Jurassic World to an Author

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief, Southern Writers Magazine

I’ve read a number of views on the Internet about this movie. Some liked this one better than the first, Jurassic Park; some liked the first one better. Every writer wants to write a great book that sells like hotcakes and then do it again with a sequel/series.

However, many times, a sequel doesn’t make it. It leaves us the reader or the moviegoer flat.

When a writer carries the story forward into another book or movie they sometimes miss the important part that the creation should be good enough to stand alone to be a hit with their readers and moviegoers.

Steve Bradshaw, author of Bluff City Butcher, book one of his Bell Trilogy, created a great thriller with memorable characters and a terrific storyline. The kind you don’t want to let go. The other two books, The Skies Roared and Blood Lions were equally as thrilling and you didn’t want to put those down either. I didn’t want to give up the characters when I finished the last book.

All three were what I consider a good stand-alone even though main characters and story lines were carried forward.

So which one of the movies did I like best? The fourth one, just released, Jurassic World. What about you?

Anytime a story is carried forward into another book, it would be smart to make sure that book is as exciting as the first…in fact, perhaps we should strive for that book to be a little better than the first.

What do you think? What is the hardest part for a writer when they are writing a series?