Writing the Next Chapter: An Adventure Into Book #2

Oh, the headache! Writing a sequel isn’t as easy as I thought it’d be.

 

Crazy, right? Book #1 just got published on the 1st of March, and I juuuuust finished two and 1/2 chapters of book 2. And you know what? It’s freakin’ hard!

The first book is special – you’re doing everything for the first time, finding your style, your grove, your writing schedule… everything is new. With the second book, it’s the same thing, only… not. Does that make sense? Kind of? I’ll elaborate.

With the first book, it took me FOREVER to plan it out. I was creating an entire world, with it’s own laws and rules and (in some cases) physics, even. I had to create whole, entire people, give them histories and motivations, personalities…. favorite foods. >_> I had to start from scratch. There was a TON of planning involved. Even after it was finished, I had to find an appropriate cover artist, and figure out formatting and channels, and whether or not I wanted to take advantage of KDP-Select.

Not to mention I had to, you know, build an author base and junk. (Tweet me!)

With a sequel, I don’t have to do as much work. I’m not baking from scratch with this one, I’m using a mold. Which is, as I said, less work but in some ways more difficult. I don’t want my supporting characters suddenly acting or sounding differently. Lucy can’t suddenly be mopy and stoic. I have to keep the plot threads continued, and everything too.

All of that said, I -did- manage to get book #2 outlined and fleshed out in a couple of weeks. Not bad, if I do say so myself. It’s still giving me a headache though… Mostly with the beginning, but this is was first drafts are for, right? Right. It’ll all shape up nicely in the final draft. I hope.

Anyway, my point is this: sequels are not like the original! It’s another new adventure, but I’m hoping I’ll get this down to a science in no time.

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