Guest Post by Anna Staniszewski!

I'm super excited to welcome Anna Staniszewski back to the blog to celebrate her new book THE PRANK LIST (available from Sourcebooks July 1)!

Anna has once again put together a wonderful guest post. Take it away, Anna!

Keeping Your Protagonists Distinct

 The great thing about writing multiple series is that you get to explore different main characters’ stories. The bad thing about writing multiple series is that sometimes you wind up having to jump back and forth between projects, meaning that the protagonists’ voices can get a little muddled. Here are a few tricks I use to keep my characters distinct from one another:

1. Give characters unique voices and quirks. I try to give my protagonists specific ways of speaking, unusual habits, etc. that are integral to their characters. Jenny from my UnFairy Tale Life series, for example, is a total go-getter whereas Rachel from the Dirt Diary series is much more reserved and cautious. Both characters have wacky senses of humor, but they come across in different ways.

2. Dig into your characters’ motivations. If you know what’s driving your characters, then it will be easier to keep their stories distinct. If both of your characters want to be accepted, for example, then your stories might feel too similar.

3. Make your characters’ actions/reactions unique. If you locked two of your main characters in the same room, they should be drawn to different elements of the room and use different tactics to try to escape. If their actions/reaction are too similar, that’s a sign that you have more work to do.

4. Don’t make your characters too much like you. It’s inevitable that your characters will be like you in some ways, but make sure that different characters are reflecting different elements of your personality. Jenny, for example, is the kind of girl I wish I could have been in middle school whereas Rachel is an exaggeration of the insecure person I was back then.

5. Create an unexpected supporting cast. Your secondary characters should also be distinct in each book so that they can bring out interesting and unique elements in your protagonist. Filling your story with a variety of minor characters will also help ensure that your stories don’t feel repetitive.

Still not sure if your characters are distinct enough? Try putting them in a scene together! I did this with Jenny and Rachel in order to make sure that I hadn’t accidentally recycled a character. I purposely wrote a scene without any dialogue tags so that it forced the two characters’ voices to be identifiable on their own, and I made sure that the girls’ actions, motivations, and attitudes were completely different.

How do you keep your protagonists distinct from one another?

About Anna:

Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna Staniszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. Currently, she lives outside Boston with her husband and their crazy dog. When she’s not writing, Anna spends her time reading, daydreaming, and challenging unicorns to games of hopscotch. She is the author of the My Very UnFairy Tale Life series and the Dirt Diary series. Her newest book, The Prank List, releases on July 1st from Sourcebooks. You can visit Anna at www.annastan.com.

Guest Post: Anna Stanizewski on Writing a Series

I am so excited to welcome Anna Stanizewski back to the blog for the launch of the third book in her My Very UnFairy Tale Life series! Take it away, Anna!

The Process of Writing a Series

I used to think writing a series meant that you knew what happened from the very first page to the very last page. Then I actually wrote a series and I had to guffaw at this gross misconception. Of course, there are authors who plan books out in detail, but I think for most of us, the process is a mix of planning and flailing in the dark.

When my agent sold My Very UnFairy Tale Life, we pitched it as a standalone novel with series potential. That meant that while I was revising the book with my editor, the back of my brain was working on ways to keep the story going if the time came. Luckily, the time did come! 

Right before the first book was published, my editor asked for summaries of possible follow-up books. I quickly got to work and wrote up summaries of two sequels that mapped out a larger story arc throughout the three books while also creating smaller story arcs within each book.

I was beyond thrilled when my publisher bought the sequels and I could get to work actually writing the novels. As I went along, I was surprised to discover that the larger story arc (Jenny’s search for her parents) was easier to figure out than the individual arcs in each book.

Now that the last book in the series, My Sort of Fairy Tale Ending, is almost out, and the first book in my next series is on the horizon, I feel like I have a stronger grasp of how my process of writing a series works. I think I’ve gotten better at planning things out in advance, but honestly, there’s still a lot of flailing in the dark. I think that’s just par for the course.

Bio:

Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna Stanszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. She was named the 2006-2007 Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the 2009 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. Currently, Anna lives outside of Boston with her husband and their black Labrador, Emma.

When she’s not writing, Anna spends her time teaching, reading, and challenging unicorns to games of hopscotch. She is the author of My Very UnFairy Tale Life and its sequels, My Epic Fairy Tale Fail and My Sort of Fairy Tale Ending, all published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky. Look for the first book in Anna’s next tween series, The Dirt Diary, in January 2014, and visit her at www.annastan.com.