A couple days ago, my agent —
Brief aside here. I’m still in that transition phase where, whenever I use the phrase “my agent,” my mind pauses for a few seconds to check if I’m actually allowed to say that. Then, once I realize the answer is Yes, I have to do a little mental dance of glee before my brain actually lets me focus on whatever I was saying/writing before. (It’s a mental dance because I don’t want to freak out my coworkers)
It’s kinda like when your significant other goes from being a girlfriend to fiancé to wife. Each time requires a vocabulary shift, and the neuron connections aren’t quite crossing the gap.
So, yes…what was I talking about? Sequels. Right.
When I first decided to pursue being an author, I wondered if I could actually write a whole novel. After I hit that milestone and proved it wasn’t beyond me, then I had the thought of: “Hey, almost every fantasy/sci-fi author out there has trilogies and such on the shelves. I wonder if I could manage three books in a row?” Picking up from the end of the first novel, I then proceeded to bash out two sequels. While these manuscripts will likely never see the light of day, it was a good experiment, a way to show myself I could do these things. That I could go through an entire story without getting stuck on rewriting the first three chapters over and over.
Since then, however, I haven’t attempted any further sequels. I figured until I got an agent and sold a first book, it wouldn’t be the wisest use of my time to worry about drafting out an entire series.
So my…agent (twitch) emailed the other day asking if I could write up a page synopsis of a sequel for the novel we’re getting ready to shop around. It was another one of those moments where the situation become a bit more real to me. I realized, “Oh, right. Whenever this first book gets sold, the publisher might (hopefully) want more than one novel from me. Which means I need to be ready to deliver one.”
Fortunately, while I haven’t written sequels for prior manuscripts, it doesn’t mean I stopped thinking about them, jotting down ideas or putting in subplots or characters that could be developed in further installments. I had a working title for the sequel, plus a general concept of what the plot would be about, so I sat down and pulled up my notes from the first story. Then I sifted through these, seeing what ideas I originally had that never got used, worldbuilding aspects I hadn’t touched on, characters that never got a scene, etc. From there, it was surprisingly easy to flesh out my fledgling concept into a full page, detailing the main plot from beginning to end, which I then sent on to Scott. Not only that, but I could already see how events in the second book would lead into a third.
Thus a sequel, and potential series, is born. Now I just have to write the thing. Part of me is excited, because I can look back at my earlier years and say, “I did it then, I can certainly do it now.” Another part of me is cautious because I know a lot of pitfalls are waiting in second novels. There’s even something known as the Second Novel Curse. New challenges pop up, such as figuring out how to reintroduce readers to the world, explain events from the first book, or just dealing with the pressure of living up to the expectations the first book sets.
At the same time, some things will be easier. I won’t have to spend as much time in my worldbuilding phase because a lot of that is already done. I know my main characters and won’t have to spend half the novel figuring out their motives and personalities. And overall, I’m looking forward to plunging back into their world and seeing what new adventures are waiting.
A point to all this? Not a terribly focused one. Just taking a moment to pause and look around, get my bearings before marching onward. Words done need be writ.