potential that I haven’t explored yet?’ And if the answer to those questions is ‘yes,’ then you might want to think about making the book a series.”
“Can you give an example?”
“I’ve written books where I knew, sort of going in that it was going to be a special story about this character, and there wasn’t going to be an opportunity to bring them back. And lo and behold, I’d get to the end of the book and realize that I was wrong with my initial assumption.”
“So, what do you do?”
“I think you have to be flexible. I don’t think you should go in with any preconceived notion that it’s going to be a series or not a series.”
“Really?”
“Let the story flow, and then see what you feel like as you get towards the end.”
“So how do you know? Is it about you, as the writer?”
“Yes. Do you want to spend more time with these characters, because you really have to bring the passion and interest again, and if it’s not there inside you, it’s probably not going to end up on the pages either, so I always sort of let the story come out, and then check to see if I want to bring them back or not.”
“Have you ever written a standalone with no plans to continue, and then your publisher says, ‘I’d like to have a series out of this?’”
“Don’t let your publisher dictate your writing career.”
“That’s strong.”
“Your passion and interest have to be there. Your publisher is going to say, ‘This is great. I love it. Bring it back.’ If you’re not that interested in it, you’re going to write a hundred pages, run out of gas, get pissed off and mad, and then everyone’s going to be mad.”
“Including your publisher?”
“Let your own gut dictate where you want to go.”
“What’s your litmus?”
“The biggest gut instinct for me is, am I interested in the material? Am I interested in seeing those characters again? Do I have ideas that make sense for them to move that character forward, to evolve the character more. If not, then what are you going to be doing? A lot of writers do this successfully, but if you’re not careful, you’re going to be writing the same story and just changing some of the names of the peripheral characters. And you’re going to have the same character doing the same thing they do in every book. If you want to do that, that’s terrific. And if you want to build a career out of that, for me that would get stale pretty quickly.”
“You don’t want to rewrite the same book.”
“I’ve been in this business a long time, written over 50 books, and the one thing I always try to do is get myself out of my comfort zone with every project. Even if I’m bringing a character back, I try to put them into new territories with new partners doing new things. I don’t want to repeat myself.”
“This autonomy with the publisher that you’re talking about, is that something that every writer ought to have? You’ve got a lot of clout. But for new writers, aren’t they more susceptible to being directed in some certain direction?”
“You can be very susceptible to that. I’m not saying anything’s wrong with it. I have a great agent. I have great publishers around the world. I listen to them for marketing, business, sales, tours, and yes, they can add input into whether they think this character is great and might be great in another book. But the question you have to ask yourself is, is it there for me? If I’m only going to bring this character back because my publisher or agent or readers want me to, but the passion and fascination with the character is not there for me, it’s not going to be a good book, no one’s going to be happy with the result. The greatest problem to have is that the agent loves it, the culture loves it, and you do too, and you want to bring it back again, and you have all the same level of energy that you had for the first one. That’s a terrific opportunity for you. But I just think that the book stops with the writer because who’s going to be writing the book? Not the publisher, not the agent, not the readers out there. You have to sit down every day and deal with this character, and if you’re dealing with the character because somebody else told you it would be a great idea, I don’t know how that’s going to turn out.”
“So, a writer really shouldn’t go into a book with the preconceived idea that they’re going to write, say, a trilogy?”
“If you go into it with a preconceived notion about how many books are going to be in a series, you’re either going to drastically undercount it or overcount it. It may sound like a terrific storyline and a character you want to spend six books with. But until you get into the trenches with that character, writing the pages, you won’t know. Writing the book is hard enough without thinking about having two more after this. Latitude and flexibility are your friends; being static, preconceived, inflexible, are your enemies when it comes to writing (and much in life, actually).”
“So, in terms of writing a series, how does that affect the plot bible? How do you make it something new and fresh rather than write the same book again?”
“I’ll give you an example. I did five Camel Club books. They’re an ensemble cast of conspiracy theorists. In the first book, I built five characters into that book, plus a secret service agent, and a couple of other peripheral characters who actually had some substance and weight. So, I had five sort of fascinating backstories that I could then lead into future books. Look at a series like Bridgerton. Bridgerton, the first season, was totally focused on the Duke and the Duchess, and the second season was on the younger, the oldest brother, the eldest brother. In the third season, you know it’s going to be someone else. You can do it that way and sort of highlight a new character of an ensemble group in future books.”
“That’s clever.”
“Another way, if I have one main character like an Amos Decker, or Will Robie, I give them a lot of baggage in their personal background that I can later exploit in future books. For example, Amos Decker suffers from hyperthymesia, perfect recall, and synesthesia because of brain trauma. It changed the way his brain operates. So, he has personal demons in every book. What I try to do with Decker is show his brain constantly transforming itself. In every book, he has to deal with something new happening in his own mind and own personality. Plus, I have new elements about how his mind works in every novel and a lot of personal baggage.”
(The Challenge of Keeping a Novel Series Fresh.)
“So, you basically set up the potential for a series, even if you don’t know if you’re going to write one? So those coming to Killer Nashville with a trilogy can make that happen?”
“If you were to start a book and you really wanted it to be a series, you have to sort of build up that stuff. Build up your powder in that first novel. It can be through backstories of one character, of multiple characters that you’re going to exploit in future books, or something about a physical or intellectual characteristic, or the people that he will meet on an ongoing basis because of the work he does. But do it judiciously. You don’t want to blow everything up in the first novel. Think about those things. I call them Easter eggs. You lay Easter eggs throughout a series of books to be resolved in future books. That’s the difference between writing a standalone and writing a series. Plant some things, foreshadow some things in earlier books that you know you can take advantage of in later books.”
“I know you’re not an outliner, so in terms of developing all of this baggage, is that something that comes organically? Or do you plot out the baggage this character is going to have?”
“I’ll give you an example with series character Amos Decker. The thing that fascinated me about Decker was that when you suffer traumatic brain injury, your brain can change tragically, but in some ways, your mental process can be facilitated, and it can grow ever stronger. The brain is an interesting organ. It often rewires itself and it accesses certain parts of the brain like memory that most of us never take full advantage of. I knew with Decker that would give me two things that I could exploit. One, a phenomenal memory, and he was going to be a detective. He can go into an event, into a crime scene, and see everything, layer upon layer, any inconsistency, either from forensics, from witness statements, from things he observes. He remembers everything and forgets nothing. So that, as well, would give him a fascinating backstory because, we all have things we’d rather forget, but he never can. They give the reader sympathy for him. I’m not saying, go out and create 20 different baggage plots for different characters. That can be too much. But, if you want to write a series, one or two can take you a long way if you fully exploit them.”
And Baldacci has. Check out his new standalone, Simply Lies, available for preorder now, and let’s see if a series follows.
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David Baldacci is a global #1 bestselling author with 150 million copies sold worldwide; his newest thriller, Simply Lies, will be published April 18, 2023. https://www.davidbaldacci.com/
