NaNo UPDATE, DAY 26

It's the final countdown.

For those of you who have made it to the finish line--congrats.

To those of us still limping along. We still have five days. We CAN bring this home!

With an illness then holiday drama, I thought NaNo would be a bust again this year. Granted the month isn’t over. I still have time to crash and burn, but I’m more hopeful about finishing than I was three days ago.

 

On day 23, I was at 31,000 words. If I wanted to a have any chance of finishing on time, I had to write 10,000 words by Monday. I spent 12 hours on the story on Saturday. Sunday, I edited my critique partner’s story during the day. That night I wrote another 4k. I’m officially caught up. If I can write the necessary 1700 words a day, I’ll finish on time.
 

Okay, enough with the statistical data. Boring, right?

Last week, I asked about POV, and I received a lot of advice. My thanks go to those of you who took the time to share your views and encouragement.

Terri Bruce, author of HEREAFTER, gave the answer which made my decision.

“Hmmmm...I have seen the use of two different tenses, I think, but I can't think of any of the book titles. However, keep in mind with the tense change, what you're saying to the reader is that the first person character is telling the reader what happened AS IT HAPPENS, while the 3rd person character is telling the reader what happened AFTER THE FACT. If that's what you mean, then it should be fine (the examples I'm thinking of are usually suspense/mystery/thrillers, where one person is telling the story after the fact (like the detective/cop) and one is telling it as it happens (usually the bad guy), but I've also seen it in mother/daughter women's fic - with the grown up daughter explaining the present day problems in the past tense and then the book switches to the mom's PoV in present tense as she relates her life story). I'd have to check but Paulo Coelho may have used two different tenses in The Witch of Portobello and I think possibly Amy Tan in The Bonesetter's Daughter. But if you mean for your characters to both be telling the same story at the same time (e.g. as it happens), then you'd really need to use the same tense I think.”

 

I wrote the second POV character, Landry’s chapter in Present/1^st person, and his whole personality flowered upon the page. He had his own voice, his own views and interpretation of his world which was totally separate from Mala’s. He allowed me to explore an otherwise closed part of the story, and in turn, made the story deeper and richer than it was with the single point-of-view.

I’m 150 pages into a story that I find to be even more thrilling than the original.

I think I always worried about that. I’ve read a few sequels that couldn’t stand up to the original. As if some essential spark which infused the first is missing from the second. That doesn’t seem to be the case with this story (of course, I'm biased, lol.) I think it's because I know the characters and their world so well now that I’m able to build up on it with layers and depth.

It feels pretty cool.

So this question is for those of you who have written sequels or read sequels. Was your sequel difficult to write or easier? Do you often enjoy reading about the same characters and what would you suggest makes the sequel better than the original? Or is it even possible in your view to recapture the magic of the first book?