As you may remember, or may not remember, it doesn't really matter, I had quite the time of it after I finished TWT (Those Who Trespass).
It started in November, with what was probably the worst NaNo book ever written. Then came December, while I wrote my query. And while I agonized over the query, I tried to write a dystopian that I had long had in mind. {It's The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games. But it doesn't matter, because I couldn't make it work.} It wouldn't write. I outlined, I outlined, I outlined, trying to avoid the inevitable slew of rewrites that I always encounter after a first draft.
It didn't work. I finished my TWT query. I brushed up the TWT manuscript. I queried.
And I started writing scenes for another book. A sequel.
A sequel.
I never intended TWT to have a sequel. It still doesn't need one. I think it stands alone just fine. But sometime last year, I started getting ideas. I jotted them down and ignored them. FanFiction for my own work, I figured. Unimportant.
And then, when I finished TWT, I started writing more. The story just kept going. And since I was undergoing self-inflicted torture with the dystopian, I told myself I could write whatever I wanted, just as long as I was writing something. And what I wanted to write was...the sequel. It even has a title.
I've already written at least a dozen scenes. I'm enjoying it. Clayton and Jenn still have things to say to each other. They still have things to not say to each other. There is still conflict. There is still romance. There is still room in this story for more.
I never would have guessed it. I never wanted it, but here it is, and I like it.
And so commences the first real sequel I have ever written. {I've planned out series' before and have snippets of multiple books in series, but this is the first time I've finished a book and kept going.}
Have you ever written a sequel? Were you planning to do it, or did it sneak up on you?
Also, I finally got a rejection. It made me feel better, like I'm not living in the Twilight zone anymore.
Also, also, Patrick Ness is still brilliant. The more I consider the Chaos Walking trilogy, the more I'm assured of Ness' brilliance.
2 comments:
Congrats on your rejection letter : ) I have my first one in a special place.
Good luck with your sequeal!!
Sort of. I've written books in the same universe but they are standalones.
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