Options for Reactions in a Sequel

 

AS SOON AS your previous scene’s disaster hits, your character is going to experience an immediate and instinctive emotional reaction. Authors who lack a complete understanding of the scene/sequel structure sometimes worry their sequels won’t contain enough action or conflict to keep readers’ attention. But this is far from the case. Readers love action (whatever its manifestation), and authors can’t create a story without it. But without character reactions, all that juicy action will lack context and, as a result, meaning.

 

Exercise: Answer the following questions to identify and elaborate upon your character’s reaction in the sequel.

 

Question #1: With which of the following emotions does your protagonist respond to the disaster in the previous scene? Specify how.

 

• Elation.

 

• Fury.

 

• Anger.

 

• Confusion.

 

• Despair.

 

• Panic.

 

• Shame.

 

• Regret.

 

• Shock.

 

• Other.

 

Question #2: Which of the following will you use to convey the above emotional reaction to your reader? Specify how.

 

• Description.

 

• Internal narrative/monologue.

 

• Dramatization.

 

• Tone.

 

Question #3: How does your character’s reaction correlate to the preceding disaster?

 

Question #4: Why does the character’s reaction make sense in context with the preceding disaster?

 

Question #5: Why is the character’s reaction logical for his personality?

 

Question #6: How much time, in the story, will you need to appropriately portray the reaction?

 

Question #7: Can you illustrate the reaction more powerfully through narrative, description, action, or dialogue?

 

Question #8: How can you clarify the character’s reaction to the disaster without unnecessarily rehashing information readers are already familiar with?

 

Reference: Structuring Your Novel, chapter 19, pages 233-238.