: Re: Can I use the same message over a series of novels? This question is slightly less straightforward than the title implies, and requires a little explanation. Firstly, I am an entirely self-taught

@Bryan361

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I would say yes!

I tend to think of message as a truth confronted by one or several lies.

In my current work, I have the truth "people have a value regardless of their usefulness". It can be confronted by lies such as "strong people are better than weak people," or "smart people are better than dumb people," or "successful people are better than unsuccessful people."

That's three different stories just there.

Then you can think location. It's one story if it's taking place in a prison. Another if it's taking place in a law firm, and a third if it takes place in the wilderness.

How about adding time period? What if it took place in the middle ages? Or during the colonization of the wild west? Or during the 2nd world war? Or far into the future?

That, by the way, makes me think of "Cloud Atlas," which could be considered six different stories (or was it 5?) with the same message/theme in one book.

You may need to put some extra effort into other elements of the story, and your message might need to be a universal one, but I don't see how you would not be able to use it in more than one book.

Now, if you're writing a series, your protagonist might be battling against his lie for more than one book, meaning you're conveying the same message in several books... you're taking a bit more time and using a bit more details/events/locations/characters to do it.

You may also have your protagonist defeat his lie in the first book (following a positive arc) and then trying to convince others of the truth in successive books (where the protagonist would follow a flat arc).

This kind of setup is helped by increasingly powerful antagonists through the books, making the hero's would-be sidekicks and helpers risk more and more when embracing the truth.

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