New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Estep continues her Write Your Own Cake series with an essay about creating and authoring a long book series. Estep is the author of more than 50 fantasy and science-fiction books, including the long-running Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series.

Writing a book is hard. But writing book after book with the same characters and settings? Well, that is even harder.

Whether you are penning epic fantasy adventures, pulse-pounding thrillers, or swoon-worthy romances, writing a book series comes with its own unique challenges. This essay offers some tips and tricks for setting up your initial worldbuilding and magic system in anticipation of writing multiple books in the same series. It also offers suggestions on characters, tropes, and more that can help keep an ongoing book series fresh and interesting for both authors and readers.

Note: Write Your Own Cake: Tips for Writing a Long Series is a 2,100-word essay about writing and worldbuilding.