Who doesn’t love a good book series? If the first installment draws me in, I can’t help but continue on with the next book, and the next, revisiting characters that have become old friends, getting lost in their world and predicaments, and (in some cases) connecting with their themes. Which got me thinking: How do literary themes present themselves in a series? You can find the answers to that question, as well as what writers should consider when it comes to “serial themes,” at my latest Theme: A Story’s Soul article at DIY MFA.
Click here to read “How Literary Themes Present Themselves in a Book Series.”
As always, if you have any comments on the DIY MFA post, or if you have suggestions on theme-related articles you’d like to see in the future, feel free to share them here or at DIY MFA.
Sara Letourneau 
Good information on repeating themes in a series while letting each book have its own identity. I have a couple of people in my writing group who are writing series, so I find I’m always trying to learn more about series to offer as much help to them as I can.
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Thanks, Mandie! 🙂
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Great topic there. I wish it was available years ago when I was in college. Understanding the theme of a story was something I struggled with then and didn’t fully get until I started to blog. I loved that you used the Song of a Lioness books for examples.
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Thanks, Zezee! I’d actually been trying to find a way to bring a Song of the Lioness book into my theme articles for a while. So when I thought of the series article, it sounded like the perfect opportunity to use all of them as an example. 🙂
Theme is very tricky to recognize, I agree. It’s something that becomes more noticeable as you continue reading over time, and also when you write your own stories and start considering some of the themes that are emerging in your own work. I definitely notice themes when I read books now than, say, 5 or 10 years ago.
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