I have an interesting problem.
My publisher has asked me to write a short story prequel to my Soul Screamers books. They want to release this story as an e-short in July, so I’m in a bit of a time crunch and I’ve run across a couple of interesting problems. The first is a familiar dilemma (at least for me), but the second is something… else.
[My questions mostly pertain to other writers, but I think readers might be interested in the answers. I know I am, as a reader of other authors here.]
First of all, this story involves events mentioned in the first novel, which has already gone to print, so I’m bound by what I wrote in it. And I really wish I weren’t. If I could just change a couple of minor details, this would be so much easier. Instead, I have to work around them and hope that makes the story better in the long run.
Anyone else ever wish you could change something in a previous book?
The second issue is this: In this series, my main character, Kaylee doesn’t discover what she is and what she can do until halfway through the first book. But this short story, which is supposed to introduce Kaylee and her weird world to the reader, takes place nearly a year before the first novel. At which point she knows there’s something different about her, but hasn’t yet attributed that to anything other than mental instability.
So… I have to introduce her strange, decidedly supernatural world without showing her what she is, and without showing the readers exactly what she can do. And I have to admit, this stumped me (regarding plot) for the better part of a week.
The story can’t deal (directly) with her being a bean sidhe, because she doesn’t yet know she is one. It can’t deal with the otherworldly elements, because she doesn’t yet know they exist. It can’t introduce certain other characters featured in the first novel, because I’ve already said they’d never met before. So until yesterday, I had a lot of can’ts, and not one can.
Fortunately, I think I’ve figured out how to tackle this problem. It won’t be easy, but if I do it right, it could be a great story.
But my second question is this: has anyone else ever had to do something like this? Write a prequel without spoiling anything from the first book? How did you handle it?