Not a virgin anymore
Sep. 26th, 2003 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynHm. I just finished the first sequel I've ever written (I'm no longer a sequel virgin!). Or at least, the first real sequel -- I did a kind of same universe, very different type of story once in X-Files, but it felt so wildly different and didn't pick up even remotely soon after the original story that for my mind it wasn't very sequelly. Few people who read it, either, believed that you needed to have read the first one to get the second one, and some of them didn't even realize that it was a continuation, so that definitely encouraged my "not a sequel" stance.
Though this thing doesn't pick up where the first story left off, either, and this time it's told from Buffy's view, rather than Spike's, and the writing style is quite different, with a more authorial voice in the third person limited. So then I wonder if that violates sequel rules.
What are sequel rules, anyways? I don't have problems reading them, but for some reason have never been drawn to writing them. I always like a story to stand on its own, to kind of get in, do the work, and get out, and leave it as it should be. So I'm unfamiliar with the standard order of sequel procedure. Those of you who listened to me whine about the requests for a happy ending sequel to The Perfume of Kismet will recognize my antipathy for sequels; but this one, I dreamt a large part of, so I felt like I was obligated to write it down.
If a sequel doesn't start immediately (or in the vicinity) of the original piece, is it still a sequel? If it's done from a different POV or narrative tone, is it still? I would say yes, personally, just from the limited time I've dealt with this in fiction workshops (not a lot, as most of us wannabe writer types were desperately trying to make our careers with The Great American Novel or the Killer Short Story that Wins a Pulitzer and Gets Published in the New Yorker), but then I wonder. They don't seem to me to connect, other than that the one assumes earlier events from the other have happened, and continues on from there.
Heliotrope took place a few years down the line from Chosen; this takes place even more years down the line from Heliotrope. But there's not a lot of connection otherwise; some assumptions are made, but overall, it's more like a standalone piece in itself, or feels that way. For those who write sequels, do you feel like the two stories should be tightly interwoven, or does it matter?
I know for a lot of folks, writing sequels becomes more of a series, really, and some people write them if a story is originally well-received because there's more likelihood of feedback. But I think in some respects, that's what's always deterred me; I want to move on to the next story, the next idea or experimentation (because I like to use fanfic to experiment with styles and voices), find something fresh rather than revisit something I've already done, even if I risk a great failure or I don't get positive responses from the audience. But sometimes, you like the world so much that you've created in your head and heart, you want to hang on to it. Maybe my pain over Spike's beliefs and where he's ending up after Chosen are a motivation to keep this post-Chosen world going, I haven't really thought about it enough to decide what I feel.
I think that was the hardest thing about writing this, too -- finding something fresh in the basic premise that was worth continuing such a story. I liked where Heliotrope ended -- the limitless possibilities for Spike and Buffy and their future together. Now, in a sense, I've put a limit on it in some ways by showing where they've been and where they are at this given point in time. I assume most people don't fret over strange worries like this, but then, I've always been neurotic and assume the worst about my writing, commercial or fanfictional.
Since I almost never remember my dreams, I figured it was a sign to give it the old college try, but it'll be interesting trying to edit and refine this now that I've got the skeleton of it down. It almost feels like it belongs to someone else -- maybe that's the thing about sequels I've always found limiting and less enticing, that they wouldn't feel like they belonged to me. I'm not sure. But it's an interesting experiment, at the least. I just hope, most of all, that it doesn't water down the feeling of satisfaction I felt over writing Heliotrope, that it somehow erodes the quality of that story. Out of all the aspects of sequelitis, that's the one I worry about most. (Probably everyone will think this makes me a freak, and I'm the only one who worries about this, but there you are.)
And to my Jewish friends, I just wanted to extend my wishes for Rosh Hashanah before it gets to sundown, at least here in the states!
Though this thing doesn't pick up where the first story left off, either, and this time it's told from Buffy's view, rather than Spike's, and the writing style is quite different, with a more authorial voice in the third person limited. So then I wonder if that violates sequel rules.
What are sequel rules, anyways? I don't have problems reading them, but for some reason have never been drawn to writing them. I always like a story to stand on its own, to kind of get in, do the work, and get out, and leave it as it should be. So I'm unfamiliar with the standard order of sequel procedure. Those of you who listened to me whine about the requests for a happy ending sequel to The Perfume of Kismet will recognize my antipathy for sequels; but this one, I dreamt a large part of, so I felt like I was obligated to write it down.
If a sequel doesn't start immediately (or in the vicinity) of the original piece, is it still a sequel? If it's done from a different POV or narrative tone, is it still? I would say yes, personally, just from the limited time I've dealt with this in fiction workshops (not a lot, as most of us wannabe writer types were desperately trying to make our careers with The Great American Novel or the Killer Short Story that Wins a Pulitzer and Gets Published in the New Yorker), but then I wonder. They don't seem to me to connect, other than that the one assumes earlier events from the other have happened, and continues on from there.
Heliotrope took place a few years down the line from Chosen; this takes place even more years down the line from Heliotrope. But there's not a lot of connection otherwise; some assumptions are made, but overall, it's more like a standalone piece in itself, or feels that way. For those who write sequels, do you feel like the two stories should be tightly interwoven, or does it matter?
I know for a lot of folks, writing sequels becomes more of a series, really, and some people write them if a story is originally well-received because there's more likelihood of feedback. But I think in some respects, that's what's always deterred me; I want to move on to the next story, the next idea or experimentation (because I like to use fanfic to experiment with styles and voices), find something fresh rather than revisit something I've already done, even if I risk a great failure or I don't get positive responses from the audience. But sometimes, you like the world so much that you've created in your head and heart, you want to hang on to it. Maybe my pain over Spike's beliefs and where he's ending up after Chosen are a motivation to keep this post-Chosen world going, I haven't really thought about it enough to decide what I feel.
I think that was the hardest thing about writing this, too -- finding something fresh in the basic premise that was worth continuing such a story. I liked where Heliotrope ended -- the limitless possibilities for Spike and Buffy and their future together. Now, in a sense, I've put a limit on it in some ways by showing where they've been and where they are at this given point in time. I assume most people don't fret over strange worries like this, but then, I've always been neurotic and assume the worst about my writing, commercial or fanfictional.
Since I almost never remember my dreams, I figured it was a sign to give it the old college try, but it'll be interesting trying to edit and refine this now that I've got the skeleton of it down. It almost feels like it belongs to someone else -- maybe that's the thing about sequels I've always found limiting and less enticing, that they wouldn't feel like they belonged to me. I'm not sure. But it's an interesting experiment, at the least. I just hope, most of all, that it doesn't water down the feeling of satisfaction I felt over writing Heliotrope, that it somehow erodes the quality of that story. Out of all the aspects of sequelitis, that's the one I worry about most. (Probably everyone will think this makes me a freak, and I'm the only one who worries about this, but there you are.)
And to my Jewish friends, I just wanted to extend my wishes for Rosh Hashanah before it gets to sundown, at least here in the states!
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-26 11:36 am (UTC)I'm the opposite of you. I can't seem to write a story *without* writing a sequel. And this is why. I fall in love with the characters and the universe I've created, and I want to know what happens to them next. I start thinking about what happens to them next, often before I've even finished the ending of the current story (the ending I've had in my head for weeks or months and just haven't written yet). Before I know it, I'm writing the next story, because I've got it worked out in my head that this, this, and this is going to happen, and there's going to be this conversation, and so on.
As far as changing or keeping POV and all that, I've done it both ways. If I've been thinking about what happens next, and I'm thinking about a particular character, that story might get written from that character's POV.
I'd *like* to be able to write a story that stood on its own, without a sequel. I've tried. So far it hasn't worked--even the stories that don't have sequels yet, where the sequel may never get finished, it's still there, in my brain, or in fragments on my hard drive.
Anyway, like I said, cool post and good questions, and I look forward to reading the sequel when it's done!
no subject
Date: 2003-09-26 12:06 pm (UTC)And I'll look forward to reading what you wrote.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-26 09:51 pm (UTC)WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
or something helpful
::watches mailbox intently::