I finished the (8th) draft for Talio Rossa and the Elixir of Life, the sequel to Talio’s Codex.
My first sequel! And boy did I learn a lot.
One of the most interesting things was that the book(s) before the sequel you’re writing start freezing certain details in amber. Mentioned how big a trial jury is in book 1? Now you’re stuck with that number in book 2. As the sequels progress, I’m going to be more and more constrained by the choices I’ve already made. That’s where planning out the entire series helps.
When I started working on the sequel, I went back to the first book and looked at all the worldbuilding details I’d created, seeing what was locked into place, and what was open to interpretation and further development. A good example is the Incarnite religion. Very little was said about it in the first book, besides their outfits, a bit of history, a very small bit of their beliefs, and some of their worship services (vespers, second vespers, a weekend of prayer, etc.).
I also looked at characters and bits that I could reuse. The ethics review committee, Pazli’s parents’ fair, the panto plays were the big ones. I’d already created them in worldbuilding, so why reinvent the wheel?
One discovery I’ve made that’s very helpful is the difference between what I call hooks and pegs.
Hooks
For me, a hook is something that’s a clear signpost to the reader that this needs to be picked up or followed up on in a subsequent book. The end of Elixir of Life is very much this, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. An example is a major change in a main character’s status or condition that means the next book simply can’t proceed as usual.
Pegs
For me, a peg is an open-ended note (usually worldbuilding) that I can build on in a later book – but I don’t have to. It’s a little bit of information that remains open-ended enough that it gives me a ‘peg’ to hang a later plot on.
For example, in Elixir of Life, Queen Jaconda tells Talio, “Do you know where we send the malcontents? The dissidents? Have you ever wondered why there are so few beggars on the streets of Nuciferia? This is a question you should not be eager to answer.”
She does not explain or provide further details. That leaves it open for me to do whatever I need to peg a later plot onto it. What does happen to them? Are they deported? Put in hidden detention areas? Killed? (No, they are not likely killed. This is still a cozy-adjacent novel series.)
Recontextualization
Something I had fun with is recontextualizing things from the first book. For example, a plot element that was considered humorous in Talio’s Codex turns very serious in Elixir of Life. The reader would probably realize at that point that all the times they found it funny in the first book, something quite different was going on.
So…onto the next one! Either a novella (Pazli Mecomb and the [Huge Spoiler]) or an omnibus (Talio Rossa and the [Equally Huge Spoiler]).