Wattpad Pet Peeves

Sequels (In General)

Greetings, everyone. I hope y'all like the new festive cover! I'm thinking of changing the cover every season. In spite of my new Christmas cover, I'm going to put a Thanksgiving related picture on this chapter because I'm from the US and that's what I celebrate (what countries are you guys from?). Anyway, enough of this brief author's note.

Once upon a time I had a history teacher (this is a true story btw) who said that the crusades were a lot like the Star Wars saga. The first one was really exciting, the second one was kind of exciting, and every one after that was pretty forgettable. That's how it goes for book sequels. Personally, I find that if the first book is halfway decent, the second book will be slightly worse, and the third book... Well, it'll probably be so boring that I won't even bother finishing it (or reading it).

Usually, an author will want to add a sequel to their story if the first book was really popular, they are really connected to their characters, they have more plot ideas for that cast and setting, or some combination of those three things.

I try to avoid reading Wattpad sequels at all costs, because they tend to be insanely boring. There have been instances in the past where I really really liked a book I was reading, but still refused to read the sequel for fear that it would be bad.

Here's what I mean by bad:

1. The exposition is always way too slow. The author may feel the need to reintroduce the whole cast and setting, but we already know them from the first book. Just get the story into action already.

2. Speaking of slow, so is the rest of the book. I remember the Hunger Games series being really slow (what I said about not referencing specific books only applies to Wattpad books). The first book was interesting, the second book was fine until the halfway point, and reading the third book took an eternity because it was just SO SLOW. Pro tip: make your books move faster by cutting out extensive traveling scenes. We don't need to know what happens every second of every minute of the characters trying to get from point A to point B.

3. It's easy to get bored of the cast. This one's pretty self explanatory. Having to read 50 volumes about the same bland protagonist really wears a person out.

However, there is one exception where a sequel may be a good thing. If the author's writing has improved since releasing the first book and they feel that they can improve on the story they already started, by all means, go ahead and make a sequel! That's the ONLY exception, though. Never overdo your sequels. A good rule of thumb would be to avoid doing more than two books in a series. I know sagas have this certain appeal, but they all go downhill eventually, usually at some point during the third book.

The thing is, every story has to come to an end at some point. Sure, life goes on, but the world is full of trillions of interesting stories. Like, literally just move on from those characters and that setting, authors. When the story ends, I don't want to hear about them anymore!

Hi so I'm bad at conclusions (maybe you've picked up on that from previous chapters... and books). I don't really know how to end this.

So bye (until next week).