Jennifer Crusie, a well-known romance author, recently posted on her blog about how over time people change, and for writers, that change can bring some unexpected career consequences. In her case, she's been "branded" as an author who writes romantic comedies. Readers expect this from her, so when she decides to go off-brand and write something different, those same readers get a little upset because they've come to associate her name with well-written romantic comedies.

Even before I launched my fiction writing career, I read a lot of people's thoughts on how best to be a successful writer. The one thing I kept hearing, over and over again, is that a new writer should write one series and stick with it, delivering a well-written novel set in the same story world on a consistent and timely basis.

The problem is, I know myself better than to try that. Frankly, I get bored writing in the same story world month after month. I like revisiting those worlds, sure, so it's not writing in a series that's the problem. It's more that my mind needs a break. Writing multiple series allows me to have the best of both worlds. I can deliver stories in a series on a regular basis, but my writer's mind gets the rest it needs by working somewhere else for a while. Right now, I'm actively working on two series (Daughters of the People and Witches of Cullowhee) and have a third planned to write and release later this year, with other series planned as I have time to write them and/or when I complete already-started series.

That brings me to the other reason I write multiple series: I have more ideas walking through my head than I will ever get to, and it's a shame to have to discard those simply to focus on one story world. For future stories, I'm deciding between focusing on a separate series related to the WoC novellas or doing something completely different. Both ideas have been developed enough that I know they're viable. Deciding between the two might be hard. I've got a single title novel running around in my head. It's been there for a couple of years and I'm really excited about the story, so why not find time to write it? And so on. If I floated all my ideas by y'all, your collective head would spin.

I know I've discussed these story worlds before, dropping a little more information with each pass I make, but with this post, the focus is a little different. It's more of a warning that while I fully intend to deliver quality stories on a regular basis, I'm not going to pigeonhole myself into one sub-genre or use one tone for all my stories. This is a plus for readers, who get fresh characters and voices while I slowly work through the story ideas I've accumulated over a lifetime.