I’ve talked about it several times in the past, how much I loathe sequels when the only reason the sequel is being made is for more money and you can see it in how shoddy the final movie is (Hangover 2, anyone? Spider-Man 3? How about Grease 2?). But my science fiction novel Reborn City is part of a trilogy, which means eventually I’ll have to write the second book, which is a sequel.
Now, I have a general idea for the sequel and the final book as well. I also have an idea for a sequel for my serial killer novel Snake. However instead of telling you guys about those when nobody’s read them, I think I’ll tell you about what I think about when I make sequels, with various examples to illustrate my points. So here we go, with my points and tips for writing a sequel:
1. Give them what they want, but give them plenty of what they don’t expect. This is the core of my philosophy in making a sequel. For instance, the movie Aliens was markedly different from Alien. Sure, there were the Xenomorph aliens, it took place in space, and there were gun battles and death. Heck, we could’ve called that there’d be more than one alien the moment we heard there was a sequel. However, nobody could’ve predicted the colony they made, with the Queen leading the pack. Even better, there were a ton of soldiers instead of miners, so we actually got to see some battles, some resistance from the humans. We even had some connections made between Ripley and Newt, Ripley and the cyborg, Ripley and that one living soldier at the end. And the way the Queen showed up on the ship in the end, pissed as any mother when her kids are threatened? Awesome, and nobody saw any of it coming! It’s why the movie is still such a success; people never see it coming the first time they see the movie!
Then look at Taken 2. We have the gunshots, the killing and the kicking ass from Liam Neeson, we have his family reunited (we all saw that coming from the trailers, didn’t we?). But…did it add anything? Was there anything that really stood out for that film? Anything that set it apart from its predecessor? Not really, besides a location change and the daughter Kim doing some more than being a prisoner. The rest was boring and predictable.
2. Don’t recycle. This is an extension of what I said in the last point, but it’s a good point, and too many filmmakers make this mistake when they make sequels. Take the remake of the Friday the 13th franchise (not exactly a sequel, but you get the point). There were five good, scary minutes where we weren’t sure what was happening, where Jason slashed and we were left freaked. But the rest? It seemed like we’d seen it before in previous films. Plenty of stabbing, plenty of sex, all stuff we’d seen before. Nothing that makes this film stand out from any other Friday the 13th film, except how bad it was. So the lesson here kids, is don’t recycle. It’s unoriginal and annoying.
3. Ask yourself, is a sequel necessary? This is a problem with plenty of films these days. In fact, my dad says there are no original films these days, just sequels, remakes, and book adaptations, and to an extent he’s right. I mean, was The Hangover 2 necessary? Kristen Wiig declined a Bridesmaids sequel, which some saw as genius and others saw as ungrateful, but in the end it was a good decision. And remember the fiasco that was Miss Congeniality: Armed and Fabulous? And don’t get me started on Carrie 2: The Rage. Yes, there was a sequel, in the 90’s. It sucked.
4. Add some human tension if you can. By this, I mean that there should be something that puts the characters off their game, like they can’t trust each other or even trust themselves! For example, in Chamber of Secrets, Harry is suspected of being the Heir of Slytherin, tarnishing his reputation at Hogwarts and alienating him from other students. Sure, Ron and Hermione are loyal almost to a fault, but everybody’s suddenly scared of Harry. Harry even starts to suspect that he might be a danger! Then in the 4th book, Goblet of Fire, for several chapters Harry and Ron aren’t speaking, which causes Harry great amounts of anguish because he loses his best friend in the process. You see how this dark aspect adds so much to the story? It gives it so much weight and makes the story stand out more in our minds. Plus afterwards the characters become so much more relatable. So if you can, add this human tension, or other forms of it, because it’ll add so much to the plot.
5. Find a way to make the deus ex machina work. I’ll have to use Harry Potter again, this time Deathly Hallows. Remember how Harry died and then came back to life simply because he was the 7th Horcrux and everybody was sacrificing themselves for him and vice versa (spoiler alert? It might’ve not been the best way to resolve a plot, but it was clever and it sure as heck worked. In fact, JK Rowling was very good at using deus ex machina and making it work in her HP books. If you can figure out how to pull of a deus ex machina and make it work, you’ve got a great tool in your writing arsenal.
6. You don’t have to connect the sequel’s plot to the last story. In Die Hard 2, John McClane is facing a colonel trying to bring a South American dictator back to his country. In no way was this movie about getting revenge against John McClane for killing Alan Rickman’s character in the original Die Hard. It was an entirely different story, the only connections to the last film a few choice characters, especially John and Holly McClane, and a few passing references to the Nakatomi Tower of the first film. And Die Hard 2 was awesome, almost better than Die Hard! If you can do this with your story, it’ll be original, and you’re readers will respond positively to it, in most cases.
Usually, anyway.
7. Know your limit. This is important, because a lot of series, books and films, keep producing new entries when they’ve long since expired. It’s difficult to keep coming up with an original plot to add to a series, and only a few, like the James Bond films, can do it with any sort of success. Others, like Nightmare on Elm Street or the Halloween series, kept making sequels that got worse and worse, and eventually only hardcore fans watched them, if just to put them in their memories because the entries are part of their favorite franchises. So if you plan on making a series, make sure how many entries you plan to put in before you start to sound repetitive and are grasping at straws in order not to recycle old stories. Trust me, your fans will thank you for it.
That’s all I have to say on the subject. If you have any other tips you want to contribute, I’ll add them in a sequel post. I hope you found this helpful and you gain something from it. Oh, and for those of you wondering when Reborn City is coming out, I’m working on it, I’m having a friend critique it, and it’s taking a little longer than I expected. Please be patient, I hope to have it out before the summer.
Rami Ungar The Writer 