Mette Ivie Harrison, Children's writer, triathlete, marathons, Ironman, training, fitness, workouts, The Princess and the Hound, Mira, Mirror, The Monster In Me, The Hound and the Bear, Young Adult Books, Fantasy, Romance, yoga


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Sequels Part 2 I had always thought that writing a sequel would be easier than writing a new, independent novel. I think that everyone who has not written a sequel themselves probably believes this. After all, you have the same characters, the same rules of magic, the same world. You just have to keep going with them. What's so hard about that? Well, now I know. For one thing, consistency is a major pain in the **. I noticed this when my daughter was reading the Harry Potter books over and over again. Even before she read them over and over again. She remembered every detail about magic and she noticed when it wasn't the same in the next book, and in the movies. She was really harsh about this, too. She could not understand how an author could make a mistake, even a tiny one. I think I remember when my brain used to hold details like that and not lose track of them. Maybe. But it doesn't now. (I tell all my kids that it's their fault, because now I have to keep track of all their details, as well as mine!) Another huge pain is that everyone is trying to second-guess what the readers "want," including the author. Did the readers like this* about the first book, and how to duplicate that in the second one. Maybe they didn't like that at all, but they liked this. Or maybe they did like it, but they want something else now, or they will get bored. They want the same thing, but different. If you choose the same pov, they will yell at you for changing him/her too much. But if you choose a different one, they won't like her/him as much. Oy! More problems: how much back story do you need to repeat in your novel? Now, regardless of whether you are choosing to write a sequel that stands alone or not, you still have to answer this question. You may assume that if it's the second book in a seven-book series with one huge arc, that no one will read it before reading book one. Yeah, well, probably not. But you never one. Plus, not all readers are going to be like my daughter. And it's been at least a year since your first book came out. So, guess what? People are going to forget stuff. So you have to remind them. Only you have to do it in a gentle, non-condescending way. No one likes to be treated like an idiot who can't remember anything (even if they can't, like me). An example of this problem is in the Harry Dresden books, which for the record I love, but please! If I have to read another description of how small, gorgeous, and rock-hard with muscle Murphy is, I am going to puke. I get it already. Yeah, I'm reading the series all in one gulp as it stands now, with 9 books. But don't other readers get tired of that? I don't know. An audience member at LTUE last week asked me how to avoid annoying readers this way. Heck if I know. There is no answer to a question like that. I wish there was a magic formula: exactly thirty words of information recapping plot, ten words for major characters, five word for minor ones. You as the author make the choice, and if you choose wrong, well, you annoy your readers. Hopefully not enough that they abandon you. I personally try to write it so that the reader never realizes that I'm giving old information, because there's always a new twist on it. But I'll have to wait and see. I will probably get readers who complain that I don't catch them up enough and they have to reread my old books (actually, this is my secret plan!). I think there are probably different rules for different genres, and it may be that detective books demand a bit more repeat and sf/f less. But if you're writing Harry Dresden, which audience do you write to? Or if it's THE PRINCESS AND THE BEAR, is it a YA audience, a romance audience, or a fantasy audience? Another sticky wicket is if you have a huge time gap between novels. Lots of writers do this in order to allow themselves space to create a semi-new world and characters, so that they don't get bored writing the book. But then they have to explain all the stuff that happened in between, to make the books fit together. That takes a lot of time. Yeah, it's pretty much the basic problem of how to do back story, and sf/f readers do expect you to just seamlessly throw it in and they catch up as they're running, but it takes a certain kind of brain to do that. One thing is for certain, I have a lot more respect for someone like Rowling now. And I had plenty of respect for her before. To keep writing books like that for so long, under so much pressure, knowing that everyone will be waiting for you to make a mistake--I think that takes more guts than I have. You can have all the editorial help in the world, but in the end, it falls on your head if there's a mistake. Return to home page

Sequels Part 2

I had always thought that writing a sequel would be easier than writing a new, independent novel. I think that everyone who has not written a sequel themselves probably believes this. After all, you have the same characters, the same rules of magic, the same world. You just have to keep going with them. What's so hard about that?

Well, now I know. For one thing, consistency is a major pain in the ***. I noticed this when my daughter was reading the Harry Potter books over and over again. Even before she read them over and over again. She remembered every detail about magic and she noticed when it wasn't the same in the next book, and in the movies. She was really harsh about this, too. She could not understand how an author could make a mistake, even a tiny one. I think I remember when my brain used to hold details like that and not lose track of them. Maybe. But it doesn't now. (I tell all my kids that it's their fault, because now I have to keep track of all their details, as well as mine!)

Another huge pain is that everyone is trying to second-guess what the readers "want," including the author. Did the readers like *this* about the first book, and how to duplicate that in the second one. Maybe they didn't like that at all, but they liked this. Or maybe they did like it, but they want something else now, or they will get bored. They want the same thing, but different. If you choose the same pov, they will yell at you for changing him/her too much. But if you choose a different one, they won't like her/him as much. Oy!

More problems: how much back story do you need to repeat in your novel? Now, regardless of whether you are choosing to write a sequel that stands alone or not, you still have to answer this question. You may assume that if it's the second book in a seven-book series with one huge arc, that no one will read it before reading book one. Yeah, well, probably not. But you never one. Plus, not all readers are going to be like my daughter. And it's been at least a year since your first book came out. So, guess what? People are going to forget stuff. So you have to remind them. Only you have to do it in a gentle, non-condescending way. No one likes to be treated like an idiot who can't remember anything (even if they can't, like me).

An example of this problem is in the Harry Dresden books, which for the record I love, but please! If I have to read another description of how small, gorgeous, and rock-hard with muscle Murphy is, I am going to puke. I get it already. Yeah, I'm reading the series all in one gulp as it stands now, with 9 books. But don't other readers get tired of that? I don't know. An audience member at LTUE last week asked me how to avoid annoying readers this way. Heck if I know. There is no answer to a question like that. I wish there was a magic formula: exactly thirty words of information recapping plot, ten words for major characters, five word for minor ones. You as the author make the choice, and if you choose wrong, well, you annoy your readers. Hopefully not enough that they abandon you.

I personally try to write it so that the reader never realizes that I'm giving old information, because there's always a new twist on it. But I'll have to wait and see. I will probably get readers who complain that I don't catch them up enough and they have to reread my old books (actually, this is my secret plan!). I think there are probably different rules for different genres, and it may be that detective books demand a bit more repeat and sf/f less. But if you're writing Harry Dresden, which audience do you write to? Or if it's THE PRINCESS AND THE BEAR, is it a YA audience, a romance audience, or a fantasy audience?

Another sticky wicket is if you have a huge time gap between novels. Lots of writers do this in order to allow themselves space to create a semi-new world and characters, so that they don't get bored writing the book. But then they have to explain all the stuff that happened in between, to make the books fit together. That takes a lot of time. Yeah, it's pretty much the basic problem of how to do back story, and sf/f readers do expect you to just seamlessly throw it in and they catch up as they're running, but it takes a certain kind of brain to do that.

One thing is for certain, I have a lot more respect for someone like Rowling now. And I had plenty of respect for her before. To keep writing books like that for so long, under so much pressure, knowing that everyone will be waiting for you to make a mistake--I think that takes more guts than I have. You can have all the editorial help in the world, but in the end, it falls on your head if there's a mistake.

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