Should You Write a Prequel?

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When Dexter: Original Sin came out, I had my doubts. The ending of Dexter: New Blood left a bad taste in my mouth (I won’t spoil it for you).

Jeff Lindsay isn’t to blame for that. New Blood and Original Sin are based on the characters from Lindsay’s long-standing series but don’t have a direct novel equivalent. The television franchise creator, Clyde Phillips, made changes to the story for the show.

Dexter: Original Sin is also a prequel that shows Dexter’s early years… how his father created “the code” to keep his “dark passenger” under control, his internship at Miami Metro Police Department, and his first kill.

Without basing the prequel on a Lindsay novel, I was more than a little reluctant to watch it. But I love Dexter! Which is a great reason to write a prequel. If you have a beloved character, readers might be interested in their early years.

Upside of Prequels

Character depth: Write a prequel to show the origin story of a beloved character or cast to explain their motivation and how they became who they are in the original series.

World-building: Write a prequel to provide a deeper look into the world before the main events i.e., history, politics, culture, etc.

Fresh perspectives: Write a prequel to showcase lesser-known characters and their perspectives.

Downside of Prequels

Unnecessary recap: Don’t write a prequel to rehash plot points from one of the original novels or the series as a whole.

Disappointing character portrayals: Don’t write a prequel to capture the essence of an established character or cast, or you’ll risk undoing all the characterization in the series.

Quality: If you don’t believe the prequel can live up to the high standards of the series, write something else.

The last thing you want is for readers to think:

  • “Was the prequel necessary?”
  • “Meh. It was okay, not nearly as good as the original novels.”
  • “What did I just read? I feel tricked, like everything I believed was a lie.”
  • Or the fatal blow: “Doubt I’ll even buy the next book in the series now.”

Too many franchises use prequels to pad the bank account, and few live up to the original series. While it may be fun for readers/viewers to revisit the characters and story world they love, too often prequels fall flat. Either they’re filled with inconsistencies in characterization, or they attempt to skew previous storylines to fit the new narrative.

Neither apply to Dexter: Original Sin.

Phillips did a masterful job of showing Dexter’s early years. A young actor named Patrick Gibson plays Dexter, but Michael C. Hall — whom we all grew to love in the original television series — narrates Dexter Morgan’s inner voice. Genius! The main reason I waited to watch the show was because, in my opinion, no other actor could play Dexter Morgan. ’Course, I never thought anyone could play a believable Hannibal Lecter, either, but Mads Mikkelsen proved me wrong.

From the first episode of Dexter: Original Sin, the screenwriter captivated me with how he portrayed the origin story. Let’s look at everything he did right.

In the first five episodes, Phillips never tried to change the character of Dexter Morgan. Instead, he merely filled in the blanks of what we missed in the original series. Patrick Gibson (young Dexter) didn’t overplay his role. The trailer misled me by zooming in on young Dexter’s evil expression — and not in a good way — when in fact, 20-year-old Dexter is simply learning to deal with the duality within him.

  • He knows he’s different from other people.
  • He questions why he’s different.
  • He fights the desires of his “dark passenger.”

Conflict, conflict, and more conflict.

Discussions between Dexter and Harry Morgan turn almost heartwarming. Regardless of subject matter, the love between a father and his adopted son shines through. They’re doing the best they can under impossible circumstances.

As a homicide sergeant at Miami Metro PD, Harry taught Dexter “the code” shown via flashbacks in the original series.

For years, Dexter believed Harry created the code, but in season eight of the original series, we learned he had help. Dr. Evelyn Vogel, a neuropsychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of psychopaths, noticed Dexter had psychopathic tendencies as a child. So, she and Harry developed the Code of Harry as a way for Dexter to safely satisfy his needs and help rid society of dangerous predators.

Dexter: Original Sin provides an in-depth look at the code in real time, as the prequel takes place fifteen years before the original series.

Code of Harry

  1. Don’t get caught.
  2. Never kill an innocent.
  3. Targets must be killers who have evaded the justice system.
  4. Killing must serve a purpose. Otherwise, it’s just plain murder.
  5. Blend in socially to maintain appearances.
  6. Fake emotions and normality.
  7. Control and channel the urge to kill.
  8. Be prepared. Leave no trace or evidence.
  9. Never make a [public] scene. Stay calm and collected.
  10. Don’t make things personal because it clouds judgment.
  11. Don’t get emotionally involved.
  12. No preemptive killing.

The prequel never tries to rewrite the well-established Code of Harry. Instead, Phillips shows mistakes by both Harry and Dexter as they attempt to navigate their new normal. We also see Dexter’s first kill, which broke several rules for a valid reason, and learn more about Dexter’s birth mother and her relationship with Harry.

Dexter: Original Sin succeeds because it enhances Lindsay’s original series. And that may be the best reason of all to write a prequel. Otherwise, writer beware — penning a decent prequel is not an easy endeavor.

Have you ever considered writing a prequel? 

If you’ve written a prequel, what was your deciding factor? What did you hope to achieve? How did readers respond?

Have you read a prequel that blew you away?

What prequel failed to meet your expectations, and why?

This entry was posted in #amwriting, #writetip, #writetips, #writing, #WritingCommunity and tagged , , , , , by Sue Coletta. Bookmark the permalink.

About Sue Coletta

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs at the Kill Zone, Story Empire, and Writers Helping Writers. Sue lives in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-4) and Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she writes gripping eco/environmental thrillers with a focus on wildlife conservation, Mayhem Series (books 5-9 and continuing). Sue's appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. Learn more about Sue and her books at https://suecoletta.com

26 thoughts on “Should You Write a Prequel?”

  1. I HAVE written a prequel – it took six months during the middle of the writing of the first volume of my mainstream trilogy.

    It seemed to me that one of the three main characters had a serious reason for some of his later decisions – the prequel short story, only 1500 words long, in three scenes, did the job comfortably and made scenes later in volumes one and two easier to write. Because it only has one of the three characters, I was also able to write more directly in his voice by using first person (the trilogy is deep close third pov). I took the opportunity to learn to write compactly, skip info dumps, and trust the Reader’s mental database. It stretched writing muscles, led me through a lot of research, and engaged an Irish friend.
    https://prideschildren.com/too-late-prequel

    I can’t imagine not having it. I’m looking for further opportunities for prequel or sequel short stories, Christmas stories, etc.

    ‘Too Late’ turned a critical piece of character history into a whole story instead of a flashback.

  2. Alas, most of my prequel experiences have been cinematic or televised/streamed, though I have read a few, and a mixed bag at best:

    ▪️The Lonesome Dove prequels… I’ve read these, and enjoyed them…

    ▪️The Star Trek prequels work because the characters were “devolved” from the original (if that makes sense), their personalities a natural “regression” from the Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scottie, et al., in the TV show and movies – and it didn’t hurt that they found actors who somewhat resembled the originals in appearance, delivery, and action…

    ▪️Star Wars episodes 1, 2, & 3 left me feeling meh and that they’d been phoned in… too many “sentimental” characters from the future (as in R2 and C3PO), unfleshed-out new characters – and the Han Solo series on Disney… let’s just say I’m not interested in nearly the whole “franchise” any more…

    ▪️Sticking with Disney for a moment – they’ve been doing so many origins stories, and with many of them being live action versions of the canonical animated villains, trying, in my mind, to make them sympathetic – Cruella, Maleficent – and rewriting the backstories to some of the Marvel Universe superheroes…

    ▪️The current NCIS prequel doesn’t hold for me because the protagonist is taller… and while I realize folks shrink with age… a lesson from the Star Trek
    prequels above MIGHT’VE made a difference…

    I guess, in short, if, as you outlined on the upsides:
    ▪️Too few provide much character depth, relying on what little backstory may have been shared in the original book(s)/series…
    ▪️ Too few really flesh-out the world-building, relying on what we know already about the “past” – a galaxy far, far away, the 60’s or 70’s or 80’s – dropping wardrobe and advertising references as props without background…
    ▪️ Too few provide that “truly new, fresh perspective”, focusing on the characters we know instead of lesser-known, and perhaps hinted at, characters and their influence on the protagonist/antagonist that made them who we got interested in to begin with…

    I think the best “prequel” came as the “flashback” in the Godfather – how Vito Corleone became the Don – neatly breaking the book into separate parts, but made into the Godfather 2 movie as a standalone.

    • I was going to write how bad SOLO is. If I gathered 10,000 Star Wars fans and asked them to tell me how Han Solo made it to Episode 4, Solo would be none of them. There were so many references to Han’s past, how did they blow it so bad?

      Phantom Menace was so bad I didn’t see episodes 2 or 3 for twenty years.

  3. Sue, what an interesting topic and you do a great job exploring the whys and why nots.

    The term “franchise” puts me off in general. It says, “Let’s milk this cash cow until we squeeze out every last drop.” Most of the time quality suffers.

    George mentions Godfather 2. IMHO that sequel/prequel was better than the original and was the first sequel to win a best picture Oscar.

    In my 9-book Tawny Lindholm Thriller series, there are short flashbacks of defining past events that shaped the characters. But I only use them as they are relevant to the current plot. That’s as close as I’ve gotten to writing a prequel.

  4. I’ve written a few prequels, but they’ve been short stories, novellas, and sometimes they’ve been used as reader magnets. They’re fun for me because I don’t do a deep dive into my characters’ backstories before I write my novels. There are always things to discover.

  5. Happy New Year, Sue! You’ve given us a lot to think about on the subject of prequels.

    I haven’t written a prequel to any of books. One TV series prequel that I think is especially well done is “Endeavor,” the prequel to the “Inspector Morse” series. The plots are good and the acting is outstanding.

  6. Happy New Year, Sue!

    I’ve written three prequels, all used as reader magnets for my newsletters.
    “Renegade” tells the story of how 16-year old Mathilda Brandt refuses to register as an Empowered and ends up with a rogue group of Empowered living underground in Portland, and how the authorities swoop down on it..

    “Siloed” tells how sorcerer Liz Marquez, given a punishment assignment, helping guarding a magical prison, thwarts a breakout by supernatural creatures, losing a new friend in the process.

    “Farewell, My Cookie,” is about new librarian Meg Booker solving a series of thefts during a Christmas scavenger hunt at the library and community center.

    All were very fun to write, while obviously being very different from one another.

    Hope you have a wonderful week, my friend!

  7. Hi, Sue!

    Great information/ideas in this post. I’ve not written any prequels to my novels, but they’d lend themselves to that. The stories have background that I could craft some short prequels for, and maybe use them as lead magnets this year.

    And I agree about the Godfather II discussion. One of my favorite movie series, and the second movie was the best IMHO.

    Have a wonderful day, and thanks for the ideas!

  8. Freebie prequels are very much a thing in self-publishing to attract people to a series. Often they are short stories or novellas. I assume they work since so many writers do them.

    I accidentally wrote one for an unpublished trilogy, my first three books. The short story had two of my main characters and a brief look at my world building. I liked the idea so much I turned it into a novel which really worked when I brought in a third character as my hero.

  9. Excellent summary of prequels and why they work and don’t work. I haven’t seen the new Dexter, but I haven’t had much luck writing prequels. The editors turn them into first chapters.

  10. The prequel I want to see/maybe write, is the story of Samuel, the piano player in Casablanca. There are more than enough questions for how Richard and Samuel met and ended up on the run. My version would be that Samuel was attacked after playing for a mixed audience in New York. He kills the attacker and Richard takes the heat/draws the police away from Samuel. Then fighting with the Spanish against Franco. Gun running, getting to Pairs.

    Samuel may even get a last name.

  11. I’m not familiar with Dexter but when you said Harry Morgan my thoughts flew to the actor and his awesome portrayal of Col. Potter on MASH. 😎

    Thank you for this post. I’m working on a 3 novel series (historical fiction). It’s about an army major who has a vendetta over his wife who disappeared while traveling west to meet him but the series actually goes in a different direction with new developments that occur in his life as a result of his life in the Army. But I’ve been wrestling with whether I will do a prequel that tells his wife’s story and what really happened to her.

    The pros and cons you raise are very helpful and I also appreciate several of you mentioning the option of doing a prequel as a reader magnet in shorter form–I hadn’t thought about that. I so appreciate all of you here at TKZ for sifting through the myriad of topics we have to consider as writers!

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