I try to keep good notes on what characters look like and where they live, but it took me a while to pick up the habit, so earlier books don’t have those. Some details I don’t think are important to write down, only to learn my error later. I check out the pertinent bits, but continuity errors occasionally occur.
However, I seldom read entire books, not even the previous one in the series in preparation for the next. I don’t have time for it, and rereading books that I already know well seem pointless when there are so many new books to read.
The only exception was several years ago, when I read and partially rewrote the first three books that I’ve published. They sorely needed refreshing, but my writing has improved a lot since too, and I think they and other early books of mine could use another rewrite.
But this month, I’ve read three of my books. I started with It Happened on a Lie, a stand-alone contemporary romance that I first published in 2014. I had a vague recollection that it wasn’t very good, so as I prepared to upload a new cover for it, I read it through.
To my surprise, it wasn’t as bad as I remembered. The ending is a bit abrupt, but it’s only a novella, some 25000 words, and the romance concludes well, so it didn’t matter. I did consider writing one more act, but it seemed to have everything it needed, so I let it be. I did make some changes though.
The novella was an experiment in length to see whether I could write a complete story in as few words as possible. While the characters were surprisingly well-developed for such a short work, it had led to cutting corners, like omitting names of speakers in several places, creating confusing conversations. It wasn’t a big task to add those. And now I can rest easy knowing that even though it isn’t exactly a masterpiece of romantic fiction, it’s not bad as I thought.
Last week,
I read two of my House of Magic books, Saved by the Spell (book 2), and Magic by the Book (book 4). I’d started writing book 5, thinking I can build on
events in those two books, but then it turned out I had no recollection of how
they ended. I especially couldn’t remember the fate of the bad guy in one of
them. So a reread was in order.
Saved by the Spell was published in 2021, but I’d completely forgotten what happens in it. I didn’t remember a major character, I’d forgotten the antagonist’s motivation, and many plot twists came as a surprise for me. I have no idea what past me was thinking, but the present me would’ve written a different story.
But it was fun to reminisce. It was nice to see where the characters had been, and how far they’ve come since. I spotted some errors too, like an embarrassing typo in the first chapter and the colour of one car changing. I think I changed it back in the subsequent book, but I need to check.
Magic by the Book came out last year, but it was full of details I’d forgotten that I need for the upcoming book to avoid continuity errors. They were good details for planning the plot too, something that I’ve been struggling with the whole month. Now I think I’m ready to tackle that task.
All in all,
a good exercise. And I think I’ll continue with it. This year I’ll publish P.I.
Tracy Hayes 12, which might be the last one in the series—for now. It’ll be
nice to remember the journey and wrap up some things in the last book, and if
inspiration strikes, maybe plan for the future books too. Or maybe a spin-off…
Do you reread your own books? Do you still like them, or has your style and tastes changed since writing them?
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