posted
I've finished my last novel (having people read it, revision, all that good stuff -- I'm satisfied with it), and I'm working on a sequel now. There were compelling ideas not fully explored in the first novel, and things I'm excited about doing in this one. Usually beginings are easy for me, but it's suddenly very hard. It feels like there's too much information to get across, too much to do, and I feel lost. Does anyone have some good suggestions/advice for writing a sequel?
Posts: 189 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Yeah. The problem is most likely that you're thinking of it as a sequel. Put that thought away for a bit. Let yourself remember the previous book just as background material that you've worked out for this new book. Give this book time to develop in your mind as a story in its own right. You've worked out the characters and some of their backstory, but you need to get comfortable thinking of them that way.
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
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No seriously, though, I have the same thing brewing in my head. I have left my story open for the return of the main villan, but it's going to wait until I finish "Olympus Uprising" and "Monolith's Arrival".
That will take oh about the next 6 months to do so at that time, I should have a better grip on the world of "Faya" and its characters and places.
So, in closing, give yourself some time and do other things. Let it all build up when the time comes so you can focus on that one piece. (Wait, shouldn't I be taking my own advice?????)
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Miriel, if you are worried about losing your excitement for the sequel while you wait, though, you could at least write up the parts that excite you, so you have them on paper. Don't worry that you are not writing down everything in the sequence in which it will be read. Just write down what does excite you, and it will be there for you when you are ready to write the rest.
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I have several novels that I can't work on right now. I outline them on index cards, color coded for story lines, then I wrap a rubber band around them and throw them into a drawer. When it's time to take them out, I find just looking through the index cards is enough to refresh my memory and rekindle any flame.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
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The answers to the first two don't really do more than determine the flavor of the sequel. are you developing a series or just multiple stories about the same people or subject?
The third question is the kicker, If you aren't into it, don't try to write it. If you dont know how to start, don't. Write the bits that you do know. When you have a beginning to write then thats when you write it.
Like K said above, just get what you can on paper. Everything you write has the potential to open more plotlines and expand the story forward and backward.
[This message has been edited by pantros (edited October 10, 2005).]
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Just to expand upon the idea of waiting to write the sequel...aside from just giving you a fresh start by letting this have time to stew, it may not be wise, from a publishing standpoint, to spend lots of time working on a sequel to a book that has not yet sold. Send the book around. Mention you've got a sequel in the works. Work on something completely different, but have a notebook handy where you can jot down thoughts for your sequel as they come to you.
As to general thoughts on how to write sequels, I'm wondering if the first was a stand-alone novel. (Meaning I could read it and not feel like I had to pick up the sequel because the story is not over.) If so, then the sequel must also be stand alone. When you write the beginning, you have to think of this as if no one read the previous book. You must pick a starting point that is exciting but at the same time doesn't dump too much in our laps.
Especially if this is the case, getting some distance between novels will be benefitial. You are probably thinking in terms of this novel starting after the end of the previous one. It would be easier if, instead, you thought of the previous novel as background, and not as a novel at all.
If the first book does set up a sequel by leaving several plot threads open that I'm going to want to have closed (such as your typical epic fantasy novel) then curse you! (j/k) Seriously, though, if that's the case then this really is being written after the end of the first novel and you can safely assume that the readers read the first book, so don' thave to repeat everything done there, although you should not assume they *remember* everything from the first book and you should remind them of critical details in subtle ways.
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Both of the books are stand-alone. I'm not a big fan of the never-ending-series, either. The sequel takes place two decades later, with the former MC's children. I'm 10,000 words into presently. I'm mostly having difficulty enacting the advice you gave: there is so much background history. How do I integrate it? How do I write a sequel without overwhealming a reader with an avalanche of backstory, or without confusing them by leaving too much out? I'm getting to the point where things need to be explained, and I'm beating my head against a brick wall. I haven't worked on the first novel for several months...so I'm uncertain if more time away from it would help. Maybe that would...I'm just very eager to be writing this story. I like my characters, I think there are compelling ideas, and I have a general plot worked out. But how do I make this novel a cohesive, stand-alone whole, and still complement the first novel?
Posts: 189 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
It's easy to bog a second novel down with exposition that isn't essential to the story being told.
My advice is to write book two without any reference to book one at all. Write it as a complete stand-alone from scratch as if book one never happened (just the way you wrote book one...).
That done, read it over and work out the minimum the reader who hasn't read book one needs to have added so they can understand book two. It may be less than you think.
If you really really have to write the backstory, do it as a separate work. Then, when you are ready to decide how much to include in the actual book, you can take what you need from the backstory you've already written.
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if it's only the start you are having probs with, can't you have a reference point of the first book which does not really matter if you have not read it. Sounds strange, but it means people can read it on it's own. How often have we been told of a series by someone and only found the second or third part. You only have to mention a charater or place contained in the first book. Those who have read it, will know what it's relating too, others won't care. As in, 'four years after the battle with the gritbugs, earth had recovered. The gritbugs had been destroyed, never to return and a time of peace was at hand.' or 'Cassias, who had destroyed the evil gritbugs that had plaughed earth for decades, was a hero at a loose end' type thing.
Posts: 13 | Registered: Sep 2005
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