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Welcome, everyone! Here's where I blather about writing, life with my wife BA, and my two basset hounds! I love to hear from readers, so comment here or email me!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

the disappointment factor

I've recently had a nudge from a reader (waves at Avis. Hi, hon, hope you don't mind me getting all meta) about a sequel to a book I wrote a while back. The book, titled the High-Class Highwayman, was my first historical in a long while, and a fun romp to write.

The problem is, the sequel never took off in my brain. Now, this is a problem mainly because I promised the sequel to TQ, so it's mentioned in the first book. It's languishing on my hard drive.

I dislike disappointing people. And I know that there's this implicit contract with the reader when I finish the first story on a cliffhanger of sorts. When I don't do what I promise, the implied contract is broken. I don't want to be that author, who makes promises and doesn't keep them.

On the other hand, when a story goes fallow, it's hard to flog it back to life. And it's not doing justice to the story to beat it out of a dead horse. It shows that you weren't in the moment, and the story suffers.

I know the obvious answer here is to take that promise of a sequel out of the story, but I really do plan to finish it.

So what does a writer do?

Thoughts?

XXOO

Julia

www.juliatalbot.com

1 comment:

Katherine Halle said...

Huh, I don't have any advice, so useless comment is useless LOL. But I can understand your feelings on this. It's hard when a sequel just doesn't go anywhere, when the muse decides to go on a permanent vacation.

With it already being published, it's hard to take the promise of a sequel out of the original. I guess, just pull it out, read what you have and see if it takes off, if not, put it aside again in the hopes that one day it will.