Sequel Syndrome

If you write a good enough story, people will beg for a sequel. It seems to happen every time. The audience builds a connection with the characters, cares for them, follows them through good times and bad. When the journey is over, the audience is sad. They have to say goodbye to these friends forever. But if a sequel is made, then they don't have to say goodbye. They can keep being with their friends.

This is a great example of the power of good characters and how important they are to telling a good story. The problem is that people tend to forget that a good story is more than just the people in it. The audience gets to learn about a new world or society. They get to meet tons of new people and figure out who they are. They have to wonder if each new person met will be a new friend, a fierce enemy, or just a random passerby. Every aspect of the story is part of the experience.

That is what makes sequels so incredibly difficult to do. We already know the main characters, which ones are good (and therefore knowing that the rest must be bad), and the intricacies of the world in which they reside. At best, fifty percent of the experience is already had by reading the original.

I am not saying that a sequel cannot be done well. What I am saying is that it is very difficult. You need to be able to be just as new and brilliant in the second installation as you were in the first. That means that new characters need to come in, old characters need to go (or at least significantly change), a new area needs to be shown, and previously unknown or unmentioned aspects of the society need to come in.

For example, suppose you wrote a fantasy story about a young man who trained very hard to join his kingdom's army, got in, and fought in the great war. In this story, we would mostly see the military, the training grounds, and the battlefield. We would meet the other people in the man's group, and we would follow them as they infiltrate the country and manage to defeat the leader of the enemy army. After that story is over, how would you do a sequel? The best thing to do is make damn sure that it isn't just a rehash of the original. These people already fought a war. We don't need to read about another one.

Instead, consider what ought to happen next. The main character would become the commander of the army. The other members of his group would be his loyal generals. Top level people like this don't get sent into the front lines, for one thing. For another, this allows us to see a totally different part of the land. We can see how the royal class lives, what high society thinks of war, and how politics affect soldiers. This story could have the man, who grew up poor but devoted to his country, discover that his country cares nothing about him, his friends, or his family. As such, he could rebel against these leaders. Some of his generals would follow him, others would remain loyal to the kingdom. Now the familiar faces are in unfamiliar roles.

Sequels are an art that nobody seems to teach. I think that's why they're so difficult to do. A well-done sequel is very fun and enjoyable and just as good as the original. Use those qualities as a benchmark for audience reaction. And don't forget that a sequel should be able to stand on its own.