Sequel Questions

[G J Lau]

Originally Posted by TrineDaely

You don't have to involve all the originals, again something mentioned in passing about what they're doing elsewhere would clear them with the reader. i.e. "It would have been nice to have so-and-so's input on this since they're whatever expert, but so-and-so is busy doing something or other in this other place, so I guess I'll have to make do."

Very true. I really do need to find some text books on basic plot structure. That said, the first novel is very character driven (at least I see it that way), so I really want to keep the relationships developing along the lines i have hinted at. Just seems to me it will be more of a challenge if the lead character is out of town for extended periods.

Robert B. Parker was good at this with the device of phone calls between Spencer and Susan. Probably what i will do.

[crich70]

And what you're doing when you have something before the 1st story chapter that sets things up is writing a prologue for the book. At least that's how I understand it. Maybe a character is dreaming about what happened in the past so little clips of the content of book 1 could be shown, sort of a short form of the 1st book's story.

[dworth]

Writing sequels:

1) Consistency within the world. This is much harder to do with sci-fi fantasy where you're making everything up and it's harder to remember what you called something the first time. Make sure you have notes to refer back to.

2) A character's 'voice' is unlikely to change unless a considerable amount of time has passed between the books, or something very drastic has happened to them in between. POV change is acceptable of course. The focus of the book can change. Indeed many authors write books set within the same fictional universe but use completely different characters each time, so that you can appreciate some of them as standalone books.

3) If things are unresolved from Book One, don't overburden the second book with too many new development, it will start to collapse under it's own weight.

4) Make sure it's clear both in the title and the cover blurb that this is Book Two or 'The Second Book by'. You could even go back and rename the first one as Book One of the whatever series is called to make it even clearer. You'd be surprised how many full commercial releases fail to do this, resulting in the need to get hold of a physical copy of the one of the author's books and look at the publication order in the 'Also by:' bit.

[TrineDaely]

Originally Posted by G J Lau

Very true. I really do need to find some text books on basic plot structure. That said, the first novel is very character driven (at least I see it that way), so I really want to keep the relationships developing along the lines i have hinted at. Just seems to me it will be more of a challenge if the lead character is out of town for extended periods.

Robert B. Parker was good at this with the device of phone calls between Spencer and Susan. Probably what i will do.

Then he'll be meeting all kinds of new characters, too. Another way to strength previous characters you want to keep around would be to give them a side book of their own and cameos in the main series.

[G J Lau]

Originally Posted by TrineDaely

Then he'll be meeting all kinds of new characters, too. Another way to strength previous characters you want to keep around would be to give them a side book of their own and cameos in the main series.

Maybe some short stories to provide a different angle of approach to the characters. For now, I intend to take one of the characters and involve her in a subplot that will fill in some of her back story.

I think I have gotten a lot of very good ideas from this thread, and I am now quite confident that the answers will come when I need them. This is without a doubt the best forum I have participated in.