Write the hidden story

Reflections on Deborah Chester's advice

Dec 11, 2025

Hey there! I’m A.J. Parker, a poet and young adult fiction writer. You can find me on Instagram, Tumblr, Bluesky, X, and of course, here on Substack. Thanks for reading :)

I’ve been thinking about sequels a lot lately.

You might be thinking, “A.J., that’s crazy, you don’t even have one book published. Why worry about a sequel?” But here’s the thing about me. I hate surprises. I avoid opening letters, finishing TV shows, and reading emails out of anticipatory fear. (Schrödinger’s Cat!)

I think it’s less about the surprise of it, and more about the feeling of “Oh crap. What next?” I don’t want to be caught unawares.

So, reasonably, when this comes to my own writing, I want to know everything I can about my own story before feeling “finished” with it. That means knowing what happens in the second book. And then the third book. And then the prequel. And then the book that comes way after the last book, of course.

To refurbish my YA romantasy novel and write the sequel, this is exactly where I’ve turned–to writing the outer worlds. To writing what is happening before, during, and after my book, but from different point of views. Namely, the antagonists.

I couldn’t think of a way to put this approach until reading Deborah Chester’s book, “The Fantasy Fiction Formula.” She calls it “the hidden story” and describes it beautifully:

“This is the story action concealed from the protagonist and readers. It’s what’s happening behind the scenes and narrative that you’re presenting to the reader in the ongoing story. While back story is a simple, fairly straightforward plot to handle, the hidden story is more difficult. It’s running parallel to the ongoing story, although most of the time it’s not on view. Readers are unaware of it, but writers have to know what’s happening off-stage to their nonviewpoint characters.”

I have been having so much fun with this. I recommend it to writers who feel stumped with what conflict to throw at their protagonists next. I know it can feel hard to write something no one else is going to see, but knowing what your antagonist is thinking and feeling on the side translates directly to their actions on page in your main story.

“When we don’t see the central antagonist, where is she?” Chester writes. “Just because some of your characters aren’t present all the time doesn’t mean they’re frozen in limbo or caught between dimensions. They’re somewhere in your story world. They’re doing something, all the time…Hidden story is about where the next confrontation will be coming from.”

First of all, it’s so fun to get into the villain’s head. It humanizes them in your own mind, helping counter clichés and shallow character development. Second of all, it’s been fun to canonize details outside of the main story. It feels like my own little secret with myself.

You don’t have to just do this with the antagonists, either. What would the story look like from a side character’s point-of-view?

This is actually how a main viewpoint spawned in my YA romantasy–originally this character was a fly-on-the-wall the main character barely took interest in, until I wondered, “Huh. I wonder what would this story look like from this character’s viewpoint?” And then, voilà! A whole romantic subplot with the side character and the main character’s brother spawned, and it became a major part of the story.

There’s no telling what you might discover when you look to the fringes of your world. So, I challenge you to dig into your hidden story, whether that’s on an intellectual level or a pen-and-paper level.

Until next time friends,

-a.j. <3