Mentioning characters you don't plan to use?

[Deadman]

Kinda curious how you feel about mentioning characters who aren’t going to appear in a piece.

A story I’m working on is almost finished. I have plans for a sequel but in the final chapter, I’m possibly going to mention characters who don’t appear in the sequel. You could however reasonably conclude based on the way these characters are mentioned that they would be part of the sequel. But I’m concerned that this might give people a false expectation about what the sequel is about. I’ve mentioned other characters in stories but it makes sense for the characters who are in the story to have them brought up.

Just for clarity, it’s a story featuring FF pairings and some of the characters have or did have boyfriends at one point. These former boyfriends get mentioned. However in the final chapter, I mention other female characters who aren’t going to appear.

This is a slightly different thing. I don’t know if I want to misdirect readers in this way. There is one mention of characters who will appear in the sequel but it’s not in the final chapter. So it may not work.

What do you think?

 

Edited Friday at 11:50 PM by Deadman

[G3ae]

In Original stories, I wouldn’t recommend it, but in fanfics it can be a really good way to add continuity. That’s my opinion anyway.

[Desiderius Price]

Simple, have a quick conversation chapter one of the sequel.

“Where’s Joe?”
“Six years in prison, because when they say NO PARKING, the really mean NO PARKING.” or
“Got transferred to far, far, away.” or
“He learned why there’s safety bars on woodchippers.  Coroner estimated they recovered 60% of the remains.”

And if you want the villain to be a surprise, have his whereabouts accounted/dismissed for in this conversation too.

[Deadman]

21 hours ago, G3ae said:

In Original stories, I wouldn’t recommend it, but in fanfics it can be a really good way to add continuity. That’s my opinion anyway.

So it wouldn’t necessarily bother you if there was dialogue about certain characters but never show up?

[Deadman]

14 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

Simple, have a quick conversation chapter one of the sequel.

“Where’s Joe?”
“Six years in prison, because when they say NO PARKING, the really mean NO PARKING.” or
“Got transferred to far, far, away.” or
“He learned why there’s safety bars on woodchippers.  Coroner estimated they recovered 60% of the remains.”

And if you want the villain to be a surprise, have his whereabouts accounted/dismissed for in this conversation too.

Well, it’s less of a way to get rid of them. It’s for AFF, so it’s more like:

“When is Jane going to join in on the fun?”

But then the sequel doesn’t have Jane in it at all. Even though Jane is mentioned in the last chapter of the story. However in another chapter I do mention Mary and she does appear in the sequel. Since having the idea to mention Jane though, I have considered making her part of the sequel, but that could over complicate the story. Which has been pretty straight forward up until now.
 

Edited Saturday at 09:41 PM by Deadman

[G3ae]

24 minutes ago, Deadman said:

So it wouldn’t necessarily bother you if there was dialogue about certain characters but never show up?

I don't think so.

[Deadman]

4 hours ago, G3ae said:

I don't think so.

Definitely good to know.

[Desiderius Price]

7 hours ago, Deadman said:

Well, it’s less of a way to get rid of them. It’s for AFF, so it’s more like:

“When is Jane going to join in on the fun?”

But then the sequel doesn’t have Jane in it at all. Even though Jane is mentioned in the last chapter of the story. However in another chapter I do mention Mary and she does appear in the sequel. Since having the idea to mention Jane though, I have considered making her part of the sequel, but that could over complicate the story. Which has been pretty straight forward up until now.
 

Could be from somebody not wanting to necessarily cross into a love-triangle territory too… or verifying that the other person’s not around.  Because Jane was a part of their character makeup (and still is to some degree), seems relevant to know that the main character might still have thoughts dwelling on Jane, maybe it’s regret, maybe it’s guilt for hiding the body, or maybe they’ve totally moved on with “Who’s Jane?”.

[Deadman]

20 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

Could be from somebody not wanting to necessarily cross into a love-triangle territory too… or verifying that the other person’s not around.  Because Jane was a part of their character makeup (and still is to some degree), seems relevant to know that the main character might still have thoughts dwelling on Jane, maybe it’s regret, maybe it’s guilt for hiding the body, or maybe they’ve totally moved on with “Who’s Jane?”.

I may simply mention Jane in the sequel as someone who just isn’t around in the moment.