Comments on: What I’ve Learned About Why It’s Hard to Write a Sequel

By: Bugsy

Bugsy — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 03:25:14 +0000

2 friendly points/suggestions:

1. A great many sci-fi narratives center around discovering some secret of a technologically advanced but long extinct civilization (Halo, Mass Effect, KoTOR etc), which can be seen as an expansion of post apocalyptic fiction.

2. Ditch the name “Desecrator” This is really just personal preference, but I find that villains with ominous, generic evil names feel cheap and boring.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:57:36 +0000

Without reading the book – why can’t space itself be post apocalyptic?

By: Interrogator

Interrogator — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 04:11:33 +0000

I loved your first book and can’t really add anything from what the others have said.

I’m really happy to hear you’re close to finishing the second book since I get really antsy while waiting for authors to complete another installment

By: Elizabeth West

Elizabeth West — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 02:02:16 +0000

Ooh, thanks for the tips. I’m working on a series character and this is helpful, even though it won’t exactly be a trilogy (hoping for more than three). But some of these same issues hold true.

By: jediguy

jediguy — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:41:45 +0000

Paul I have to say I really enjoyed reading your book. It was well paced and thought out. I like that it wasn’t overly complicated. Your action sequences were simple yet exciting. I read a lot of the Star Wars EU and one thing that bothers me about a lot of those books is they follow too many characters. I prefer to have one main character that the story follows most of the time. I hate it when I finish a chapter that is particularly interesting and then have to read through 2 or 3 chapters about lesser characters to get back to the good chapters about the main character. Drives me nuts. That was one thing that I really liked about your book is that the story didn’t jump around too much following a bunch of different characters. It also helped me keep my attention on the book because I have a tendency to put down one book for another if the story is hard to follow.

I totally agree with Skeebo, write your story and don’t worry about what the reader might want to read. I’m no writing expert for sure but that’s just my two cents on the subject, I hope it helps. I’m really looking forward to reading your next book. Keep up the good work.

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:58:21 +0000

I think it’s really cool you self-published, and it’s great that you have a site with so many dedicated followers to advertise it on. Have you guys ever thought about doing a review of self-published books?

By: Skeebo

Skeebo — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:46:11 +0000

I wouldn’t try to force a situation b/c that’s what people liked in the first book. Your job as a storyteller is to tell your story, not necessarily the story that you think your readers what to get.

Writing for what you think the readers want is what gets us thousands of novels that have essentially the same general plot, with the hero always predictably coming out on top in the end, or the monster coming back for one more scare…

That is one of the HUGE reasons that Game of Thrones is so popular, b/c Martin goes out of his way to make sure that he is not writing the story that his readers want.

By: XenoIrish

XenoIrish — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:11:20 +0000

The post apocalyptic stuff was great in the first book, but the progression of the story necessitates a move away from that, so I don’t think people could hold that against you.

If the characters stay strong and engaging it’ll work out well I would think. Can’t wait for it to be done and available.