Sequel or Series

Book one of my new series is finished, well apart from the editing bit, we’ll come to that in a couple of months. Now I turn my attention to the next novel, but there is a question I’ve never really asked myself. I knew I’d be writing a series, but is everything after the first story, a sequel, even if the series is already planned out? Hard to differentiate I know, unless there is a definition out there that separates the two, a definition I’ve not yet heard of.

Even though I’ve planned the series, there are many do’s and dont’s about writing a sequel, and I ignore all of them. Well, to be honest, I don’t really ignore the rules of sequential writing; I just don’t know them and don’t care. I’ve tried writing according to the unspoken rules of the literary world and in all honesty, I find it a bit too constricting. Doesn’t obeying the rules of conformity contradict the point of doing anything creative? When artists talk about the rules of perspective, do you think Picasso bothered to follow them? The famous saying, ‘rules were made to be broken’ isn’t necessarily true, but we can surely bend them to the limit and find out how far we can go?

So with book 1, we’ve set our stage. With book 2, we push the world to its edge and look over the carapace. By book 3, we’ve taken the step over. We are always trying new things, but that doesn’t mean not to try ones that others tried before. Just because it didn’t work for them, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Give it a go, and if it fails, either keep going until it works or try something else.

So many people are trying to copy a ‘proven’ formula for writing, but there’s no such thing. Tell me what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x