Wrangling the Recap in Fantasy Series
Lessons in catching up your readers learned from a tighty-whitey-clad superhero
What does a Captain Underpants chapter book have in common with the challenges I’m facing in drafting the second novella in my fantasy series? Answer: a ton!
The story continues
I’m debating with my (almost) seven-year-old son about Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2. My son has taken one glance at the cover and announced he’s already read it. His literary criticism repertory contains few harsher disparagements than “I read this one before.”
I patiently explain that we read Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1. Part 2 is the story arc’s exciting conclusion. After some grumbling, he snuggles in to read. Luckily, Dav Pilkey knows his way around a recap, and my son is so captivated, he forgets all about his fears that the story is a repeat.
Here’s what Dav Pilkey’s expert recap taught me about catching readers up to the current book in a series.
The gist
All Captain Underpants begin with a recap intro. The intro is drawn in comic book style, ostensibly written and illustrated by George and Harold, co-protagonists of the story.
Here’s now a typical Captain Underpants recap rolls:
Principal Krull is a big old meany. For kicks, genius troublemakers, George and Harold, hypnotize Krull into believing he’s a superhero named Captain Underpants. A few mishaps later, some galactic super juice confers actual superpowers onto Captain Underpants. He can fly and fight monsters and stuff. But watch out, because if you splash water on Captain Underpants, he turns back into mean old Principal Krull. But when the world needs saving, a snap of the fingers can pop him back into superhero mode.
In a regular Captain Underpants read, the recap ends here. This is what it has established:
1. Key rules of the world (how Krull transforms to Captain Underpants and vice versa)
2. Antagonisms and alignments (Krull is out to get naughty genius kids, George and Harold)
3. A hint at the stakes (sometimes the world is gonna need saving)
These are important points to cover, especially if your reader is coming to your series cold. But, what if they read previous books in your series last month or last year? Enter Pilkey’s next technique:
Sensory and emotional memory triggering
Pilkey has words and pictures to help him bring back the feel of a reader’s experience from past adventures with George and Harold. He reuses words and phrases lifted right from past novels, such as: labeling Mr. Krupp as “mean”; recalling some dialog catch phrases (“Blah, blah, blah”); referencing specific world building element names (the 3D Hypno Ring).
Pilkey even does this neat trick where George and Harold’s idiosyncratic misspellings are included in the comic. He calls back auditory triggers (Captain Underpants shouts out “Tra la la” when he goes into hero mode, which I always sing aloud to my son).
The images of the comic depict events, settings, and characters that all dedicated readers have experienced before. Words and images go even further, not only recalling events in the story, but reminding us how the characters felt about those situations. Those emotional reminders, even if they’re only a maniacal grin or a “ha ha” scrawled across a page, pack a huge punch in reminding readers how they felt while reading the previous stories. This technique is even more powerful than galactic super juice.
Level of detail
The recap for Part 2 can be divided into two distinct phases. The first is a broad recap involving the key rules of the world, antagonisms and alignments, and a hint at the stakes, all expressed through sensory and emotional memory triggering. The brush strokes here are broad—at most a single panel for each book in the series.
Then, we turn the page and the camera zooms in because, as my son noted, this isn’t just another adventure in the Captain Underpants series, we’re embarking on the continuation of an unfinished story from a previous installment. In order to make sense of the conclusion, we need a reminder (or an introduction) to a much more detailed explanation of what happened in the opening.
Pilkey provides readers with just that, zooming into how the Bionic Booger Boy came to be—and how he turned bad. These panels are much less an overview, and more carefully explained story. Multiple characters are introduced and helpfully labelled. Rules are explained—not for the world as a whole—but for specific science fictional devices. Pilkey engages his readers’ attention and triggers their memory with the exact same sensory and emotional cues mentioned above. The difference is the granularity of the recap.
Are we done recapping now?
As my son and I turned the page to Chapter 1, I sensed his body tighten with anticipation and excitement. Finally, the recap is done and the new part of the story was about to begin. Recap, check. Right?
Wrong.
What has struck me most in reading Part 2 is that despite the masterful recap at the beginning of the novel, Pilkey is never done recapping. No, sir. Whenever knowledge of any element of a previous book in the series is required to establish stakes, Pilkey goes back and reminds us. He doesn’t draw another comic, but simply includes reminders in the text the way all us writers do. If Pilkey did nothing but remind us of what we’d already read, my novelty-seeking seven-year-old would never read his stories. But Pilkey is a skilled storyteller who appreciates the value of stakes, and when it’s time to set the stakes, he gives readers a quick reminder to make sure everyone is on the same page.
Applying recap in fantasy fiction
As I’m drafting the second novella in my fantasy series, I’m faced with the constant dilemma of how much to recap or not recap for my readers. Do I offer readers an expository chunk of information up front? Do I scatter it through the text?
Since my fantasy novella is aimed at adults, I’ve taken the mid road, leaning on scattering information throughout the context of current events, but scattering those reminders more heavily in the early portion of the story. I’m also conscious of the level of detail I’m recapping. Broad, rules-of-the-world reminders are important early on. More detailed story arc information is better placed later when it becomes relevant.
Regardless of where I place a reminder, I’m mindful that it not only reminds readers of key events they need to understand the plot, but that it calls back sensory and emotional experience. This pairing is just as essential for previous readers as for newcomers.
I’m also growing super selective about how I scatter in recap info. Recap without stakes can quickly turn into an info dump. Recap with stakes? That’s a story!