The Prequel

This is a relatively uncommon form of series. In this case, the second book that comes out is chronologically before the first book. Usually, it doesn’t follow the same main character, and it may either follow a previous generation, a different setting, or both.

Usually a prequel tells a story that was referenced in the first book, either one that is talked about in regards to history or one that relates to a character that is soon in the first book. It is generally something that was important in the first book, and the prequel usually augments the first book, while standing alone as its own story.

One major thing to remember is that the first book should usually entirely stand alone. Readers shouldn’t need to know the details of the prequel to understand book one, because the prequel comes out after book one.

Another thing to remember about the prequel is that it needs to stay true to the description given in the first book. If you say that two armies fought each other, and now you’re telling about the two armies, make sure it’s the same two armies on the same two sides. Names, places, and ideas should stay the same.

The one caveat to that is if part of the point is that the details were wrong. If that is true, then the corrected details should add to the story. The account that you are seeing should be one that would give you the correct details, and there should be an important reason that everyone thought the details were one thing but your character knows that they’re not.

You need to make sure that there’s a reason for telling the story. Nobody wants to read the story of a random peasant 200 years ago, unless that random peasant does something important and/or is related somehow to characters who were important in your first books. Similarly, while you might be interested in every leader who ever ruled your fictional land, you don’t need to write a story about the king who ruled for thirty years, didn’t make any significant changes, and then died in his sleep.

I can’t really give a good outline for a prequel because it depends entirely on what you’re writing about, but the one thing that you need to remember, especially if the prequel is set relatively soon before the main story, is that the world can’t end in a totally different configuration than your new world starts. If it does that, it needs to be made really clear how it gets from that configuration to the one that your characters live in.