> That's what happening to me right now. I have a story (well, a series of novelette thingies) that's a big Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers parody thing...

You shouldn't feel you have to write a sequel just for the sake of writing a sequel. If you have another story to tell with the same characters, by all means do so. Just don't fall into the morass of mediocrity, writing about a character long past the Time of Great Stories.

(Example -- after seventy years of Superman comic books, are today's Superman writers wasting creative energy, telling yet another story of Superman punching a Costumed Evildoer, when the writer could be creating something new in the field of sequential art? Open for discussion.)

Having said that, your idea of a Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers parody seems to lend itself to writing a series of short stories. However, you need to write what you want to write.

Viewed in extremities, there's two types of successful artists -- the ones who create for an audience solely to become popular or wealthy and the ones who create what they want to create. You should decide what you want to do: Make a lot of money doing something that you feel is holding you back from your true potential, or make not that much money but working at something you enjoy.

Regardless, take a chunk of time at the same time every day and set that aside for writing. Twenty minutes, a half hour, whatever -- just get into the habit of writing. Even if you don't have anything to say that day. The stories will come.

-Faux "should listen to his own advice" Pas