Techniques For Writing Serial Characters

I know you've said it yourself.

He can't die. It's his series and it’s the first episode, or the twentieth.

It doesn't stop us from watching our favorite dramas or cop shows or reading the newest James Bond novel. A lot of what appeals to us is seeing the clever way they get out of it, or seeing if you can figure it out before they do. But for me, there is always that lack of tension around the main character. In my series The Invisible Society I have designed it to support a cast of rotating main characters. Honestly, at this early stage of it I haven't decided on who lives long term and dies as I like the composition process to let those things evolve naturally as part of the storytelling. But I am wide open to the death of major characters. Real death not comic book death where it's reversible.

However, not every writer does this nor should they. I am the biggest fan of personal style making an individual’s work unique to themselves. So when your main character's death is off the table, what are some good tactics to maintain a good dramatic tension?

Stop kidnapping girlfriends. There. I said it.

If I'm reading your story and the girlfriend gets kidnapped I feel safe in putting it down. I mean, I've read it already, many times. So have you.

But what your reader will flip out over is when your hero does the unthinkable. The warrior surrenders. The sleuth is utterly out of his element. The pious transgress. To set yourself apart from all the other hordes of voracious corpses and sexy vampires you have to have real inner conflict and a voice that expresses it. Both you and your hero have to defy expectation and be well outside your comfort zone. The harder you have to work as a writer, the longer you stare at that blinking cursor waiting for the words to fall out of your head in the perfect configuration the better it will be.  

William is originally from Ohio. After college at The Ohio State University Will has lived in San Francisco, Ca and Oakland, CA. After a brief pit stop back in Ohio William lived for a time in Clearwater, Florida and Denver Colorado. His interest in horror started at age 13 when seeing Don Coscarelli's Phantasm in his hometown theater for the first time. Later that year he had the bejesus scared out of himself reading The Amityville Horror. Although Roger Zelazney's Chronicles of Amber were the works that made him want to be a writer he has learned character development by reading Stephen King, learned to color outside the lines from reading Clive Barker and Glen Cook. After Slouching Towards Bethlehem" is over Will is starting on an ongoing novel series with a modern day gang war among sorcerers. If you've stopped by the profile stop and say Hi! I love meeting fans.

The link to William Tooker’s Amazon Author Page is: http://www.amazon.com/William-Tooker/e/B005NU588G/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid...