I know some readers think we writers plan out every element
of a series we bring out. Some writers
do; most don’t. Sure, we have some vague
idea of an overall arc if there’s a series we want to write, but we aren’t
organized enough to intricately lay out all of our plans(usually). The reason this is important is due to
obscure hints and references we drop along the way.
In writing Salvation Day, I very deliberately
dropped in obscure hints that most people only picked up on in retrospect. However, in planning out the sequel, where
Mike Faulkner descends into Hell to try and rescue his wife, I’ll have to
reference my original novel to see if I can use something originally thought of
as a throwaway as some kind of clever foreshadowing. I did leave a few things in the hope I could
eventually use something – the realm of Limbo comes to mind – but much of that
may simply be wasted as nothing extraordinary comes from them.
In other words, readers are usually very clever when they
link together these disparate pieces.
That doesn’t mean the writer was as clever in creating them. Even within a novel itself, sometimes a
writer just got lucky to remember a piece from earlier that fit rather than
planning out the storyline. I wish we
were that smart, and we sometimes are, but don’t let the mystery become reality
when it’s not always warranted.
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