48. Book Two Blues

Congratulations! Your first book is a success, and you're ready to write book two! But wait... how do you guarantee that readers love book two as much as they loved your first? In this episode, Suzy examines the common pitfalls and how to avoid them when writing a follow-up book in a series. 

🌟 Grab your spot in Suzy's Inner Circle for only $199 USD a month at www.suzyvadori.com/innercircle

Sign Up for the Inspired Writing Newsletter HERE

Submit Your Page for our Show don't Tell Coaching Episodes

Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts (Thank you!)

Intro and Outro Music is Daisy by Zight and used under a CC by 4.0 DEED Attribution 4.0 International license. For more music by Zight visit https://www.youtube.com/zight

Transcript

0:59

Welcome to Show. Don't Tell Writing with me, Suzy Vadori, where I teach you the tried and true secrets to writing fiction nonfiction that are gonna wow your readers broken down step by step. We're gonna explore writing techniques. I'm gonna show you a glimpse behind the scenes of successful writers' careers that you wouldn't have access to otherwise. And I'm also gonna coach writers live on their pages so that you can learn and transform your own storytelling. Whether you're just starting out, you're drafting your first book, you're editing, or you're currently rewriting that book, or maybe even your 10th book, this show's gonna help you unlock the writing skills that you didn't even know you needed, but you definitely do. I'm so looking forward to helping you get your amazing ideas from your mind onto your pages in an exciting way for both you and your readers, so that you can achieve your wildest writing dreams, and you're gonna also have some fun doing it. Let's dive in. Today on the show, I'm gonna talk about the Book Two Blues. These are potential pitfalls you might encounter when writing a book two in a series. Because if you've written a first book that readers love, you might be considering writing a second. And if you're writing in certain genres such as young adults or romance, you're probably certain readers might just be assuming that your book will become a series, even if you'd plan for that book to stand on its own. Sometimes that comes as a surprise to writers. This episode is for you if you're contemplating a book two, but also if you're still working on book one, you might be wondering how to plan for your eventual series. I meet many writers who have the entire series plotted and planned right from day one. And if that helps you get book one written, then go for it. Here's a few caveats I would say, if you're planning a whole series out from the start. Before I dive into strategies for making your book two amazing, number one, focus on book one first, if you're working on your first full-length book ever, especially. It's gonna take more than you think, both content-wise and FR wise. So it will be flexible because you might need to draw from events you thought you were gonna save for book two, just to make your debut work. You're gonna pull them forward and then you're gonna have to fill that in. So the more that you've plotted, the more you might need to tweak this as you go. Additionally, don't purposely withhold information in Book one just to have a surprise because readers are going to feel it. The strategies in this podcast episode are going to help you continue your story in book two. Without holding anything back, if it comes up in book one, share it. Number three, make sure that book one is a complete satisfying story on its own. I don't need to say more on that. I. Last point here, the caveat to planning a series out is that even if you're writing a memoir, know that you might have multiple books. You can write multiple books about your own life with each addressing a different transition that you've gone through, or a different aspect of a transition that you went through in your life. That is awesome. So just because you're writing a memoir doesn't mean that you have to write every single event from cradle to grave and you only get one book. You might be able to write a series about that as well. Okay, so here's the real talk on writing a sequel. When I sat down to write book two in my, the Fountain series. I assumed that it was gonna be easier to write Book two than it was to write book one. Book one had taken me four and a half years in lots of pain and struggle, and it created all the lessons that I've since been able to adapt and teach thousands of writers how to write their own books. Yes, but it was a slog. I'd already built the world in Book one, so I thought it was gonna be easy. I knew my characters like they were, my own family had shiny new adventures that I wanted them to go on. I. Plus I was under contract and I had deadlines to meet this time, which is often a good thing for me. I mapped out how long it, quote unquote, should take me to write this book, and it was much faster. I had a solid outline to start as I do, but when I started writing the scenes of book two, the whole thing just felt flat. It was really hard, like way farther in my first book and. That was a shock. I thought. I was, thought I was making it when I thought I knew what I was doing and all of a sudden I was like back to square one or worse way behind square one.'cause I had all these readers that were waiting for this new book and what if it wasn't as good? By chapter three when I was writing, I realized that I was basically rewriting book one and the writing itself was decent. I'd learned a ton the first time around, but. The news story felt like the greatest hits remix of the biggest glot points. From my first book. I was reintroducing characters re-explaining the world. I was repeating the same emotional arcs my characters just explored in book two. I didn't want readers to miss a beat. I wanted to remind them what had happened, and I was stuck in this weird loop. And honestly, even I was getting bored of the scenes that I was creating. I knew something was really wrong and I wasn't sure how to get out of it. Thankfully, as I tend to do when I put my brain to it and talk to lots of people in the industry, I figured out a few strategies to keep the story moving and the content fresh while honoring the world and characters that my readers already knew and loved. I met my deadline for that book too, barely while working full time and raising my kiddos. And now over a decade later, I have helped hundreds of writers dodge these same sequel traps. Today I'm gonna share all these juicy tips that I've learned about writing a second book that readers are going to love. They're gonna love your second book even more than your first. Here's the sneaky trap of Book two. Book two is not just the next part of your story that you started. It's a brand new story all on its own. And if you think of it that way, you'll start to let go of some of the decisions that you had to make for book one that limited your world. We'll keep your story from spreading its wings and progressing. Yes, your new book is still set in the same world, and yes, some or all of the same characters are back. The vibe of this new book needs to be fresh. Here's where it gets tricky. Your book two is gonna be read by three types of readers. The first type of readers are your loyals. These readers just finished book one and are ready for more. They remember everything, probably more than you remember. The second type of reader are your casual fans. They read book one a while ago and kind of remember the big stuff, but the details are probably a little fuzzy. The third kind of readers, and this does happen, I promise, are your newbies. These readers somehow found Book two first. Yep. It happens. And they never cracked open book once, so they don't have any context at all. So when you sit down to write this, who are you writing for? With a little planning. Your book can actually be an immersive experience for any one of those types of readers. But you do need to pay attention to what you're doing. Here's some of the most common book, two Mistakes that I Made and also that I see when I'm working with writers on Book two. I see these all the time. The first one is over, and by far this is the most difficult one to overcome. Writers that over summarize Book one events. So this is when a writer is repeating what happened in Book one, often in unnecessary detail. It slows the pace of your writing and it's really indulgent. Yes, your readers will need context, so you'll have to include a bit of information and I'll give some tips on how to balance this below. But we also wanna honor the fact that loyal readers, your loyals, who remember this, aren't gonna wanna read it again. Okay. The second common Book two mistake that I see is having characters reference book one events. This one drives me crazy. It's like an eye roll for me because it happens so often. They kind of come up as casual mentions, like, remember the time when, or inside jokes where one character says, remember when so-and-so did this? It relates a funny anecdote from Book one for a laugh because you just are so enamored with how smart you were writing Book one, that you can't stand that book. Two people won't remember that, right? You're probably including the snippet because you think what happened was just so cool that you don't want your readers to miss out. And while that's a really lovely sentiment, resists the urge, these recaps are almost always off topic. They have nothing to do with what you're trying to build in Book two. They can pull us right out of the story. You're better off adding to your character's shared history and these inside jokes and building them all new in book two and creating and building on your world than referring to something that's tired. Number three, and I see this all the time, characters who repeat their story arc. So every story features a character who changes in some way from beginning of your story, from your opening scene to the end where you've written the end, right? Whether this is a subtle shift or a huge transformation, doesn't matter. They change. They're not changing. You do not have a book, okay? If book two features the same character, so you're writing from the same character's point of view, it's still their story. Give them a new growth curve so that we don't have to watch the same transformation again. Readers will get bored. It will feel tired, okay? So for example, if in book one your character goes from being a wallflower to learning to speak their mind, maybe in book two, if they're still trying to speak their mind, it's gonna feel stale. So mix it up, give them something else. I'll give you an example later in the podcast. Number four, if you keep the reader's takeaway the same in book two. Book will feel the same. So remember back to book one, what did you hope that your readers would learn, decide, or know by the end of reading your book? When we write a book, whether we realize it or not, in the beginning, by the end, it's usually pretty clear that we're trying to start a conversation with readers that we're trying to start a conversation with the world. So what is the takeaway that you wanted them to have? If this core message or theme is the same in book two, the two books are gonna feel yearly similar, even if your events are different. So mix it up. Decide that you're gonna teach something else, or that you want them to have different perspective on the world. Even if it's subtle, change it. Because what that will do is it will mean when you're writing every single thing that you choose or decide about your book, whether to include it or not. What angle to take, what to emphasize, what to de-emphasize should be driving your reader in the same direction to take away that same message. And so if you've changed what you're trying to say or built on that in some way, it will naturally make you include different events. Last one that I see all the time mistakes. And then we're gonna talk about how to fix them. Breaking a contract with your reader, right? I see this all the time, that writers set up a contract in the beginning and break it. So if you are writing a sequel chance, are that you have built a following with Book one and that it was well received.'cause you're writing a sequel. So tension to what feedback you got because that's what readers are coming back for. If they swooned over your romance, don't make book two an extended breakup. I made this mistake myself. This is a hard lesson to learn. I had mapped out the series for the fountain early on and the romance was just sort of an aside, but when my readers received book one, and the reason that it won awards and was really well received was because kids and teens and adults all fell in love with the romantic arc. They loved it. And so I became known as a young adult romance writer. And all of a sudden when these reviews were coming in and I was writing book two, it was like this big weight all of a sudden dropped on my shoulders. And I said, oh my goodness. People are like, I can't wait to see what happens next. And they love this really sweet romance. And I wasn't planning to include a romance in book two. In fact, there was gonna be a breakup. And so I had to shake my head and pay attention to the contract that I'd set up with readers. I was spending so much time making sure that each book was unique and felt different, that I kind of forgot what I was becoming known for. And so I can tell you that it was a really fun shift for me. Really love writing the romance. It's something that comes really naturally to me as apparently I'm very romantic and it's definitely what teens were looking for when they wrote my series. And now I don't know that I will ever write another book without romance'cause it's just that much fun. Also, if they loved your brainy science fiction world, they're gonna be disappointed. If there's no science at all in book two and you keep it really fluffy or solve things by magic, your first book in the series is going to set their expectations and they want more of the same. So don't change the rules. You certainly don't wanna be writing each book in a different genre because they are four different readers. You're not gonna be able to pull anybody through a series like that. So here's some tips to make Book two Shine and keep it feeling fresh.'cause it could be daunting to tackle book two, especially if your book one did really well. A reader's gonna love your book. Two, as much as they love book one. Can you live up to the height? Especially if it was like really well received. So here's some tips to keep in mind when writing, so that your sequel will push your series over the top and leaving readers anticipating books three, four, and five in the series. Number one thing that you can do to make this feel fresh is change something huge in your book. In book two, if the setting of characters are the same as they were in book one, you're gonna find your outline for book two needs way more content to make up for it because you can't just spend your scenes exploring the scene like the setting and your world and the characters. To avoid this, try setting book two in a brand new location. Expand your magic, expand your political system. Whatever you're writing about, introduce new characters or write from a different character's point of view, but blow it up. Change something huge. That way you're gonna have lots of new world building a character building to round out your plot. One that's gonna feel fresh for both you and the reader. Second tip, tackle a brand new character arc. We talked about this one as being, one of the mistakes is sort of redoing this, so here's how to fix it. Share a new part of your main character's journey if you have the same character. So how do they change from your opening scene to the end? So in the example that I gave earlier in book one, she started out as a wallflower, and by the end was speaking her mind. Maybe in this book, book two, she starts out thinking she has to do everything by herself and learns by the closing scene that her life is richer if she lets people in and creates a community. Knowing where she's headed is going to help you create a new take on everything she touches in the book. This is what her agency is about, right? If we know what change they have to undergo, where they're headed, it will naturally come up when you're writing that they have to make decisions or do things. There's more stuff to do to get to that journey. Changing this character arc helps you come up with fresh ideas or a new way that your character moves about the world. Number three. How much recap is too much? This is one of the biggest questions. It's really hard to balance because your readers do need something. Where's that balance between giving readers enough information from Book One that the news story makes sense, but not so much information that you've rehashed your entire plot? Here's a handy question that you can use to help you decide if you should include information from Book one. Any point that it comes up. So if you're tempted to include backstory from Book One, ask yourself this. Does your reader not, do you wanna put it in there or does the plot need it? Does your reader need this information to understand what's happening in Book two? Simple question. One question. Does your reader need the information? If they do not, and book two makes sense. Without it ditch it. Don't look back. Do not include the backstory. No matter how much you love it. No matter how much you think, it'll be awesome to remind them of that great time that you guys had together in Book one. But if the answer is yes, that the reader needs the information to understand what's happening, and the book doesn't make sense without it, by all means include it, but build on it. For example, instead of just reminding readers that your character had a traumatic experience, whatever that was in Book one. Show us in book two how an experience has shaped their behavior since maybe they developed a new fear because of it, or they've misremembered what happened in book one. You can blow things up, right? Maybe they're finally ready to deal with it differently than they did in book one. All of these things, time has passed unless you're writing a prequel or it happens right after. But even if that's true. Something is different in book two. What is different? So build on it, change their perspective. You can remind us of an event, but give it a new spin. Make it feel fresh. When you build on what happened in book one, you've gotten new readers to speed, so they're totally in the loop. You've also rewarded your loyal readers. This is one of the most important points that you could listen to in this entire podcast. You wanna reward loyal readers and not bore them and think that they don't remember. You wanna give them new information to pique their interest while not waste their time with a recap. Number four, push yourself. I like to challenge myself to do something new in every book, and that's, you know, part of my nature and part of how I became a book coach as well and helping other people is because I'm always exploring new ways to write and new ways to make my craft even better. You could create a new plot structure. You could practice writing in a new tense or a new point of view that you haven't used in a full length novel before. Or you can change up your main character's traits to just challenge yourself. Not only will leveling up with each book that you write, keep you growing as a writer, but it also means that each book will naturally feel different than the last, while still maintaining your writing voice and your personal style. Here's the good news. If you are writing a book too in your series, it means that you've already successfully completed a novel from start to finish once, at least once before. That means that you know what writing a book takes, which is more than most of us think it's going to be when we're first starting out. You can tackle this next challenge with all you've got. Thanks for tuning in to show. Don't Tell Writing With me, Susie Vadori. I can continue to bring you the straight goods for that book you're writing or planning to write. Please consider subscribing to this podcast and leaving a review on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever else you're listening. Also, visit susie Vadori.com/newsletter to hop on my weekly inspired writing newsletter list where you'll stay inspired and be the first to know about upcoming training events and writing courses that happen in my community. If you're feeling brave, check the show notes and send us a page of your writing that isn't quite where you want it to be yet for our show notes, tell page review episodes. Remember that book and your writing is going to open doors that you haven't even thought of yet, and I can't wait to help you make it the absolute best you're feeling called to write that book. Keep going and I'm gonna be right here cheering you on. See you again next week.