Save It For the Sequel

As we’ve been editing the music novel (hacking our way through dense word jungles with a machete, burning whole scenes to the ground, etc) we keep finding ourselves in conversations about ways to complicate the story world.

Believe me when I tell you that this particular story is complicated enough. We have eight point-of-view characters and a couple of subplots. The premise behind the story, the dark twist we’ve given our fictional reality, is one of those deceptively simple ideas. When it’s first explained it makes perfect sense, then you start to think of the implications and ramifications, and you drown in a tsunami of questions. That’s a good thing, because it gives us lots to write about. The characters get to ask those questions and propel the plot.

The Big Idea of this novel is truly expansive, and we could write hundreds of stories set in this universe. The problem is that right now we’re only writing one. That means that we need to keep it focused on one main plot and not clutter things up with every little idea we have.

As we mentioned, we do have plans for a sequel, so some of our Really Coolest Ideas™ will end up being used there. As we keep reminding ourselves.

Before we started these edits we had a debate about which project we should work on. We almost brainstormed and outlined the sequel instead of diving in on the edits, and it’s a really good thing we didn’t. I think we both overestimated how well we remembered the events of this novel, for one thing. For another, the discussions we’re having now are sparking a ton of ideas for the followup that I’m not sure we would have come up with otherwise.

We have a few more weeks of work to do on the music novel before we move on, but we’re both getting excited about the possibilities for Music Novel 2: Electric Boogaloo. It’s great to have a writing partner to share your enthusiasm with.