5 Types of Book Series and Serial Literary Terms
- M.L. Bull
- Jan 17
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 16
Creating an entire book series is a creative pursuit that can be both daunting and exciting for writers and a helpful way for authors to build their reading community around their writing and books. If you're a writer that have written standalone novels and would like to attempt completing a book series, you might find interest in this blog post. One of the great pleasures of writing a book series is the different ways that writers can do them. But before you dive in and begin, let's go over five types of book series and some serial literary terms that are good to know and can help prepare you when taking on this big writing task. 🔍
5 TYPES OF BOOK SERIES
There are five different types of book series that writers can choose from when writing their own book series. These include static, dynamic, episodic, anthology, and epistolary.
STATIC
A static book series consists of the same characters, but each book has its own plot to be solved. This type is usually mystery or thriller series, such as the Murder She Wrote or Jack Reacher series.
DYNAMIC
A dynamic book series consists of the same characters throughout a series who try to accomplish a main goal across a large, narrative arc that connects all the books. In this type of series, characters are also known to develop and change over the storyline as well with positive or negative character arcs rather than staying the same as some sleuth characters do. Hence, the term dynamic for the book series.
EPISODIC
An episodic book series is made up of episodes, each book having its own standalone story, but the same characters and taken place in the same story world. Within this series, each book can be thought of as an episode for a broad TV show series. Some medical or police drama books are episodic series. Like static series, these books can be read in any order.
ANTHOLOGY
An anthology series consists of each book having different characters and standalone stories within the book series, but all the books share a common theme, setting, or universe.
EPISTOLARY
An epistolary series consists of a collection of books that are written in the form of diaries, journals, documents, or letters by a narrative character or between two or more characters. One well-known epistolary series is the Princess Diaries series.
2 TYPES OF BOOK SERIES READING
When it comes to reading a book series, there are two different types of reading which includes chronological and standalone. Chronological series are books that must be read in order to understand the whole storyline of the series. Whereas a standalone series are a collection of books in which each book has its own complete story, allowing reading to read this type of series out of order. For example, a first-time reader may read book five in a standalone series instead of starting from book one. Many static series, such as mystery or thriller series like Murder She Wrote and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple series are like this because of having the same characters, but a different plot in each book.
SERIAL LITERARY TERMS
If there is anything that can make completing a book series difficult is the plotting and making sure everything flows in a cohesive storyline that connects all of the books. If done incorrectly or not efficiently readers will be sure to notice, which is why I advise all writers to keep track of their story information in a series or story bible whether manually or in a document or software program on their computer, as it can be easy to forget things with a large cast of characters, a collection of settings, and a long list of connect-the-dot plot points to memorize offhand. You don't want to write a particular character has brown eyes when actually their eyes are blue in your series bible. Consistency is key and matters when writing a book series, especially when it comes to the story world and knowing what happens and when.
For a book series, there are two main different types of arcs. These include complex arc and long arc. Complex Arcs consists of one main storyline for the series with each book also having its own sub stories or sub plots to be solved. This is how the trilogy is setup for my Hallelujah Praise series. All three books connect by a main storyline (about the church) while each of the books also have their own sub plot (a sub story of each of the three daughters). This type of series arc can be used for a trilogy or (three books) but can also be used for series with more than three books.
Long Arcs consists of a main storyline that continues between all the books with each book ending with a cliffhanger. Some fantasy or science fiction books are known to be like this. You can see an examples of the setup for long arcs in the diagrams below.
Now that I've gone over types of book series and the different types of reading, let's check out some helpful terms useful when writing a book series. Firstly, within a book series, books are often called installments. Installments are numbered books within a series. For example, book one, book two, book three, and so forth. A series of books consists of an overarching arc, such as the above examples of the complex or long arcs. An overarching arc is a story arc that connects all of the books within a series. A storyline is the setup of a story's plot in a book or book series. Storylines include the beginning, middle, and ending and all the major stages, plot points, and story threads that must be reached to make a story or series whole and complete. Some book series also have cliffhangers, but not all of them. Cliffhangers are open endings to a book that's meant to lead into another book. These can help hook readers to a book series, influencing them to want to find out what happens next.
Okay, now, let's count some numbers.
NUMBERS OF BOOKS IN A SERIES
There are many different numbers of books in a series as authors can have as many books in a series as they would like, but I'll just be going over the first ten below.
A duology = 2 books in a series. An example of this type of series are fantasy author Kim Chance's Keeper and Seeker books which are a duology shown below.
A trilogy = 3 books in a series. My Hallelujah Praise series is an example of a trilogy, as each book is about one of the three daughters of Pastor Isaiah Johnson in the series. The first book focuses on a sub story of the youngest daughter (Denice), the second book focuses on a sub story of the middle daughter (Chandra), and the third book focuses on a sub story of the eldest daughter (Genesis), while also a main storyline threading all the books together.
Christan and inspirational author Stacy Hawkins Adams Winds of Change series is also another example of a trilogy series.
A tetralogy = 4 books in a series. Christian and Inspirational author Karen Kingsbury's Sunrise series is a perfect example of a tetralogy.
A pentalogy = 5 books in a series. Some of Karen Kingsbury's earlier books of her Baxter family series are like this, such as The Redemption and Firstborn Collections shown below.
OTHER NUMBERED BOOKS
A hexalogy = 6 books in a series
A heptalogy = 7 books in a series
An octology = 8 books in a series
An ennealogy = 9 books in a series
And a decology is 10 books in a series.
CLOSING REMARKS
Completing a book series can be a lot of fun while writing about the same characters in different thrilling adventures and emotional storylines and make an author a standout in the book industry, create a long-lasting legacy, and led to marketing audiobooks or even pitch a TV series or movie based on the books, if an author chooses to and their series becomes successful and a favorite among readers. But it also takes a lot of hard work, strategy, patience, discipline, and dedication. Nonetheless, when writers know the setup of plot, story elements, and serial literary terms and how to use and combine them, it gives them a fighting chance to writing a memorable book series that readers will love and enjoy. All right, that's the end of this post. If you found it informative and helpful, please, give it a (heart❤️), take part in the poll 🤔, and share your thoughts or comments 💬 below.)
Happy Writing!
🤔Hey, writers, have you written an entire books series?
👍Yes, and it's published or about to be published...
👎No, not quite yet, but I'd like to or it's almost done...
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