Wrapped Up Like a Blog

The list of sequels which equal (or surpass) the original work is a small one. The Empire Strikes Back springs to mind. As does Godfather II. But the list of sequels which seem little more than rehashes of the original or uninspired cash grabs. I don't need to list Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo or the sequel to The Sting in order to convey this message, I believe. So, when I started writing the draft to the sequel to Misty Johnson, Supernatural Dick in... Capitol Hell, I wanted to keep all of this in mind.

Instead of thinking about sequels that didn't work, I tried to think of some that did. And I found myself gravitating toward Superhero movies. Specifically, Spider-Man 2, X2 and, to a lesser extent, Superman II and The Dark Knight were inspirations. In a superhero movie, the first flick has to take us through the origin. The second movie can assume that knowledge and start us right off the bat with excitement and adventures (whether we crave them or not). The excitement can be bigger, the danger fiercer and the action more dynamic.

So this is what I kept in mind as I set out writing the Misty Johnson sequel. I also knew that there were several threads from the first book that needed addressing in the second. Of course, there was the cliffhanger ending. Also, there were some menaces I'd introduced as red herrings in Capitol Hell that I wanted to play with in its sequel. But there were a lot of character beats I wanted to focus on as well. Relationships between characters, some old, some changed, needed exploring. And there were thematic elements I wanted to continue and to bring forward. But most of all, I wanted to book to surpass anything I'd written before. It was a daunting task, but one I wanted to take on. I knew that Misty's story was just beginning, and I had an opportunity to tell more about her and her world. So I started drafting...

Sequels, from The Empire Strikes Back to Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, they run the gamut from amazing to disappointing. And now I am in the midst of one.

Now that Misty Johnson, Supernatural Dick in... Capitol Hell is out in ebook format (due out in print shortly!), the questions I'm fielding have shifted. People have gone from asking me where I get my ideas and where I came up with that crazy title to "what about a sequel?"

I make no secret of the fact that I ended Capitol Hell on a cliffhanger (and a pretty big one, I'd like to think). From the beginning, I have envisioned the Misty Johnson property as an ongoing series (with ideas for 3, then 5 and now 10 books and counting), with plenty of room for tales set in her backstory as well (like the short story in the upcoming anthology The Game). But now that I am working on the sequel, well, it's leading to some interesting challenges in and of itself.

In the next few columns, I am going to break down some of the great points of writing a sequel, and some of the challenges as well. As a writer friend once said, writing a sequel is like inviting a group of old friends over for a dinner party, and knowing that not all of them are going to survive...

Check out In Focus Paranormal for my second interview on the program!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/infocusparanormal/2011/01/23/author-rp-steeves

The back cover to Misty Johnson, Supernatural Dick in... Capitol Hell. Print edition to be released in February 2011!

Raise your hand if you like to write? Okay, let me count. Now, keep 'em up if you like to revise...

Not as many hands, eh?

When I taught writing to middle school students, this was the hardest sell. Kids didn't' mind brainstorming, drafting, and even editing, but revisions were always greeted by groans. They could come up with ideas, get them down on paper and polish the little mistakes: grammar, syntax and the like, but when it came to adding, deleting moving and changing, that's when I met the most resistance.

And, frankly, I used to feel the same way.

Coming up with ideas is fun for me. I have notebooks full of half-baked ideas for mysteries, movies, comic books and the like. I love to write first drafts, too. Getting those ideas down, barreling toward an ending, creating something out of whole cloth. That's enjoyable, too. But then, every time I finished a first draft, I knew that major changes were in store. Such is the nature of the beast.

But recently, I have enjoyed the process of revising my work. For the first time, I knew that the additions, deletions and changes would serve a greater purpose. They would be read and absorbed by anyone who bought my book. That made it seem more important to me, and I took care in making the book more logical, more action-packed and more interesting. The revisions made the project better, and that made me feel good.

Recently, I finished a short story, only to realize it was too long. So I had to go back and make revisions. Specifically, I needed to make deletions, and I hate cutting out any part of my writing, from a funny quip to a string of dialogue. But, as I trimmed, I found that the story was tighter, the focus sharper, and that felt good, too.

Now I am working on revising a draft of the Misty Johnson sequel. I finished the first draft months ago so now the revisions are not so bad. I have a little distance, a little perspective, and that made it easier for me to see what changes needed to be made. So the process is not as painful as I anticipated.

What do you think, writers? Do you love to revise? Am I the only one who had trouble with it? Have your views on revision been, er, revised at all?

It's a mystery. Mysteries involve men with waxed mustaches sitting around parlors or libraries waxing philosophical about motives and opportunity. Mysteries are not about action, hand-to-hand combat, sewer battles or attacks by creatures of myth. I was writing a mystery, I knew, but that didn't mean it had to be dull.

But I don't know if I understood that at first. As a novice novelist, I might have been more ambitious than I realized. I was writing a story that was part adventure, part mystery, with elements of humor, action, suspense and intrigue. As I was crafting the tale, I overstuffed it with scenes where characters would get together and talk about the mystery, go over details and clues, and review and rehash what had happened, and what was about to happen.

Interspersed between these chatty scenes, I tossed in a few corkers. I had a few fights, a chase scene or two, even a volleyball match. But, in retrospect, there was not enough oopmh. I knew I wasn't writing Faulkner, of course, and I wanted to create a book that would be fun to read, a rip-snorter, a wild ride. So, with a little prodding from my editor/publisher, Kent, and his crew of reviewers, I kicked it up a notch (so to speak). I threw in a little more action, a little more fun, and in the end, I think it helped. I kept all of this in mind as I crafted the first draft of the sequel. More action, more fun, more rip-snorting. And now, as I work on the second draft of the sequel, I see that it's already a more entertaining ride than the first. I introduced the toys in Capitol Hell, and now I get to play with them. I'm having fun writing it. I hope you'll enjoy reading it...

As someone who's name has a small, if someone boring, backstory, I like to take care when selecting a name for my characters. Sometimes the name just sounds right, like Brock Carlson, for instance. Sometimes it has hidden meaning, like Fama (look it up for a clue), or Vera Townsend-Jones (if you can figure out the etymology of that name, I'll be impressed). Other times, the names can be an homage to someone I know. At least three characters in the Mistyverse, as I have taken to calling it, have first names inspired by people I know. One in particular deserves thanks for letting me use his or her name, as it inspired a whole plotline (but I can't say much about that without spoiling what's to come). A writer once told me to avoid giving a character a full name taken from a friend or acquaintance. You never know when the character in questions will be called upon to do something heinous, and making a character named after someone in the real world can make that difficult sometimes. But, then again, it was fun for me to give a nod to a couple of friends when I needed character names. That practice continues in the sequel. I've mentioned the sequel quite a bit (how's that for marketing!), and there will be more in this space about it when time permits. First, though, you may get some hints about a future Misty project of a SHORTER nature...

In order to flesh out the world of Misty Johnson, I needed heroes and villains. But just as importantly, I needed a stable of minor characters: informants, neighbors, helpers and hindrances. These characters have become some of my favorite to write, and I hope they are just as fun to read about!

Vampires: I knew I wanted to demonstrate that, in the world of Misty Johnson, there is a wide range of creatures who exist under the banner of "vampire." To this end, I created to vampires who would appear in quick succession in the book: the Feral and Tony. The feral vampire is savage, animalistic and beastly, with an inhuman visage and a violent streak. You can see what he looks like on the fabulous cover to ...Capitol Hell, as drawn by Gil Murillo. As a contrast, I created the character of Tony the vampire, an ordinary human who was bit one night and ended up 'reborn' as a creature of darkness. But Tony's strain of vampire is like an adolescent, unsure of his place in the world, confused by his new senses, his new vulnerabilities and his new strengths. He is a vampire who is scared of himself and the world around him. He acts as an informant to Misty and as a character whose loyalties might be malleable...

Of course, a private detective (or supernatural dick) like Misty is bound to come in contact with the police. I wanted Misty to have one member of the police force who believed in her, and who could come to her for consultations on mystical matters. I created Dom Thomas, as her man on the inside. Then, of course, I knew that she would make enemies on the police force as well, so Misty would run afoul of Vera Townsend-Jones, who did not have faith in the supernatural world like her colleague. Look for both of these characters to rise in prominence in the next book...

Another character I enjoy writing is that of Sarah Loomis, daughter of the hardware store owner whose shop is below Misty's office. Sarah is young and energetic, curious about the supernatural world and intrigued by Misty and her profession. But in this book, Sarah goes from nuisance to... something else. You'll just have to read and see what happens to her, and have faith that these developments will be explored further in the next installment of the Misty Johnson series...

So Misty Johnson, Dru Chance and the gang sprang from my head eager to investigate the supernatural nastiness in the bowels of Washington, DC. But in order to make the story truly engaging, I knew I needed to develop a rogue's gallery worthy of the Supernatural Dick.

First, I wanted her to have a true supernatural nemesis, someone that she had locked horns with over and over again through the centuries. One night, I had a vision of a group of young men, killed in their own apartment under mysterious circumstances. I thought about my vision, and realized that they had been killed in the manner of a common brain teaser. I wondered who could accomplish this horrific feat, and slowly but surely, the character of the Author came into my mind. A spellcaster who had traded his creativity for power, the Author can use other people's ideas to alter reality, writing into existence any threat from literature (or brain teasers!). I thought this would be an interesting arch enemy for Misty, and so he became part of the story.

But somehow the Author didn't seem to be enough. I wanted Misty to exist in a world where supernatural danger lurked around every corner. I wanted to create an underworld organization populated by nasties from all over the, er, underworld. So the Underworld Underworld came to be. I started at the top, creating a being who would be a mysterious, shadowy figure who could also have a history with Misty but at the same time have motivations and desires that are not readily apparent. From this germ of an idea came the character of Shen, who lurks in the background of this book, but may become more prominent as the story progresses.

Since Shen would be in the background, the U U needed a set of lower-level hoods to interact with Misty and company. I wanted to have a vampire character who would be ambitious, sneaky and diabolical. I thought it would be fun to have a master illusionist who hid his true identity from all but his closest allies, so I came up with Leland, the adolescent monster posing as an old Chinese woman. He needed stooges, and I wanted supernatural creatures that were slightly off the beaten path, so I did a little research and came up with Osborn, the Berserker, and Li, the fenghuang. These characters may play a more prominent role in the future, too, if you stay tuned...

So I had a crop of antagonists, and a strong lead character, along with a few helpers. Next time, I'll talk a little about some of my favorite creations, the minor characters who populate the fringes of the book: Tony, Jonas, Fama and the like. A fun bunch, they are...