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So I have two questions here.

In my book, I have written in I think 6 protagonists. There are also quite a few side characters. This book was written before I actually started to learn creative writing, i.e. before I knew about structure, characterization, etc. Those things all kind of just came, but not as well as they should have and the book’s pretty eh. Anyway.

So I’m writing the sequel now, from an ‘educated’ perspective, and now I’m trying to ‘fix’, per se, what I did wrong in the first book and flesh out my characters, give it better structure, etc. I also want to try to make it a sequel but also make it to where it could be stand-alone. So does anyone have any tips for handling this many characters, especially when most of them are in different places?

So that’s the first one. The second is that this first book, along with not having very good structure, also does not really have a climax or denouement. It is mostly just setting everything up for the sequel, putting characters where they need to be, starting Book II’s plot, etc.

Is this bad? Are there any other books out there like this? I know Lord of the Rings was kind of like that, but not entirely because you had the battle at the end of book 1 and Frodo leaving, and Helm’s Deep battle in book 2. But is it ‘legal’ to set up a book with another book?