Karen Rose began her career as an engineer but quickly became a writer to get the scenes she was imagining all day in the labs on paper. Now she has been writing for over twenty years and has published twenty-five novels. How did she become so prolific? She would often write multiple series at one time! Her tips, process, and insight on writing multiple storylines at once provide comfort to all other writers with busy minds and fast fingers ready to get cracking on their next new idea.

Cheater by Karen Rose

The second book in Rose’s San Diego Case Files, series follows detective Kit McKittrick trying to solve a murder at Shady Oaks Retirement Village, where the residents have more secrets than Kit could have thought possible. Forced, once again, to work with psychologist, Dr. Sam Reeves as his connections at Shady Oaks prove vital to Kit’s investigation, Kit has to puzzle piece this case together while trying to ignore the beating in her chest that is caused more by a certain psychologist than the thrill of finding and locking up the dangerous criminal lurking in Shady Oaks.

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Guest post by Karen Rose

For many years I wrote one thriller series at a time.  I now call these books my “City Series” as they take place in various cities and tell the stories of a group of family/friends/coworkers.  All the characters appear in the others’ stories and it’s a lot of fun!  I tell the stories of the main characters—one couple per story—then move on to a new city.  My current city series is about a private investigation firm in New Orleans.  Among past cities have been Sacramento, Baltimore, and Cincinnati.  These characters continue to live in my mind.

A few years ago, I got the urge to write something a little bit different—a series in which I follow the same couple as they solve homicides. Cheater, my recent release, is book two in the San Diego series.  Cold Blooded Liar is the first book, which introduces Kit McKittrick, a homicide detective with San Diego PD, and Dr. Sam Reeves, a psychologist.  Their romance is a slow burn, spanning multiple books, and I’m loving it!  Each story seems to add a few more secondary characters and knowing that they’ll be there when I come back to the next story is sweet.

I’m lucky enough to be able to write both series!

It is more work, however.  I’m now writing twice as many books, which means twice as much editing, revising, et cetera.  For reference, the stages of a book go something like this:

Idea/Plotting/Proposal.  This is usually done a few months before I start writing.

Writing the first draft.  I’m a binge writer, so when I start, I block everything out—all appointments and commitments—and write twelve-plus hours every day until the book is done.  I wish I were a steady nine-to-five writer, but I’m not.  My brain just whips the story out without stopping and I have to type fast enough to keep up.  This process averages one to three months, depending on the book.  Some are gifts, easier than others.  Some take a little more persuasion to call forth, LOL.

Revisions.  This happens after my editors have read the book and given me all the things that need to be fixed/changed/clarified.  This can happen one to two months after I’ve turned in the first draft and, depending on the scope of the required revisions, can take a month or so for me to do.

Copyedits.  The approved, revised book is sent off to a copy editor, who looks for errors of all kinds—spelling, grammar, logistics (he had a black car and now it’s red), logic (this doesn’t make sense based on earlier events), et cetera.  The copyeditor can take several weeks to complete this task and then it comes to me, where I fix issues and address the copyeditor’s queries.  This usually takes me two to three weeks.

Page Proofs.  Once the copyeditor’s concerns are addressed, the book goes to production to be typeset and is returned to me in the form of “galleys.”  It’s a PDF and looks like the finished book.  This is the point where we search for any missing words or glaring errors.  Again, the typesetting can take several weeks and I’m usually given two to three weeks to go over it.

Then the book is done!

There are other ongoing responsibilities, like social media and announcements, of course.  Then four times a year I do promotional work for the book that is about to release, for both hardcovers and the paperbacks that follow.

Juggling two series requires utilizing those empty spaces between steps for the other book that’s in progress.  I keep a schedule of everything that needs to be done so that I know what’s coming next.  It’s been working pretty well!  I’ll finish writing a draft of one book, then turn around and do copyedits on the one that came before.  I’ll be thinking about the next book, so when it’s time to write that proposal, I’ll usually sit down with my plotting group and plan the characters and main plot points.

I basically have three books cooking in my brain at all times—the one that I’m currently writing, the one that I’m revising/editing and the one that will come next.

Honestly, the hardest part is when it’s release time.  I have to push the three in-progress books aside and remember the one I wrote at least a year before.  I’ve usually already written the next book in the series by the time I start talking to readers about the book that’s releasing, so I have to guard my tongue.  “No, Karen, you can’t get excited about that because it’s in the next book and you’re giving away spoilers!”  If I’m doing a Facebook Live event and I pause, it’s probably because I’m thinking, “What details are in this released book and which are for future books?”

The next hardest part is telling the characters in my head to hush up and be still so that I can switch gears and focus on the other book.  So far, it’s not been a problem.  I fall back into the world of the characters pretty easily.  But I must focus on the characters to do this.  It always starts and ends with the characters and the rest of the process is just the details.  I’ve fallen in love with the characters in my city series and in the San Diego books, so falling back into their world is more pleasure than work.

For me, the secret to producing multiple series every year is in the organization and planning.  I also have help—extra sets of eyes to read the book at each step and to help me find the errors.  I’ve been working with most of my support folks for years and we’re in synch with what has to be done and how to best communicate.  The devil is always in the details and staying on top of those helps keep me from getting frustrated and keeps me from falling behind.

Of course, life happens and schedules must be adjusted.  People get sick or hurt or sometimes even move cross-country (we did this last year and are still recovering!).  There’s less of a cushion for those adjustments with two series than there was with one, so again, the planning and organization is crucial.  I have writer friends who write three and four series a year, so I have good role models.  It can be done!