EUOLogy #20: Sequel Blues

[Fellfrosch]

Read it here: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=1032

Writing is a sequel is dang hard. I couldn't even plot the sequel to my first book, let alone write it.

Of note, I would say that with recent comicbook movies, sequels are almost invariably better than the first movies. This is because (in my opinion) the movies focus more on characters than on plots, and tend to have so many main characters that it takes a whole movie to introduce them. The second is free to build on the foundation of the first, but without the baggage of continuing an established story arc. Too bad most books don't work that way.

[Skar]

And why don't they?  Hmmmm?

[Entsuropi]

Because Spriggæn cannot program properly!

[Jelly_Belly]

I can't honestly say I've never worked on a sequel, but I think that all the middle HP books so far have been pretty good. I think the best thing is to have a concrete idea of how long you want the series to be and what you want to include in each book. The hardest I think would be to write a novel without any plan of a sequel, have it do very well, and then have the publishers ask for a sequel. That would be hard if you hadn't planned on it from the beginning and these are the ones that usually aren't that great (this goes for movies as well). If it's in the ultimate plan then it's okay, but if you plan on a stand alone, stick to it. Also, at least you can count on fans who liked the first book to buy it just on that basis alone (RJ did it for like 20 books, so it should be no problem to do it for three--esp. with a strong first and third novel).

[GreenMonsta]

i could only imagine the difficulty

[Reaves]

actually i have the opposite experience with movie sequels; to me, they focus far too much on the characters to the neglection of the plot. I am not sure if that means i am a shallow, 15-sec-attention-span american kid who needs to watch action movies or what.