In the past ten years or more, superhero movies seemed to have dominated the box office. We become invested in the characters who are in the movies and whose stories overlap. As the movies are hyped, we hear the term origin story. Most popular superheroes come from comic books, but if you haven’t read them, like me, you don’t know their origin stories, which are important in the development of character.

Some of the series of movies start with the inciting incident for the motivations of our heroes. In other cases, a hero might be part of the group, then becomes popular, so their origin story movie is released later. In all cases though, they have to start their journey somewhere.

This is a process I go through when I’m creating a new book series proposal. Generally, I plot four books per series. Knowing that, I need two different origins: the series itself and the hero and heroine of each book.

When I develop a series, I know it will span the four books. The origin story is in book one, the wrap up in book four. I’ll use my last series, The Golden Matchmakers Club, as an example.

I had already introduced a meddling grandmother before this series started. I loved her, so I wondered how much more trouble could she cause if she had a group of like-minded meddlers helping her. The Matchmakers were born.

Their origin story; to match as many single young people in the town of Golden as possible. Their grandchildren were moving out of the small town and the matchmakers decided that the way to increase the popularity of Golden as a tourist destination was to lead the couples to love so they would stay in town and make Golden flourish.

Over the course of the books, the matchmakers interfered quite successfully, since we had four couples get together and decide to stay in Golden. As for the wrap up, the couples were happy, two of the matchmakers fell in love and got married, so they were happy, and the readers who had followed the series to the end were happy to see that the original plan came together in the end.

Once I figured out the series origin, I now had four individual books to plot. Each hero and heroine will have their own origin story, the thing that causes issues in their lives. One of the things we love as readers is how an author will take two people who have wounds, put them together for a span of a book, and, in a romance, see how love heals and makes them better. By the end of each book, we have resolved their issues and the couple looks forward to a future together.

Let me say, this takes time and a lot of heavy thinking. People often ask me where I get my ideas from. Usually, snippets of potential stories are brewing below the surface, so I take those vague glimmers of a story idea and expand on them until I have a cohesive series. It’s challenging, but it’s also like a puzzle, taking the pieces and interlocking them to get a complete picture. It’s probably one of my favorite aspects of writing.

The next time you read a book, you’ll have a little insight into what goes into the process of creating a story. I’ve heard from readers that they love a series, the connected stories and characters. They want to know what’s happened with their favorite characters as the series moves on, and with the space of four books, I can deliver that. I suppose wanting to stay connected to the characters comes from the curiosity of readers. The imagination of the author makes that possible.

Tara Randel is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. Family values, a bit of mystery and of course, love and romance, are her favorite themes, because she believes love is the greatest gift of all. You can find out more about The Golden Matchmakers Club and her other books by visiting Tara at www.tararandel.com. Like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TaraRandelBooks. Sign up for Tara’s Newsletter.