When it comes to the repetition of necessary details, I like to present multiple, brief reminders as the story progresses, usually via a change of pov or by weaving them in where it makes /sense/. Info. dumps are a pointless frustration as Readers never retain all the information that’s dumped on them. In fact, I read somewhere that it takes roughly 6 repetitions for something to ‘stick’. The trick is to make those repetitions as painless and natural as possible. 🙂

Great, Jami, thanks so much.

Hi Mindy,

Thanks so much for the kind words, and good luck with your story. 🙂

Hi Paula,

Interesting observation! Actually sequels are another term for how we create a series. Duologies are just a short series, after all.

To answer your first point, these sequel/duology series could be written as standalone stories (read in any order, like the Shared Character category) or as Shared Story Arc stories (must be read in a certain order). There’s honestly no right or wrong answer for how we decide to approach it, and we just need to ensure our marketing reflects our choice to keep readers happy.

We may make that decision based on marketing/branding reasons, writing or craft reasons (which approach seems easier or a better match for our skills), or other reasons. So be sure to visit my companion post to see the Shared Character techniques and decide which approach appeals to you more, as well as get more tips about handling events from prior books.

As for the rest of your questions, like you mentioned, we don’t typically see this recap type of opening, and many think it dated. One reason it’s not used is because — if it’s a read-an-any-order series — it essentially gives the first book away, leaving new readers with no reason to check it out. And if it’s a read-in-a-certain order series, it doesn’t immerse readers into the story right away, instead reminding them that they’re reading words on a page.

I’ve seen sequels start with the protagonist having a dream/nightmare, where there are a few paragraphs recapping the highlights/traumas of the previous book’s events throughout their dream. While clunky, that’s at least more in media res than a separate out-of-the-story introduction.

Either way, however, those recaps are essentially info-dumps, and that’s why they’ll always feel clunky and dated. Using the techniques in the post above to introduce information as it’s needed and/or relevant will help us avoid the need for a recap as well as the sense of an info-dump.

I hope that helps explain the reasons we don’t typically see that technique anymore, but let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂

Thanks for the great question, too!

Hi Angela,

Yep, and one thing I didn’t mention in either post is that we can run into this issue with spin-off series too.

Those same issues of wanting to repeat worldbuilding information for new readers but not give away the reveals of the other series can be tricky as well. As you said, oftentimes the best way to find the balance is to focus on what’s needed for the current story, else we risk too much info-dumping. Thanks for sharing!

Exactly, Becca! Anyone who’s familiar with my long posts won’t be surprised that to fully cover those differences between the 3 types of series, the first draft of this guest post clocked in at close to 3K–lol.

There’s a reason I needed to split the topic into this post and the companion post on my blog. But in my defense, I wanted to be sure visitors knew how much of a difference those 3 different types can make in our approach. 😉

I hope they’re helpful for you, Jan! 🙂

Aww, thanks Christine! And what a great challenge to write a sequel seven years later–wow!

Sounds like you found a way to make it work, between the backstory mentions and how things have changed in the interim. Congratulations and thanks for sharing!