: Re: Reusing a scene in epilogue and future chapters I'm writing a fantasy which stretches over two volumes. At the end of the first book, a complex plot comes to a conclusion with a war but it

@Frith254

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It sounds to me like the solution to your dilemma lies within the question of why you decided to place the hero in a coma in the first place, at the end of your first book.

If the purpose was to have a cliff-hanger, keeping the reader wondering whether the hero will rise again, and in what shape he will be, then it seems that adding this Epilogue will ruin that impact. The reader will be saying "oh, that coma thing was not such a big deal, since I just flipped the page and he's back". Indeed, it seems to turn the coma just into a phase of unconsciousness.

However, a coma could also be a different kind of plot device. You might want the coma to last a few days or weeks, during which things occur while the hero rests. Or, once he wakes from the coma, the hero might be permanently injured in some way, and the coma expresses the intensity of his wounds. In this case, you can have the Epilogue you want, but I would place hints in the Epilogue to these coma-related issues. That way the reader will say "wow, that coma was really something significant in the story".

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