Phantastic Phantasy Forum Sequel

Sequel...
Some stories and characters are too lovable or too interesting to fit in one book... so they had number two!
My question is, I'm righting a sequel to one of my books and it has at least twelve characters with detailed descriptions. In book two, how much time should I use adding description to the characters or should I just give a brief description (hair color, eye color)?

Thanks
Rima

That is a good question!

There's always the issue of someone reading a book later in the series and not starting with the first.  (or a reader who has read the previous book but forgotten some of the details)  You want the sequel to be accessible to that reader, but you don't want to bore the ones that have read the previous book(s).  There are a couple things that come to mind with this problem. 

Any character details that are very relevant to the plot, I think it is worth repeating in the new book.  Or if the character has a very odd physical trait, it should probably be repeated as well.  For example if the character only has one arm it would be confusing for the reader to just see "so-and-so grappled with his attacker with his one arm" if they didn't already know.  And it's not something you have to spend a great deal of time describing to bore the more faithful and sequential reader. 

The other thing I try to keep in mind when writing descriptions in general is what I think of "show don't tell".  Of course this is a written medium so perhaps that doesn't describe it so well.  What I mean is you don't need to use a great length of words in just description, it can be worked into the actual action going on in the story.  For example, if a character is tall and well-built you can quickly describe this by doing something like "'Stop!' commanded a voice as so-and-so's broad frame stepped through the doorway.  The others in the room quickly took notice of the imposing and muscular man blocking the only exit."

Not a great example, but perhaps it gets my point across.  Perhaps this kind of on the fly descriptions would fit well on your second go-round with the same characters and settings. 

I'm not the most experienced writer, but that's my 2 cents!  Good luck!

Thanks!!