Sequel Writing

[mmerriam]

This is something new for me. I've never written a sequel before (and am still a bit concerned that I'm writing the sequel to a novel I haven't sold yet).

It seems the vampire novel I was poking at earlier is really the second book in the Monster-Hunting Barista series of novels (remember: I said it was the most commercial novel I had written). On the one hand, this is not unexpected. I knew when I finished Dead Brew I would probably be writing more novels featuring Sharisha Zajicova. I didn't expect to be jumping into the next one right away, but you write the thing you've got.

Which means I'm learning a new skill: recapping the incidents in the previous novel. I need to do this so that when they sell, readers won't be totally out to sea if they accidentally pick up the second book first. But it has to be subtle, concise, and small enough not to annoy anyone who read the first book. All that those readers would need is small refresher.

This writing gig really is a never-ending quest to learn the next valuable skill-set to add to your toolbox.

Comments

[tiny-wings.livejournal.com]

It may sound like funny advice, but I thought JK Rowling was really good at doing that, so go read your HP books :-P Remember how she'd mention a character, then describe, in one little sentence, something they had done in the past that was relevant to the current situation? It's short and it's relevant, so it's not obtrusive or annoying for readers who are familiar with the story, and it's enough for the reader who's been a while between books or the reader who is new to the series.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I think that is really good advice. I've sorted out what information needs to be carried over and have it as one 260 word block of text from Sharisha's POV, but I'm planning to scatter that info out as the pertinent characters come on stage in short, one and two sentence bits.