A Word About Sequels
Whenever there's a nice, somewhat original story I applaud its unique efforts to stand alone. Then a sequel comes out. Then another story. Soon there are so many books that it seems like I will never read (or buy) all of the stories.
Thank you, Alex Rider, for pushing my straining bookshelves to overflow capacity.
Whatever happened to a story staying finished? There is no Gone With the Wind canonized sequel - plenty of fanfics, though. Oliver Twist stays in one volume. In her narrative, Madam Bovary carries on her caprices to the end of the book, and that's it.
Some books were meant to have sequels. The Chronicles of Narnia follow the English schoolchildren who have adventures in a magical land called Narnia. Each book is a self-contained story, but read chronological the books also gives a history of Narnia from start to finish. The series admittedly contains seven books, but it is only seven books.
The same with Harry Potter, so far; if J.K. Rowling has to keep clarifying what she meant by this or that, or which character is gay, or which characters were supposed to be together, then maybe she should write a prequel or a sequel. To, you know. codify her universe a little better. It just seems so exhausting to have to direct the world's attention to small details that do not change the story written down, the story with which millions around the world have already identified a special spark.
Meg Cabot announced an eleventh book in her Princess Diaries series. I was pretty happy where the last book left off, actually. When I heard the announcement of Royal Wedding I was thrilled because I loved the characters so much. And then I wondered, somewhat foolishly, "Why another one? Did she need money? Isn't the story finished yet?"
Well, everyone needs money or a livelihood, and who am I to criticize someone who is making money using their creative gifts and doing what they love to do? I would love to publish my trunk of stories and earning some monetary return for my time and effort.
But as to the second question, I guess the answer is, "No, it's not finished." The nature of the Princess Diaries is that of a (fictional) young woman's diary, and unless she dies at some point or ceases to copy down the details of her life, the story of her life will continue. She will keep speaking, and it's almost a creative duty for Cabot to keep writing what her characters say.
I guess I was wondering about my own stories, about where they are going to end or where they should end. There is a project in my notebooks that has continued for nearly eight years now without end in sight. I seem to have created a world where I can go sometimes, out of this one but still reflecting on it because this world lives in my mind. At the same time I am wondering, I am compelled to finish out this story because it lives in my mind. In writing the story it has become a part of my experience, as inseparable from me as the fact of my hair texture or eye color.
There is the idea that writing the story is the only way to scratch that particular itch, and the fear that if I ignore the story that it will go away.
So I have resolved to finish out the story, even if it only sees the inside of my home. But how long is it going to be? If I write only to the end of a current journey the characters are on, there should be at least ten more chapter-like constructs of between 12 and 35 pages, based on my previous work. However, I harbor the idea for a conflagration in the place where the story began, and a bit of epilogue after that. And yet I can think of another two adventures my group of characters can face that will be modern and epic and quite possibly as long as what I have written so far in the notebooks.
But if all the writers and books that have come before me are any indication, I have to mostly concern myself with writing out the story as it reveals itself during the writing. I cannot think about monetary reward -- if any -- or critical acclaim or divisions.
Then, when I have completed this particular journey as far as imagination can take me, I can switch out my writer's beret for my editor's newsboy and tailor the raw material into one book, two books, or even a whole series. I must look at the fabric and shape of the work to determine what structure it needs based on its nature, comparing it to other stories I have read or will read. Is it like a diary, needing a lot of pages for the everyday? Is it a series of adventures needing separate books for the greatest impact? Is it, perhaps, something else, with a focus on the growth of the narrator over the course of months -- or years?
As a writer, my fullest concern should be with what the story wants in order to raise it to the best story it can be. In order to do that I have to create material through a habit of profuse and frequent writing.
No comments:
Post a Comment