Do I Need a Series Arc?

A writer recently asked whether the series they were planning needed to include an arc, or if each book could stand alone without an overarching arc. While it’s not always necessary, I do think that executing a satisfying series arc can make the difference between a lackluster series and one that readers can’t wait to reread.

Many series need to have a series arc of some sort. You can see it in the well-known Harry Potter books, the Hunger Games trilogy, the many Rick Riordan series. Each book has its own plot and arc and answers its own questions, but there’s a larger issue of the series that isn’t resolved until the final book. The series arc can keep tension high even at the end of Book One or Book Two, and it can raise the stakes even beyond the plot questions of a single book. Fantasy especially uses series arcs to tell longer, more complex stories and to deepen the emotional resonance of each book on its own.

Each stone in this series arc is necessary to hold each other up!

But won’t my stories feel unsatisfying if each story doesn’t stand alone? Well, sort of. Each book should be a full installment in the story. But closing out most plot threads while leaving a large one hanging, just waiting to be tugged—like the ending of the first Hunger Games, that left readers dying to buy Catching Fire.

The Marissa Meyers’ Lunar Chronicles are a great example. Each separate story takes its own fairy tale and heroine and tells a complete story of their adventure, but they all connect and build to the last one, when they face the big threat to the universe together. Brandon Sanderson’s The Reckoners is another. (Spoiler alert coming.) The three books tell a story of tackling a different supervillain, and the one in the last book turns out to be the villain who created the others. So the arc of each story is vital to the arc of the series.

Series arc in Middle Grade

I do think it’s more common in MG to have a series without a series arc, especially in the past. I’m thinking of The Boxcar Children, Trixie Belden, the Magic Treehouse books,  etc., where we’re basically going with beloved characters to a new situation that doesn’t connect to a series arc. Sometimes young readers do love meeting the same character in similar situations. However, current market preferences do lean towards more of a series arc. For example, Jennifer Neilson’s The False Prince and Mark of the Thief trilogies have a series arc that connects each individual book. Same with Margaret Peterson Haddix’s The Missing series, where each book follows different missing children from history while still advancing the overall plot about who’s behind it.

Series Arc in Adult

Now, if we leave the YA and MG world behind, it can be different. Many romance series are truly standalones within a connected world, and there isn’t an overarching narrative plot, although there can be an overarching theme. For instance, Mary Balogh’s Survivors’ Club series is a set of standalone Regency romances among men who survived the war. Each of them is disabled in some way—blind, uses a wheelchair, mental illness, etc.—so there is a unifying theme that everyone, no matter how injured, can give and receive love. But there is no larger plot arc that the romances fit into. The Bridgerton books do the same thing with each of the children in the family, from A (Anthony) to G (Gregory).

I’d also argue that a lot of detective fiction or thriller series function this way. Kinsey Millhone (and the time period!) doesn’t change much in Sue Grafton’s series, and there isn’t a driving question that transcends each book. While there’s some spillover from previous books in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels, they stand alone.

Lots of thrillers or mystery series do include character change over the course of the series, like Diane Mott Davidson’s culinary mysteries where the caterer-detective falls in love, marries, and raises her son, but they tend not to have the kind of overarching series arc that a YA or MG series usually do.

A strong ending to a series can make or break the experience for readers. Endings are always important, but the ending of a series has more heft. One of my favorite feelings is reading the last installment in a killer series, gasping, and going back to reread Book One now that I know how everything ends.

Hire me as your editor and we’ll make sure your series shines! This post contains Amazon affiliate links.