Comments on: On the Writing of Sequels

By: Erica Ferencik

Erica Ferencik — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:25:08 +0000

Dear David:
I write in a comPLETELY different genre (comic novel), but am facing all the dilemnas of writing a sequel (including giant piranha-neck biting duels) you describe above. I haven’t solved any of the problems yet but thanks for laying everything out as you have. It’s helped me at least go from panic to step by step levels of increasing anxiety.
Best
Erica Ferencik

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:13:34 +0000

Margaret: Well, yeah, I was aware that Tolkien wanted to publish one big book. His other favored option was to publish it in six parts (which Houghton Mifflin finally did a few years back in a limited edition).

It probably would be easier to write a sequel before the first is out. Problem is, some of us (cough, cough: me) can’t write that fast.

By: Margaret Garside

Margaret Garside — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:51:18 +0000

Hey, Mr. Edelman.

‘The Two Towers’ isn’t really a sequel. (many people think it is) Tolkien wrote one eleven-hundred page novel and then sulked when the publisher decided to put it out in thirds. (Although it made things much easier for Peter Jackson)

I agree that many sequels aren’t necessary. But the first book/movie made money, so let’s have another go.

You know, it might be easier to write a second or third installment before the first is out; that way you don’t have millions of readers (you hope) breathing down your neck as you write, eagerly awaiting the next thrilling chapter. You also have no temptation to tailor the story to what readers say they want-this is a mistake George Lucas made.

I enjoy your site, sir.

By: David Louis Edelman

David Louis Edelman — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 01:21:09 +0000

I agree with you about the complicating and deepening thing. The three parts of my one novel turned into three novels… and it quickly occurred to me that I could turn each of those books into three or four novels and thus end up with a Robert Jordanesque series of doorstoppers.

Of course you, Alis, stand on an entirely different plane altogether from the rest of us, having recently completed a seven-book series. I bow in awe to your superior writerly skills.

By: Alis

Alis — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 23:03:24 +0000

I mean this in the nicest way:

Hahahahahaha

But seriously, that’s only me laughing in sympathy. Or, perhaps, empathy, now that I think of it.

I have come to the conclusion that some writers tend to think in multivolume novels, in the sense that their minds complicate and deepen each least idea into manifold patterns. Or, as one might say, they think in terms of consequences.