H,F & S

So how do you go about writing a sequel? ‘With heart, faith and steel.’ Ok, I admit it, I stole that line from Highlander. Bless you Juan Sánchez VillaLobos Ramírez. So, after finishing Havoc, book one, how did I move on to Blast - book two? 

At first it seemed a hefty task to undertake, having spent so long in the story line of Havoc. But I was unwilling to let my characters just dwindle off into space unused. I’d spent too much time and effort crafting them to let go now. I’d always had it buried in the back of my mind that their story would be multi-episodic. But as to which and how many I would carry over to the next project I didn’t know. 

It was sometime ago that I traced a path for the assembled characters to navigate future books. In doing so, I started to get a feeling for how the world would evolve. I wanted to give each story a very unique feel, while seating each story firmly in my universe. I looked back at what I love and like, endeavouring to create plans for some interesting tales. There are certain genres that I am attracted to. I wanted to see how my characters would react in a certain number of them. Now, with the rough series-plan in place, I knew what type of story book two was going to be. Then I spent a long time researching ideas. These I boiled down to a few choices. I spent three days writing out scenes on post-it notes and sticking them to the wall. Every now and then I would change the order or insert new notes into the timeline. Eventually I arrived at an order I was happy with. 

For every new book I have a master note pad where I write, in detail, the plan of the story. This then goes through a couple of re-drafts, honing the ideas down into a selection of chapter headings and the scenes to take place. Well, that’s how I like to think it went. It certainly went like that for book one. But that was the problem you see. Book one got in the way of book two. I stopped development work on book two as the launch date for book one approached. This meant when I went back to book two I looked on it with almost new eyes. I didn’t like the beginning. It was too complex and fiddly. I decided that several chapters needed reworking and another couple needed reordering.

Anyway, as you can see, the birthing pains of book two have been a little bit more than was initially expected, but enjoyable all the same. Every time I go through the process it changes a little as I learn. It still surprises me how much fun this hard work really is. How does the saying go - ‘Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day again,’ or something like that. True words though.