When my first novel, Mad Mischief, earned acclaim, I thought the hardest part was over. I was wrong. That’s when the real pressure kicked in. I quickly learned the biggest trap in writing a sequel is trying to recreate the magic of the first book instead of letting the story evolve. I caught myself almost recycling old tricks, but a sequel isn’t supposed to be a replay — it’s supposed to move forward. I had to raise the stakes, not just for my characters but for myself as a writer. Readers already knew the world I built; what they needed was a reason to care even more. So I pushed the conflicts deeper, made the consequences sharper, and let the characters grow beyond who they were in book one.
Another thing I learned — and it took me a while — was not to write scared. When a book does well, it’s tempting to play it safe and cling to what worked. I almost fell into that trap, trying to protect the parts of Mad Mischief that people loved. But that’s not how great stories grow. With Memoir of a Character, I had to remind myself to write boldly. I let my characters stumble, break, and surprise me. I stopped worrying about topping every scene and focused on telling the next honest chapter in their journey. The sequel isn’t about beating the first book — it’s about earning its place beside it.