Falling in love with characters again is a 'MUST' to write a sequel.

When you spend six years with the same characters, you form a relationship with them. In the beginning, it's so exciting--like a new romance--you can't wait to be with them again, you miss them achingly and you truly feel like they are real people. 

A table that looks like a stack of books.

When your drafts start falling into the 12-20 range, they don't quite make you vomit but almost. It's as if the bile rises to the base of your windpipe and sits there like a lump of 'ugh'. Finding the boost to move past that slug in your throat means--like in a long-term relationship--rediscovering the love and connection you have with those characters.

In my novel Worthy, I never ever felt that way about Sarah or her barrister, what's his name? (Can you believe I wrote a 384-page novel and can't remember the name of one of my key characters? The writer's mind is a bizarre maze.) Jeffrey Maddox, that's him!! Love that character! But, that's partly because he came to me so easily and he spent a shorter time in the book than others. He is also very funny and sneaky smart, though he plays dumb to get info out of people.

In any case, I got a bit tired of my characters and story after living with it for six years. Now, having received so much positive praise and love from all of you, my readers, about my book and the people I created, I've fallen back in love with them. And yes, this means, today, I came up with the idea of what the sequel could be.

I had thought about it many times before but I couldn't nail down something concrete that wouldn't just be a repeat of Worthy. Now, I think I've got it.

I haven't written one word of it yet, so don't count on giving it to anyone for their birthday this year, but I plan to dash off the first 20,000 or so words of it during this year's 3-Day Novel Writing Contest. True story. I do this creative challenge every year and am grateful for how it helped me get Worthy out of head.

Thanks for reading...
bobbie

"If you work for 11 years on a book and you take yourself seriously, as I do, how could I possibly not think it's my best book?"    
~ Norman Mailer, responding to an interviewer about his book, Ancient Evenings, a bestseller with mostly negative reviews.

Digital and print versions of my book Worthy are available on Amazon. Visit my website for more info.