Writing the Second Novel Part 2

Tip #2: Discover what other writers have to say about it (and this goes for anything you're writing)

Whenever I have a new task ahead of me, something I haven't done before, the first thing I do is seek information from writers who have traveled that road before. There's a benefit to searching out tips and hints since others have already been there, done that, whatever that is you're doing right now. Learn from them. Sit at their feet and listen to what they have to say about their experiences, their mistakes, and their successes, like Luke Skywalker learning from the wisdom of  Yoda (I'm not implying that writers are small, green, and heavily wrinkled—though I can think of a few that fit that description). I learned how to open myself up and not become stifled when writing a first draft by reading Natalie Goldberg and Anne Lamott. There is a ton of information—countless articles and books—about how to write a novel. But what do these experts have to say about writing the second novel in a series?

There's a fair amount of information about how to write a second novel that is just a second novel—in other words, unrelated in any way to the first novel. An unrelated second novel can and should be written in a different style, with different characters, different situations. For myself, I found an unrelated next novel easier to write than the second novel in a series. Her Dear & Loving Husband isn't my first novel, you see. I have three others written in years gone by. Each of the three were unrelated to the other, and I didn't have any trouble as I moved onto each subequent book. Since each novel was completely different from the one before, I could approach it in a fresh, new way and not feel tied down by expectations created by the previous story.

A second novel in a series, on the other hand, is a completely different animal. It should have the same style, the same theme, and a related plot. Often, though not always, it has the same characters. How do you give readers what they loved about the first book while keeping them guessing so they're surprised by characters they're already comfortable with? That is the million dollar question when it comes to writing the second book in a series.

Part of the reason I struggled when I began writing Her Loving Husband's Curse was because I couldn't find a whole lot of anything from anyone about the specific struggles of writing a second novel. With a lack of any hard evidence about what works and what doesn't, I felt like I was largely on my own. Still, I pressed on and struggled through, missing the sage advice I've relied on whenever I encountered a new challenge in writing. From the few sources I found, one common theme that echoed throughout was how the second novel needs to be "the same but different." I agree. But how do I accomplish that?

There are a few places where you can find useful information. I mentioned the guest blog from Bradley P. Beaulieu in my last post. Just a few days ago, Joanna Penn's excellent website The Creative Penn featured an interview with Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris, authors of the London steampunk novel Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. I'm paraphrasing here, but one of the aspects of writing a series they talked about was that each book should have its own story yet there should be an over-arching theme that ties the pieces together. They also mention having a dangling plot thread which shows readers that there's a larger plot throughout the books. I think this goes along with what I said in my last post, only I phrased it differently. To me, it helped to think of all three books as being part of the same, larger story. This way the theme is evident throughout, and the plot feels connected because it follows through each subsequent story. In the interview, Ballantine and Morris also talk about the current trend for publishers to sign for two books. If you'd like to read or listen to the interview, click here. As I find more on this topic, I'll post it. If you find a great resource on writing the second novel in a series, by all means…share!

I also looked to see what other writers have done with their second books. This tip is obvious, though it took some time to occur to me. I'm a little slow sometimes. Try reading the second book in several series and see how the author handles it. I chose to read the first and second books if I hadn't read the series before since I wanted to see how the author transitioned from book one to book two. As I read, I looked for specific information (and, yes, I took notes). How much information from the first book does the author use? How does the plot flow from book one to book two, or were they seemingly unrelated or only loosely related? If the plot in book two seemed unrelated to the plot in book one, I tended not to like book two as much. That's just a personal observation. How do the characters change and grow? What is the common thread that binds the stories together? For myself, I only looked at novels that featured the same characters in each book because in my series you'll see the same cast throughout the trilogy.

Okay, so in this case—writing the second novel in a series—there might not be a ton of information. Since I'm still finishing up the second novel, I hope I can take what I'm struggling with (and learning from) and use that to help others. We can also see how other authors have transitioned from book one to book two. We can learn from other authors what we want to do, as well as what we don't want to do, and that is valuable information as we write the second novel that is the same but different from the one before.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, Writing Tagged: fiction, Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband's Curse, writing, writing the second novel, writing tips