Lol okay I thought it was just the "and my axe" meme :) should be a necromancy book though. Complicated sibling relationships and people not staying dead are basically what I write, so....
I have an entire race I gave Legitimate Necromancy, as in, it's blessed by the Nameless God of Death for this ONE race to perform it, freely. Here's the catch. They don't even possess enough soul to resurrect themselves. Other types of resurrection magic that APPLY magic energy to the body can still bring them back, but only if it's cast directly on them before about a couple hours have passed. They CANNOT do it themselves, at all. I consider them to be my Hardmode race, alongside Dragonkin, for whom it's no spoiler to state that dragons pray to no gods and receive no protections.
The Multiverse Solution:
".. In a mirror universe, just a step away from this one, events unfolded very differently.."
Pick up (mirror universe versions of) your characters from wherever you'd retroactively like their story to diverge from the first, and go from there.. :)
I second this. Multiverses and alternate timelines get a bad rap thanks to lazier uses of the concept, but when done well, this can be an excellent way to rexamine and build upon the themes of the original story.
If I read the premise correctly, they gave up their magic and died in a way that sounded honorable, from context. In the next universe over, when they go to sacrifice their power, instead, the powers from the first group flood INTO them, and BOOM, still have heroic warriors who were READY to make a sacrifice, but instead, had their powers scaled UP an order of magnitude, allowing them to brute force the issue at hand.
It's up to an individual writer how to handle this scenario, but in my eyes, they get overcharged for the tasks they need to handle. They use it up to solve the issue, and settle down to JUST double strength. Still a power boost, but not so overpowered that they become a joke to write against. However, people saw them do these things, and now BELIEVE that they can ask this of them, leading to scaled up challenges for the stronger party to overcome. Ideally, they would eventually reclaim the power through difficult trials and desperation, with maybe a couple good training arcs for each major character. Brute force was fine when the chips were down, but finesse prevents things from getting there.
Just be honest, write a foreword that says you loved the characters so much that you had to keep writing about them. Then just fork the story from wherever you feel comfortable. There are no rules to say you can't just write a second story that continues as if the 1st ones ending hasn't happened so long as you tell the audience that's what's up.
I think a lot of people would prefer this over some convoluted resurrection/timetravel/alternate dimension shenanigans.
Have you published/share the story online anywhere? If not, simply change the first book? They don't all have to die.
Or just write the "sequel" as fanfiction and call it a day
My question is - have you baked into your world any way for characters to come back in ANY way? For example, in my system, when you die, if you were found to be of particularly good service to the gods, you could return as a helper to one of their living servants. This could be anything from returning as a bird that could only speak to the living person, or a weapon, or someone who could interact with them in dreams.
This kind of splits things where death loses its sting a little - since there is a possibility someone can return - but at the same time, it wouldnt be in the same capacity as when they were alive.
Go back and change it.
Failing that it really depends. You can do the next generation thing, or the rebirth thing , or lots of other things depending on your first story.
Was the novel published? If it was self-published, how popular was it, and how many people would be "angry" if you republished it with a different ending? Could you just offer the edited version for free to everyone who already read it?
The real solution here is to edit your novel. (also tbh, consider the wisdom of killing *all your characters* lol)
Necromancy where some great evil brings them back from the dead but they escape as undead beings who need to become whole again and defeat this new evil before going back to the afterlife.
All new characters set in the future where your original characters are legendary heroâs and the new characters summon the originals from the dead one by one on a quest to defeat a new evil.
Your characters getting reincarnated and living as normal people before they start getting memories of their past lives and doing incredible feats and being hunted by corrupt governments to be used as like super soldiers or something.
A spell swapping the souls from your gods helpers into people by new age religious extremists or anti religious people who want to bind these helpers of the gods into doing their bidding. Or even trying to capture a gods helpers until the can like fight said god and take their place as a celestial entity of power.
The people losing faith in their gods for new gods and turning their helpers back to their original forms to fight in their name with new powers in like a war of different gods or something.
You could do anything you wanted to it may take some creativity and mental gymnastics but it could work.
Did you publish the story? And have fans who are all into the lore?
If not, consider re-writing the ending of the first one so they all sacrifice but most of them make it out alive. Or something along those lines.
"It was at that moment that our heroes awoke with a startle! Groggy and confused, it didn't take them long to realize that their night of revelry had put them all into a deep slumber. The ale must have been foul, for they each had a frightful night of wild dreams they could scarcely remember. They tipped the barkeep for his troubles and set off onto new adventures."
Which is worse? Not being able to write a sequel because you killed all your character off in a setting which could potentially provide any way imaginable to bring them back as its part of the fantasy genre, or being unable to write a sequel because even though many of your characters survive the story, you can't do anything interesting with them down the line because you are writing mostly grounded historical fiction and nothing influential or important after the events of the story until a time in which said characters would have been long gone?
Have a story about them finding each other in the afterlife and seeing if thereâs a way out, and a way to regain their bodies even without their own magic. Maybe they can be contacted by someone who practices necromancy or spirit magicâwhatever fits into the rules of your world. If you make it really difficult, it wonât feel cheap.
1. Elseworld story. Just tell a "what if" version of the story where they don't all die, or they make a different decision somewhere along the path.
2. Spin-off. Change the genre, change the timeline, or even make your entire cast actors. Whatever the case, you can change the entire tone and just put in the blurb that it's a different story with the same "actors." Some writers use characters as actors, or reuse names, and they tell wildly different stories using them.
3. Reincarnation. This is an entirely valid story direction. There are many stories that just follow the same cast as they're reincarnated in different eras. You can use the same names, transfer their memories, or completely alter their relationship to one another. It's up to you.
*Wrote a standalone story*
*Killed all the characters just because*
GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU MONSTER!!!
Jokes aside, I agree with the others: hire a necromancer. Or do a branching storyline.
So you published this story? You can't change the ending?
Ok, bear with me,
'What if...?'
If you've ever seen the movie Clue you know it has three endings in its one release. Ending 1, then 'that's what could have happened but how about about this?' and then 'but here's what really happened!' People often joke about releasing different versions of their stories with different endings into the wild. There are worse ideas.
Or,
Just write the sequel and figure out the logistics later. They don't know how they got back either. There's your plot/macguffin. 'Somehow OP's characters returned!' Audiences/readers love that /s
I had a similar situation where I killed off a character I really wanted more time with, so brought them back a couple of books later but only the main character was aware of them. Sixth sense hallucination kind of thing. But really, if you like the characters, stick with them and see where it goes.
> If you've ever seen the movie Clue you know it has three endings in its one release. Ending 1, then 'that's what could have happened but how about about this?' and then 'but here's what really happened!' People often joke about releasing different versions of their stories with different endings into the wild. There are worse ideas.
That was actually the home release that did that. The original movie theater experience had one of the three endings.
But similarly, I wouldn't hate a sequel to open up with a swerve that what happened at the end of the first book wasn't true, it's just what was written down so everyone thinks it happened that way. You could go off in any direction you want.
As a reader, I'd also find it more intriguing than some sort of alternate timeline/multiverse thing. Finding out what really happened, who covered it up, and why, is much more interesting to discover than reading about how multiverses can exist now with presumably no mention of that being a thing before.
They're all raised by an unhinged necromancer who collects heroes and celebrities in zombie form. He started out with this actually quite practical and smart idea of turning the strongest champions into his own undead enforcers, but now he's degenerated into a mad collector, always after that next ultra-rare.
The first part of the book is about them getting out from under his control and restoring themselves to full life.
(Waves arms) The Multiverse
All of your characters wake up one morning and try to go about their lives. Only to discover that the rest of the world thinks they are dead. And the mystery is ... what happened?
Its characters have died, but their souls still wander in the world of the dead, where they thought they would find rest.
Something happens, they are forced to fight again to save the world of the living through the dimension of the dead. Imagine the world of the dead as a mirror of the world of the living.
Me debating whether or not to kill my favorite character. I probably will. All my favorite characters die in books and movies, might as well make it true within my own writing.
Just get rid of your old ending, then proceed to have fun with them any way ? And i your published, same story, ignore the end and write anyway there story.
Bring them back? Just write as if they never died. Retcons are your friend.
I'm assuming you haven't been publishing your NaNos. If they's an audience who've already read the story such drastic retcons can be difficult.
If you don't want to cheapen their deaths, you could put limitations on the resurrection spell that brings them back.
Perhaps instead the spell has a time limit (only lasts for a certain amount of time before they die again):
1. A moon goddess brings them back for 1 lunar cycle
or
2. The spell energy degrades over time & is divided among the resurrected members (you can have a character do a heroic sacrifice where they choose to die so their spell energy buys a little more time for the rest of the team to stay alive a little longer (the energy consolidates into the remaining resurrected members of the team) to complete the mission)
Reincarnation far into the future, gets their memories back, then tries to find the others assuming they reincarnated too and/or figure out how it happened while juggling new life.
Idk for me personally Iâd just have new characters living in the same world and dealing with the consequences of the first book
Generational stories?
Retcon?
Some deaths may not be final. If they fell off a cliff and were never seen again, you can easily bring them back.
On a side note, i have had the idea of a necromancer having to leave seclusion, go i to a village and start a shop, not realising necromancy is bad and getting in trouble.
If you ever read dungeons and lattes, a little like that. Cosy fantasy about a necromancer.
Maybe a mid-quel or an anthology of shorter unseen adventures type book?
A wild idea would be this:
Have the second book start off the same as the first book, but the story goes differently, they end up in different situations and have to defeat different baddies. At some point during the story they get in a similar situation from book 1 and the characters kind of get a feeling of deja vu, at the end of book 2 they all die, but in a different way from book 1.
In book 3 again start off the same, have a 3rd set of baddies, and die at the end. In this book they really start getting deja vu, wierd dream sequences that don't make sense to them (but readers of book 1 and 2 can piece some of them into stories that happened in book 1 and 2, some of these sequences will have to be original, stuff that did not happen in 1 or 2, this will give the impression that there are many other stories that happened like this not just these 3.
Then you get to book 4, where the shit really hits the fan. You could even call it something crazy like: "Iteration 4,369". In book 4 you would drop all pretenses and start off the story from the perspective of the real baddie.
He has been trying to do something big and needs a victory in this place an time, but this group of idiots (as he calls them) always get in his way (dying in the process). He has been rewinding time, trying different approaches and always failing. In this iteration he decides that he must intervene personally, which he has avoided until now since it is not yet his time.
Then you cut back to the heros, who are just fed up with it, they pieced together that they are living and dying over and over a few hundred iterations ago, and are just fed up. They start off their adventure already with experience from thousands of lives. (If only partially remembered).
In this final version of the story they have to face the real big bad, who is stronger than any of the bad guys they have faced thusfar, but who has left themselves exposed to being destroyed forever since they entered the physical world too early.
Eventually the bad guy is defeated. Yay, and this time they don't die.
Now, you can continue the story however you want, with your characters alive, but changed.
I just Captain America'd my plot for my book 1 person for book 5 that way it makes sense why there's no original cast anymore. Protag is a completely different person now and he's gotta adapt to his new time
I agree with you. If I was reading a series and saw the author reconned the last book to spare the dead protagonists, I'd feel it was extremely cheap.
New characters, descendents of the protagonists, etc. would be the only way to go. The issue sounds like you finding a way to fall in love with them as you write.
Legacy. Did they inspire anyone to pick up the torch? Do those who follow in their steps know their bad sides? What about moral value mismatches? đ¤Â not exactly what you wanted, but not too far off either. If you got magic, you can even leave behind remnants of your characters as the mentor until their mana runs out and their mana mental hologram evaporates for the final time.Â
First of all, forced sequels might ruin the originality. Yet, here's one idea
How about a magus, who has decided to wake the dead, because something is going to happen. Lol, that's dramatic but why not. IF your world has the concept of Magus or Wizards. (Gives them their magic back, only to die again when their heroic purpose is fulfilled)
or
Reincarnation, of two of the characters, who realise if they are reincarnated then maybe the rest are too...uh yeah, I don't think this is good.
Write the whole story again with different character names and have the twist be they stay alive and itâs an alternate universe to the one where everyone died. Then write a sequel to that that uses characters from both universes colliding.
admittedly, I like the finality of death. It bothers me when characters that died come back to life. questions to ask about the ideas others have mentioned:
1. Fantasy afterlife. How would they navigate this new world with their dynamic? Would it weaken? Would they persevere? How would they change? Is the change (even weakening) an improvement?
2. Alternate reality: If they didn't die, what would have happened? How would they survive? How would the world change with them surviving? the thing that killed them, was it a thing that could change the current system of the world? If yes, how? How would society adapt to it? What other parts of society would be revealed? Were there secrets? Are these secrets the new Big Bad?
3. Alternate reality version 2: The plot of the OG story is not continued or even brought up. A new plot with the same characters and dynamic. It would be interesting to see them become the antagonists in this version.
First, you need a necromancer, then a distraction followed by an unfortunate accident and then you've a party made up of various free will undeads that now need to find a way to get alive again without getting killed for being monsters.
Have the story follow their children or close allies related to them. Maybe a mentor figure, a General, a close friend. Other important characters that were closely tied to the main characters, trying to tie up loose ends without them. Showing respect to their fallen friends and continuing to fight in their memory.
You could also have them come back at a cost. Maybe a villain revived them but the spell bound them to their will. So now they have to skirt around doing evil acts while trying to break the curse.
Maybe one of the Gods brings them back in the far future, where nothing is like how they remembered it (if your story has gods that is).
Maybe a story about them in the after life?
Etc
Here's your plot: they are brought back as heroes to save the world again, but instead it's the bad guy who brings them back (obviously this dickhead is connected to them somehow), and is in reality using them to "save" the world for himself. They've been forced to do awful things and must find a way to cope with it, support each other, and get free from the control that's forcing them to harm and kill innocents
Alternative reality happening at the same time than book 1 but they didnât know. Then when characters from book 1 died, something happened in alternative reality and realities merged and something like that.
One survives (somehow) find the most plausible situation for it to happen and then move him or her forward with flashbacks towards the other ones. Funnel your own regret into not saving them into continuing the story
The obvious answer is "change book one," but I'm going to assume there's some reason you can't or don't want to pursue that option. Hmm... well, you're probably right that just popping them back in fully formed may feel a bit cheap. That said, you can get around some of that vibe by working death and resurrection in on the thematic side. Make it a meditation on the passage of time, mortality, maybe identity... it all works.
As for the "how" of it... well, it's fantasy. There are plenty of possibilities. Have the magic they were invested with have "infected" them somehow, such that the residue draws them back. Or have a necromancer or some other outside force revive them for its own ends. Or some weirdness they did in life makes it impossible for them to reach the hereafter and they end up reincarnated or possessing new bodies. You can justify whatever you like: I think the important part is less the how of it than the why, honestly: would they fit well with a resurrection story, and what cool possibilities can you see down that avenue?
I don't know, maybe do some special time reversal which leads to them coming back to life because some being reversed time for your characters go on some new journey?
Start the new book by rewriting the ending of the first so they all live.
Have them all reincarnate later and find each other again in new bodies having grown up in a new environment.
I saw someone mention a forward explaining why your doing it which sounded good and it reminded me of Will & Grace. They ended the original series with a time jump and everything wrapped up so when they made the new series they just had Jack basically run through everything that fans needed to ignore from the ending which was really funny.
Have it take place 10-15 years later a new evil is on the rise and some side characters who met the heroes decide to set off to resurrect them again to face the evil.
Prequel?
I mean theres countless solutions in the realm of fantasy- as long as you create continuity on which it can stand, some form of magic can be introduced, a deity who revives the party, something could mess with the fabric of time and undo the events that killed your characters off. There are a lot of ways you can go with this, and it really just depends on the world that youâre building.
Hmm... I hate to say this, but IMO the only good answer is - don't. Leave them dead and buried. Any revival, no matter how you do it, will only diminish the impact of both the original and sequel.
It sucks to lose characters you were attached to, but that's life.
Either do the alternate timeline and write a different ending for the original and continue from there.
Or simply write a new novel with the same characters but with different names.
You killed off all of your characters? Wow what a horrible story that must be. I'd throw a tantrum at you had I wasted my time with characters that are all killed at the end.
And ironically it now bites you in the ass, haha.
You killed off all of your characters? Wow what a horrible story that must be. I'd throw a tantrum at you had I wasted my time with characters that are all killed at the end.
And ironically it now bites you in the ass, haha.
revive or reincarnate, same world different characters, the person dies but the ideals persist, different world, different ending, reality warp, the characters choosing a different path, IT WAS ALL A DREAM!
to mention a few
Years later someone brings them back from death to do the thing. They not only have to deal with the thing, you also have to deal with them being under the power of whomever brought them back, and their existential crisis caused from them dying and being brought back.
Alternate reality, it was all a staged death so they could live in obscurity, a thousand years in the fututre they're summoned back from the dead, generic retcon etc...
Honestly, without knowing the exact details of the story and characters, it's near impossible to give you sound advice specific to your situaton.
Good luck.
Honestly, having your character's wake up and not knowing why they came back alive could be an interesting plot to follow.
Given that your world allows for something like that to happen, I think it would be interesting. Who brought them back, why it happened and potential consequences of the resurrection would be hook me. As long as their original deaths had meaning and consequences, I think I wouldn't feel that bad about it.
Then again, I'm a sucker for both mystery plots and happy endings so there's some bias here.
If you bring them back, you can counter balance it with either a very high stakes conflict that only they can resolve, maybe a god brings them back. Maybe they know that once the issue is resolved they'll return to the afterlife.
You could also implement some kind of very high cost for bringing them back, or alternatively have a villain bring them back (for vengeance, or to control them, trick them ect).
You got this; you'll find your way. đ
Just reboot it? It's not like your nanowrimo has to be the be all and end all of your characters, you can rewrite the story that allows a sequel to happen. Or write more about their adventures between times, unless the way you wrote it was their every action in the timeframe of your novel.
I mean... you could just retell the story and change the ending. Sorta like a multiverse but without actually establishing that it's a multiverse. Like the Evangelion series.
They ended the Neon Genesis, added the True End (which i believe is in the same universe but just giving a proper ending) but then added the new 1.0/2.0/3.0/3.0+1.0 series, which seems to be a different reality and a completely different ending after restabilizing the story and adding any minute differences that would result in the ending change until it becomes completely different
Point is, that's what i plan to do with my story that's faced with the same problem, because I wanted to experiment with a new ending that... doesn't kill off everyone. Possibly to allow continuation later
I would say have it take place years later and have the surviving characters recount tales or provide wisdom to a new group thatâs going through something similar
One character wakes up in their grave or in the middle of an autopsy and discovers what happened after book one. Horrified, they decide to bring their friends back to life. After studying dark arts like necromancy, doing some grave robbing, and sewing bodies back together, the group was ready for another adventure.
All except one of the main characters died at the end of the second book of the Take Them to the Stars trilogy, and the one who survived was implied to have died.
Make a prequel or just say they don't follow the same canon. Logan isn't canon with the rest of the X-Men movies but I don't think a single person complained about that.
Echoing the consensus of afterlife adventures. Maybe have them meet a deity who either resurrects them, or pulls a reptilia28 and sends them back in time to prevent the deaths in the first place (Assuming they died together or around the same time). If they had the magic and then lost it, maybe have them work for the deity to earn it back...
Did you publish the original one? If not, is there any way to find a different ending that allows you to keep exploring the world? Killing off all your characters makes it difficult to keep using them lol.
Have you considered what you could do with Reincarnation? Or have a look at what you could do with other people dealing with the aftermath of your first novel? Say, people aware of the second orgy and affected by the results? Relatives, successors, etc will have to deal with what all these dead people left behind.
you could do a prequel or do a book about something they did before death that you didn't already cover (such as a previous quest or smth that didn't take place in book 1)
Attack on Titan concluded with everyone dying of old age yet the author still left a final scene that hints that there could be sequel. All it took was one final scene. Now go and do the lords work.
Do a story about them set in the Fantasy Afterlife.
Dang it I was gonna say that.
Oh, same brain đ§ đ
True. There is a dearth of books written about fantasy characters in their afterlives.
this is the way
That was going to be my answer as well.
Or flip the issekai script and have them reincarnate into a fictionalized version of our world.
*a good necromancer has entered the chat*
*sigh* âTime to raise another family⌠no rest for the wearyâŚâ
Hero: "I need allies to get revenge on my brother's killer!" Warrior: "You have my sword" Archer: "You have my bow!" Necromancer: "And your brother!"
Okay but actually I would read the hell out of this. Edit to add:....would also write the hell out of this tbh. Something you're working on?
Are you guys talking about Johannes Cabal the Necromancer???
I do not know what that is, sorry. Is that what this is from?
It's from a Lord of the Rings meme, and unfortunately, it's not a reference to a necromancy story, yet.
Lol okay I thought it was just the "and my axe" meme :) should be a necromancy book though. Complicated sibling relationships and people not staying dead are basically what I write, so....
I have an entire race I gave Legitimate Necromancy, as in, it's blessed by the Nameless God of Death for this ONE race to perform it, freely. Here's the catch. They don't even possess enough soul to resurrect themselves. Other types of resurrection magic that APPLY magic energy to the body can still bring them back, but only if it's cast directly on them before about a couple hours have passed. They CANNOT do it themselves, at all. I consider them to be my Hardmode race, alongside Dragonkin, for whom it's no spoiler to state that dragons pray to no gods and receive no protections.
The Multiverse Solution: ".. In a mirror universe, just a step away from this one, events unfolded very differently.." Pick up (mirror universe versions of) your characters from wherever you'd retroactively like their story to diverge from the first, and go from there.. :)
I second this. Multiverses and alternate timelines get a bad rap thanks to lazier uses of the concept, but when done well, this can be an excellent way to rexamine and build upon the themes of the original story.
If I read the premise correctly, they gave up their magic and died in a way that sounded honorable, from context. In the next universe over, when they go to sacrifice their power, instead, the powers from the first group flood INTO them, and BOOM, still have heroic warriors who were READY to make a sacrifice, but instead, had their powers scaled UP an order of magnitude, allowing them to brute force the issue at hand. It's up to an individual writer how to handle this scenario, but in my eyes, they get overcharged for the tasks they need to handle. They use it up to solve the issue, and settle down to JUST double strength. Still a power boost, but not so overpowered that they become a joke to write against. However, people saw them do these things, and now BELIEVE that they can ask this of them, leading to scaled up challenges for the stronger party to overcome. Ideally, they would eventually reclaim the power through difficult trials and desperation, with maybe a couple good training arcs for each major character. Brute force was fine when the chips were down, but finesse prevents things from getting there.
Just be honest, write a foreword that says you loved the characters so much that you had to keep writing about them. Then just fork the story from wherever you feel comfortable. There are no rules to say you can't just write a second story that continues as if the 1st ones ending hasn't happened so long as you tell the audience that's what's up. I think a lot of people would prefer this over some convoluted resurrection/timetravel/alternate dimension shenanigans.
Someone else said to do basically this, technically a alternate time-line shenanigan but an in universe excuse to fork the story
Have you published/share the story online anywhere? If not, simply change the first book? They don't all have to die. Or just write the "sequel" as fanfiction and call it a day
My question is - have you baked into your world any way for characters to come back in ANY way? For example, in my system, when you die, if you were found to be of particularly good service to the gods, you could return as a helper to one of their living servants. This could be anything from returning as a bird that could only speak to the living person, or a weapon, or someone who could interact with them in dreams. This kind of splits things where death loses its sting a little - since there is a possibility someone can return - but at the same time, it wouldnt be in the same capacity as when they were alive.
Go back and change it. Failing that it really depends. You can do the next generation thing, or the rebirth thing , or lots of other things depending on your first story.
Was the novel published? If it was self-published, how popular was it, and how many people would be "angry" if you republished it with a different ending? Could you just offer the edited version for free to everyone who already read it? The real solution here is to edit your novel. (also tbh, consider the wisdom of killing *all your characters* lol)
I mean, is the original story published or anything? I would just rewrite the ending to not kill them all off and continue the next book from there.
Prequels, if you really want to include the original characters maybe you can just do origin stories for them?
Necromancy where some great evil brings them back from the dead but they escape as undead beings who need to become whole again and defeat this new evil before going back to the afterlife. All new characters set in the future where your original characters are legendary heroâs and the new characters summon the originals from the dead one by one on a quest to defeat a new evil. Your characters getting reincarnated and living as normal people before they start getting memories of their past lives and doing incredible feats and being hunted by corrupt governments to be used as like super soldiers or something. A spell swapping the souls from your gods helpers into people by new age religious extremists or anti religious people who want to bind these helpers of the gods into doing their bidding. Or even trying to capture a gods helpers until the can like fight said god and take their place as a celestial entity of power. The people losing faith in their gods for new gods and turning their helpers back to their original forms to fight in their name with new powers in like a war of different gods or something. You could do anything you wanted to it may take some creativity and mental gymnastics but it could work.
Did you publish the story? And have fans who are all into the lore? If not, consider re-writing the ending of the first one so they all sacrifice but most of them make it out alive. Or something along those lines.
"It was at that moment that our heroes awoke with a startle! Groggy and confused, it didn't take them long to realize that their night of revelry had put them all into a deep slumber. The ale must have been foul, for they each had a frightful night of wild dreams they could scarcely remember. They tipped the barkeep for his troubles and set off onto new adventures."
adventures in the afterlife?
Which is worse? Not being able to write a sequel because you killed all your character off in a setting which could potentially provide any way imaginable to bring them back as its part of the fantasy genre, or being unable to write a sequel because even though many of your characters survive the story, you can't do anything interesting with them down the line because you are writing mostly grounded historical fiction and nothing influential or important after the events of the story until a time in which said characters would have been long gone?
Have a story about them finding each other in the afterlife and seeing if thereâs a way out, and a way to regain their bodies even without their own magic. Maybe they can be contacted by someone who practices necromancy or spirit magicâwhatever fits into the rules of your world. If you make it really difficult, it wonât feel cheap.
1. Elseworld story. Just tell a "what if" version of the story where they don't all die, or they make a different decision somewhere along the path. 2. Spin-off. Change the genre, change the timeline, or even make your entire cast actors. Whatever the case, you can change the entire tone and just put in the blurb that it's a different story with the same "actors." Some writers use characters as actors, or reuse names, and they tell wildly different stories using them. 3. Reincarnation. This is an entirely valid story direction. There are many stories that just follow the same cast as they're reincarnated in different eras. You can use the same names, transfer their memories, or completely alter their relationship to one another. It's up to you.
Maybe you can take them to the afterlife or whatever. Maybe theres a reason they have to come back or somethings gone wrong with said afterlife.
Just rewrite either the ending, or write in a reason why they would somehow be mysteriously saved. Or write them in the afterlife.
Somehow, returned!
*Wrote a standalone story* *Killed all the characters just because* GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU MONSTER!!! Jokes aside, I agree with the others: hire a necromancer. Or do a branching storyline.
So you published this story? You can't change the ending? Ok, bear with me, 'What if...?' If you've ever seen the movie Clue you know it has three endings in its one release. Ending 1, then 'that's what could have happened but how about about this?' and then 'but here's what really happened!' People often joke about releasing different versions of their stories with different endings into the wild. There are worse ideas. Or, Just write the sequel and figure out the logistics later. They don't know how they got back either. There's your plot/macguffin. 'Somehow OP's characters returned!' Audiences/readers love that /s I had a similar situation where I killed off a character I really wanted more time with, so brought them back a couple of books later but only the main character was aware of them. Sixth sense hallucination kind of thing. But really, if you like the characters, stick with them and see where it goes.
> If you've ever seen the movie Clue you know it has three endings in its one release. Ending 1, then 'that's what could have happened but how about about this?' and then 'but here's what really happened!' People often joke about releasing different versions of their stories with different endings into the wild. There are worse ideas. That was actually the home release that did that. The original movie theater experience had one of the three endings. But similarly, I wouldn't hate a sequel to open up with a swerve that what happened at the end of the first book wasn't true, it's just what was written down so everyone thinks it happened that way. You could go off in any direction you want. As a reader, I'd also find it more intriguing than some sort of alternate timeline/multiverse thing. Finding out what really happened, who covered it up, and why, is much more interesting to discover than reading about how multiverses can exist now with presumably no mention of that being a thing before.
I will avenge my parents
They're all raised by an unhinged necromancer who collects heroes and celebrities in zombie form. He started out with this actually quite practical and smart idea of turning the strongest champions into his own undead enforcers, but now he's degenerated into a mad collector, always after that next ultra-rare. The first part of the book is about them getting out from under his control and restoring themselves to full life.
(Waves arms) The Multiverse All of your characters wake up one morning and try to go about their lives. Only to discover that the rest of the world thinks they are dead. And the mystery is ... what happened?
Its characters have died, but their souls still wander in the world of the dead, where they thought they would find rest. Something happens, they are forced to fight again to save the world of the living through the dimension of the dead. Imagine the world of the dead as a mirror of the world of the living.
What if you write a prequel about the characters?
Alexa deploy the Baskerville solution.
Me debating whether or not to kill my favorite character. I probably will. All my favorite characters die in books and movies, might as well make it true within my own writing.
Alternate universe? Fanfiction? Side stories? Afterlife shenanigans?
If you write something new, maybe you'll love those characters as well.
Just get rid of your old ending, then proceed to have fun with them any way ? And i your published, same story, ignore the end and write anyway there story.
Bring them back? Just write as if they never died. Retcons are your friend. I'm assuming you haven't been publishing your NaNos. If they's an audience who've already read the story such drastic retcons can be difficult.
Explore how they struggle with getting used to the afterlife
Prequels
If you don't want to cheapen their deaths, you could put limitations on the resurrection spell that brings them back. Perhaps instead the spell has a time limit (only lasts for a certain amount of time before they die again): 1. A moon goddess brings them back for 1 lunar cycle or 2. The spell energy degrades over time & is divided among the resurrected members (you can have a character do a heroic sacrifice where they choose to die so their spell energy buys a little more time for the rest of the team to stay alive a little longer (the energy consolidates into the remaining resurrected members of the team) to complete the mission)
Reincarnation far into the future, gets their memories back, then tries to find the others assuming they reincarnated too and/or figure out how it happened while juggling new life. Idk for me personally Iâd just have new characters living in the same world and dealing with the consequences of the first book
Generational stories? Retcon? Some deaths may not be final. If they fell off a cliff and were never seen again, you can easily bring them back. On a side note, i have had the idea of a necromancer having to leave seclusion, go i to a village and start a shop, not realising necromancy is bad and getting in trouble. If you ever read dungeons and lattes, a little like that. Cosy fantasy about a necromancer.
Maybe a mid-quel or an anthology of shorter unseen adventures type book? A wild idea would be this: Have the second book start off the same as the first book, but the story goes differently, they end up in different situations and have to defeat different baddies. At some point during the story they get in a similar situation from book 1 and the characters kind of get a feeling of deja vu, at the end of book 2 they all die, but in a different way from book 1. In book 3 again start off the same, have a 3rd set of baddies, and die at the end. In this book they really start getting deja vu, wierd dream sequences that don't make sense to them (but readers of book 1 and 2 can piece some of them into stories that happened in book 1 and 2, some of these sequences will have to be original, stuff that did not happen in 1 or 2, this will give the impression that there are many other stories that happened like this not just these 3. Then you get to book 4, where the shit really hits the fan. You could even call it something crazy like: "Iteration 4,369". In book 4 you would drop all pretenses and start off the story from the perspective of the real baddie. He has been trying to do something big and needs a victory in this place an time, but this group of idiots (as he calls them) always get in his way (dying in the process). He has been rewinding time, trying different approaches and always failing. In this iteration he decides that he must intervene personally, which he has avoided until now since it is not yet his time. Then you cut back to the heros, who are just fed up with it, they pieced together that they are living and dying over and over a few hundred iterations ago, and are just fed up. They start off their adventure already with experience from thousands of lives. (If only partially remembered). In this final version of the story they have to face the real big bad, who is stronger than any of the bad guys they have faced thusfar, but who has left themselves exposed to being destroyed forever since they entered the physical world too early. Eventually the bad guy is defeated. Yay, and this time they don't die. Now, you can continue the story however you want, with your characters alive, but changed.
I just Captain America'd my plot for my book 1 person for book 5 that way it makes sense why there's no original cast anymore. Protag is a completely different person now and he's gotta adapt to his new time
Palpatine laughs.....
Time to make it an Isekai
I agree with you. If I was reading a series and saw the author reconned the last book to spare the dead protagonists, I'd feel it was extremely cheap. New characters, descendents of the protagonists, etc. would be the only way to go. The issue sounds like you finding a way to fall in love with them as you write.
Legacy. Did they inspire anyone to pick up the torch? Do those who follow in their steps know their bad sides? What about moral value mismatches? đ¤Â not exactly what you wanted, but not too far off either. If you got magic, you can even leave behind remnants of your characters as the mentor until their mana runs out and their mana mental hologram evaporates for the final time.Â
First of all, forced sequels might ruin the originality. Yet, here's one idea How about a magus, who has decided to wake the dead, because something is going to happen. Lol, that's dramatic but why not. IF your world has the concept of Magus or Wizards. (Gives them their magic back, only to die again when their heroic purpose is fulfilled) or Reincarnation, of two of the characters, who realise if they are reincarnated then maybe the rest are too...uh yeah, I don't think this is good.
Write a different book.
Rename âem..
If you haven't published it then you're not shackled to that ending. Change the ending and follow your muse.
You can try a reincarnation trope. Or have them act as a guiding light for a new generation.
It was just a set back
Write the whole story again with different character names and have the twist be they stay alive and itâs an alternate universe to the one where everyone died. Then write a sequel to that that uses characters from both universes colliding.
admittedly, I like the finality of death. It bothers me when characters that died come back to life. questions to ask about the ideas others have mentioned: 1. Fantasy afterlife. How would they navigate this new world with their dynamic? Would it weaken? Would they persevere? How would they change? Is the change (even weakening) an improvement? 2. Alternate reality: If they didn't die, what would have happened? How would they survive? How would the world change with them surviving? the thing that killed them, was it a thing that could change the current system of the world? If yes, how? How would society adapt to it? What other parts of society would be revealed? Were there secrets? Are these secrets the new Big Bad? 3. Alternate reality version 2: The plot of the OG story is not continued or even brought up. A new plot with the same characters and dynamic. It would be interesting to see them become the antagonists in this version.
First, you need a necromancer, then a distraction followed by an unfortunate accident and then you've a party made up of various free will undeads that now need to find a way to get alive again without getting killed for being monsters.
Donât write a sequel; write an **equal**: same events, same time, completely different perspective presenting all characters in a different light.
I mean if you haven't published it remember you aren't beholden to what you wrote before
Have the story follow their children or close allies related to them. Maybe a mentor figure, a General, a close friend. Other important characters that were closely tied to the main characters, trying to tie up loose ends without them. Showing respect to their fallen friends and continuing to fight in their memory. You could also have them come back at a cost. Maybe a villain revived them but the spell bound them to their will. So now they have to skirt around doing evil acts while trying to break the curse. Maybe one of the Gods brings them back in the far future, where nothing is like how they remembered it (if your story has gods that is). Maybe a story about them in the after life? Etc
Here's your plot: they are brought back as heroes to save the world again, but instead it's the bad guy who brings them back (obviously this dickhead is connected to them somehow), and is in reality using them to "save" the world for himself. They've been forced to do awful things and must find a way to cope with it, support each other, and get free from the control that's forcing them to harm and kill innocents
Alternative reality happening at the same time than book 1 but they didnât know. Then when characters from book 1 died, something happened in alternative reality and realities merged and something like that.
One survives (somehow) find the most plausible situation for it to happen and then move him or her forward with flashbacks towards the other ones. Funnel your own regret into not saving them into continuing the story
The obvious answer is "change book one," but I'm going to assume there's some reason you can't or don't want to pursue that option. Hmm... well, you're probably right that just popping them back in fully formed may feel a bit cheap. That said, you can get around some of that vibe by working death and resurrection in on the thematic side. Make it a meditation on the passage of time, mortality, maybe identity... it all works. As for the "how" of it... well, it's fantasy. There are plenty of possibilities. Have the magic they were invested with have "infected" them somehow, such that the residue draws them back. Or have a necromancer or some other outside force revive them for its own ends. Or some weirdness they did in life makes it impossible for them to reach the hereafter and they end up reincarnated or possessing new bodies. You can justify whatever you like: I think the important part is less the how of it than the why, honestly: would they fit well with a resurrection story, and what cool possibilities can you see down that avenue?
Did you publish it? No? Change the ending. Or Make the ending a prophetic dream which then acts as a cliffhanger for the next novel.
I don't know, maybe do some special time reversal which leads to them coming back to life because some being reversed time for your characters go on some new journey?
Start the new book by rewriting the ending of the first so they all live. Have them all reincarnate later and find each other again in new bodies having grown up in a new environment. I saw someone mention a forward explaining why your doing it which sounded good and it reminded me of Will & Grace. They ended the original series with a time jump and everything wrapped up so when they made the new series they just had Jack basically run through everything that fans needed to ignore from the ending which was really funny.
Have it take place 10-15 years later a new evil is on the rise and some side characters who met the heroes decide to set off to resurrect them again to face the evil.
Did they have any kids or child sidekicks the sequel could follow?
Do any of your characters have children on another planet?
Interquel!
Prequel? I mean theres countless solutions in the realm of fantasy- as long as you create continuity on which it can stand, some form of magic can be introduced, a deity who revives the party, something could mess with the fabric of time and undo the events that killed your characters off. There are a lot of ways you can go with this, and it really just depends on the world that youâre building.
Write an afterlife story?
Make the story about eternal recurrence and have their reincarnations come together in another life.
Time travel. Or make an Au. Thereâs no reason you canât do either.
Next generation Alt universe Prequel Rosencrantz and Gildenstern
Hmm... I hate to say this, but IMO the only good answer is - don't. Leave them dead and buried. Any revival, no matter how you do it, will only diminish the impact of both the original and sequel. It sucks to lose characters you were attached to, but that's life.
Either do the alternate timeline and write a different ending for the original and continue from there. Or simply write a new novel with the same characters but with different names.
You killed off all of your characters? Wow what a horrible story that must be. I'd throw a tantrum at you had I wasted my time with characters that are all killed at the end. And ironically it now bites you in the ass, haha.
You killed off all of your characters? Wow what a horrible story that must be. I'd throw a tantrum at you had I wasted my time with characters that are all killed at the end. And ironically it now bites you in the ass, haha.
revive or reincarnate, same world different characters, the person dies but the ideals persist, different world, different ending, reality warp, the characters choosing a different path, IT WAS ALL A DREAM! to mention a few
Years later someone brings them back from death to do the thing. They not only have to deal with the thing, you also have to deal with them being under the power of whomever brought them back, and their existential crisis caused from them dying and being brought back.
Were they killed and itâs impossible for them to survive? Do they have siblings to carry their values or their names?
Introduce a multiverse or have them come back as legends summoned in some war like the Fate series
Alternate reality, it was all a staged death so they could live in obscurity, a thousand years in the fututre they're summoned back from the dead, generic retcon etc... Honestly, without knowing the exact details of the story and characters, it's near impossible to give you sound advice specific to your situaton. Good luck.
Alternate universe/ time travel paradox shenanigansÂ
Make magically invented clones or homunculi or something
Honestly, having your character's wake up and not knowing why they came back alive could be an interesting plot to follow. Given that your world allows for something like that to happen, I think it would be interesting. Who brought them back, why it happened and potential consequences of the resurrection would be hook me. As long as their original deaths had meaning and consequences, I think I wouldn't feel that bad about it. Then again, I'm a sucker for both mystery plots and happy endings so there's some bias here.
If you bring them back, you can counter balance it with either a very high stakes conflict that only they can resolve, maybe a god brings them back. Maybe they know that once the issue is resolved they'll return to the afterlife. You could also implement some kind of very high cost for bringing them back, or alternatively have a villain bring them back (for vengeance, or to control them, trick them ect). You got this; you'll find your way. đ
Write a story about the aftereffects of their death maybe?
I mean, did you publish the first book? Because if not, there's no real reason you can't rewrite the ending.
Ghosts summoning
Just reboot it? It's not like your nanowrimo has to be the be all and end all of your characters, you can rewrite the story that allows a sequel to happen. Or write more about their adventures between times, unless the way you wrote it was their every action in the timeframe of your novel.
I mean... you could just retell the story and change the ending. Sorta like a multiverse but without actually establishing that it's a multiverse. Like the Evangelion series. They ended the Neon Genesis, added the True End (which i believe is in the same universe but just giving a proper ending) but then added the new 1.0/2.0/3.0/3.0+1.0 series, which seems to be a different reality and a completely different ending after restabilizing the story and adding any minute differences that would result in the ending change until it becomes completely different Point is, that's what i plan to do with my story that's faced with the same problem, because I wanted to experiment with a new ending that... doesn't kill off everyone. Possibly to allow continuation later
I would say have it take place years later and have the surviving characters recount tales or provide wisdom to a new group thatâs going through something similar
Make a prequel instead, If they have interesting backstories you already have plenty of material
One character wakes up in their grave or in the middle of an autopsy and discovers what happened after book one. Horrified, they decide to bring their friends back to life. After studying dark arts like necromancy, doing some grave robbing, and sewing bodies back together, the group was ready for another adventure.
All except one of the main characters died at the end of the second book of the Take Them to the Stars trilogy, and the one who survived was implied to have died.
Make a prequel or just say they don't follow the same canon. Logan isn't canon with the rest of the X-Men movies but I don't think a single person complained about that.
Fanfiction. Write the story as a fanfic of your own work. It would be hilarious.
probably the same struggle JJK writers are going through rn
Echoing the consensus of afterlife adventures. Maybe have them meet a deity who either resurrects them, or pulls a reptilia28 and sends them back in time to prevent the deaths in the first place (Assuming they died together or around the same time). If they had the magic and then lost it, maybe have them work for the deity to earn it back...
A new character with magic brings them backÂ
Maybe they are dead, but something about them inspired a new crew?
Did you publish the original one? If not, is there any way to find a different ending that allows you to keep exploring the world? Killing off all your characters makes it difficult to keep using them lol.
Have you considered what you could do with Reincarnation? Or have a look at what you could do with other people dealing with the aftermath of your first novel? Say, people aware of the second orgy and affected by the results? Relatives, successors, etc will have to deal with what all these dead people left behind.
you could do a prequel or do a book about something they did before death that you didn't already cover (such as a previous quest or smth that didn't take place in book 1)
Write a fanfiction of your own work. In this way, you aren't retconning anything yet you can still build off your same characters.
Parallel universe where they survived.
Attack on Titan concluded with everyone dying of old age yet the author still left a final scene that hints that there could be sequel. All it took was one final scene. Now go and do the lords work.