Posts in the "Writing the Second Novel" Category

• Carry on Writing!

  Writing the Second Novel

  What happens when you publish your first novel? They ask you to write the sequel, and then you fall behind because of… uh, reasons, and you forget to write the blog post you were supposed to write because you were working on the new book, and it ends up being really short and not very informative. Sorry.

  Anyway, my first novel experience might not be typical. My first was a Warhammer tie-in novel, and not much happened at all after I wrote it. It got no reviews, no press, and at first very little notice from it’s target audience. Despite that, my publisher gave me two sequels, so I kept my day job and wrote those too, which led to me taking over an established Warhammer series and a fair amount of recognition – at least among fans of the Warhammer universe.

  But after that first book, there wasn’t much. I remember thinking, hey! I’m a published novelist. This should open some doors, and I sent my precious author copies of the book to various agents with letters of introductions and pitches for some of my original novels (including Jane Carver). The few responses I got back were no thank yous. Which, in my naiveté, baffled me. I thought the fact that I was published, and could be counted upon to deliver a well-written book in three months would interest them. Not so much. (more…)

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• Look, Ma! No hands!

  Writing the Second Novel

  I always thought my problems would be solved the moment I had an agent and my manuscript sold to a publisher. I thought that once you were published the negative voice in the back of your brain vanished forever. Ha! Yeah. Not so much. The voice that tells you you suck merely acquires a new script. You’re not a real writer because you’ve only one book in print. You’re not a real writer because your book didn’t sell enough copies. You’re not a real writer because you haven’t won an award. You’re not a real writer because… well, you get the point. But you know what? Dealing with that negative voice, blowing it off, and still writing — that is being a real writer. It’s having to cope with all the doubts and all the things which you’ll never have control over. (Like how many people buy your work.) It’s not easy, but every job has its downside. That’s why you have to love writing with every fiber of your being. Because it’s just not worth the heartache, otherwise.

  With the first book, you’ve all the time in the world. I had three years to do all the research I needed to write Of Blood and Honey. When it came time to write And Blue Skies from Pain frankly, I panicked. The pressure to get everything as correct as I could get it had become too much. I didn’t know if I could finish the second book. I cried all over my agent’s t-shirt at the retreat last summer. He told me it was going to be fine and that I really did have all the information I needed. It took an expert on Northern Irish politics, Nicholas Whyte, to make me understand that for sure. (Thank you, Nicholas!) My agent was sooo right. Of course that wasn’t the only stress. There was that awful internal critic. It was chanting, “The second book won’t be as good. No one will like it. You’ll never write anything as good as the first.” (Thank goodness that turned out to be not true.) My goal has always been to improve as a writer over time. There’s so much to learn! There is no way anyone can know everything about writing, and now I feel I can grow. That first book isn’t everything.

  Honestly, all this pressure and stress is normal. It’s why being a new writer is so difficult and also so hard for outside people to understand. The second book is where you find out if you can really hack it as a professional. The first… well… I wouldn’t call it a fluke, myself. You work too damned hard and bleed too damned much to call it that. It’s more than mere luck — far more. Sure, luck is a factor, but you made that luck with your bare hands and others helped — many others. But the second book is where the training wheels come off the bike. There’s a risk of falling over and skinning your knees or cracking open your head. There’s always that risk that you’ll have to put the training wheels back on too, but there’s also a chance you’ll ride down that road in no time with your hands in the air, laughing. You never know until you try.

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• “A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.”

  Writing the Second Novel

   

   When I finished writing my novel FAITH, I experienced what I thought was a strange reaction: I closed the file on it and didn’t want any more to do with it. This isn’t to say I reacted against it. I felt proud of it, and still do, and I reckon I’ve written it as well as I’m able to. It was simply that I felt I’d said everything I wanted to say about those people and that universe, and any more would be mere tinkering. At least, that’s how my agent explained it when I described it to him, and he said it’s not uncommon for authors to have such a feeling. Do any of the other Night Bazaar authors recognise it?

  When Lord Chesterfield said that a novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat, he probably had a life of eleven or twelve years in mind. Our house has always had cats, and most of them have lived that long or more. Our longest-lived cat was Chloe: twenty-seven years. She was a small skinny cat, with lovely tortoiseshell markings, and something of the sinewy build of a Siamese. She simply wasn’t afraid of anything. She’d have faced down a pack of velociraptors if they’d come into our garden (admittedly not a frequent occurrence in the English Home Counties) and she went through life like a sort of feline bag lady, swearing copiously at anything that invaded her space. I’d like to think that my book will be out there in twenty-seven years, conducting itself like Chloe.

  I’ve enjoyed doing internet interviews about FAITH. One of the questions was to describe the book in 140 characters or less. The answer I gave was:

  “Motiveless, invincible alien ship. Almost-alien human opponent. Moby Dick meets Kafka meets Duel. Irresistible force meets irresistible force.”

  I’d love to see someone reading my book on a train, or browsing it in a bookshop. We British tend not to speak to each other unless we’re introduced, but I’d find it hard not to start a conversation.

   

  I’m writing my second novel now; I’m nearly halfway through it. It’s also SF, but very different, and deliberately so. It will be a kind of political thriller, but with strange edges. I’ve set it in the future (about fifty years from now) so I could explore ideas about how politics, economics, technology, culture and religion might develop by then. And that’s why I love the SF genre. Whenever I get an idea for a book, I turn almost automatically to SF as the genre in which to express it. SF gives the freedom to explore and develop ideas. It’s not impossible in other genres, but it’s more possible in SF. At least, that’s how I’ve always felt about the genre, but again, I’d like to ask the other Night Bazaar authors if they feel the same way.

  Another question I’ve been asked in interviews is whether I’ve thought of doing a sequel or prequel to FAITH, or at least a book set in the same universe. Again, I’d like to know what the other Night Bazaar authors think about sequels or prequels. Personally I’m not enthusiastic, for the reasons mentioned above.

  I think this will be the last of my scheduled Night Bazaar posts. I’ll always remember that my first one was on January 3, the day FAITH was published. I’ve really enjoyed doing this, and getting to know the other Night Bazaar authors, and finding how many things we have in common. I hope to get over to some conventions in future, and perhaps we can meet up and talk about favourite authors, music, and whether the Ultimate Answer really is Forty-Two. Very best wishes for the success of your books.

  W.G., once again I’m sorry about what happened to you and I hope you get your home back to normal.

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• A glorious, nauseating journey of discovery

  Writing the Second Novel

  There are two ways to look at publishing your first novel.  My friend Mark Lawrence looks at it this way: you have already won the lottery. With so many good writers out there, and agents and publishing houses drowning in submissions, somehow you got your book noticed, and not only  noticed, but in print and on shelves. Everything else that happens after that is a gift. (He says this while simultaneously writing a best seller, designing a rocket ship, and saving his children from terrorists.)

  I take a more stressful view: this first book is a chance, a foot in the door, a job interview. After that, you could be a writer for real. You just have to learn to write for a deadline; suck creativity out of your overtired, depressed, distracted head; learn how to write a good sentence the first time instead of the fifth; be professional and adult when discussing your work (harder for me than I originally believed); and come up with a good idea more frequently than once every five years.

  Because Mark is right: the first book is a sign of incredible luck. But I think the second book (or trilogy, if you write SFF) is a sign that you are a writer. (more…)

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• Deja Vu All Over Again?

  Writing the Second Novel

  Congratulations to Teresa Frohock on the release of her novel Miserere: An Autumn Tale. We’re giving away two copies this week; for a chance to win, just comment on any post this week, including this one, with the name of a sequel or second novel that you liked. Check out more details on Miserere here, including a way to read the first four chapters for free. Congratulations, Teresa!

  

  Deja Vu All Over Again?

  They say that everyone has at least one novel in them. I think that’s probably crap — at least I hope it is. If it’s true than what I just did could have been done by anyone, and I don’t like that idea very much. Most days I would, because I believe in the intense application of democracy to all creative endeavors. The idea of an “elite writers’ corps” sort of disgusts me, just on principle. But this is one of those days when I have to believe in my own exceptionalism, so I’m going to just cop to that up front.

  I’m going to seriously keep my resolution to weigh in only briefly this week, though “briefly” may be a relative term when it’s said by Yours Truly. Saying too much about writing a second novel right now seems like asking for a jinx.

  Though I wrote one noir-gonzo crime novel a decade ago that was fairly beloved by the eight or nine people who read it, including agents and professional editors, but it was never published and I have defiantly sat on it all these years. I still consider The Panama Laugh to be my first novel, since it’s my first published novel. It’s essentially, to my way of thinking, a career “reboot.” It’s certainly not my second novel. Hell’s bells…it’s been ten years. And I wrote several in between If I sell that long-lost crime novel, it won’t really be my second novel, either. They’re both my first novel.

  And the second novel is the one I write next, so…no, it’s not easy. It’s not that different, either. However, the “first” one (pick which first one you mean) has the advantage of already being written. Therefore, it’s easy for me to look at all the big white empties, the blank pages, the dead zones, the ugly self-hatred and the deep insecurity involved in writing either “first” novel, and think, “Oh, sure, that sucked, but it was no big deal. I got over it.”

  And yeah, I did. I “conquered” it, if you can ever be said to conquer anything in creative terms. It did not feel like I was going to conquer it. Many times I gave up and figured, “Yeah, I can live life without being a writer. Who cares?” But those feelings were illusory; they were merely “part of the process.” They were no big deal.

  But this thing. This thing I’m working on now? No way! No way will I ever conquer it. It’s unconquerable! It’s impossible! This “second” novel is completely impossible! And as to the claim that it’s horrible-awful to write any novel, and I always think I should quit? (more…)

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• Second verse, same as the first

  Writing the Second Novel

  Don’t forget we are doing a give-away contest for Miserere by Teresa Frohock!

  Most of the time, I feel like my role on this little ditty of a blog is to serve as a warning to others.  You know: From obscurity I briefly bubbled up and unto obscurity I shall now proceed to sink.  Therefore, I do not have this feeling like everything has changed and people are listening to what I say now.  I am actually fine with being the one telling jokes to an empty auditorium as everyone gets up to get another drink and powder their noses before the next act.

  Currently, I am working on my third post-Revolution World novel.  The first two were basically finished a little bit after I got the contract from Night Shade for RW so it wasn’t too different than normal.  Spin the Sky is a space opera retelling of The Odyssey. It’s set in near-earth orbital colonies after they fought a revolution with the Earth and started forming their own Spacer nation.  The Department of Cautionary Tales is a young-adult novel about a teenage mad scientist girl from Houston who gets caught and is then thrown in a secret government facility called the Department of Cautionary Tales.  Wacky science fiction hijinks ensue.  The novel is based on my experiences at TAMS, an early entry math and science program for nerd kids in Texas. Much of it is lifted from my teenage journals and the rest is all explosions and robots and teenage make-out sessions.  I itch to rewrite it.  The stuff I pulled from old journals is uncomfortably non-fiction and probably totally inappropriate for actual teens. (more…)

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• Writing a Book in Solitary is Easy… Writing for People is Hard

  Writing the Second Novel

  

  Don’t forget! Comment on this post for a chance to win Teresa Frohock’s novel Miserere: An Autumn Tale.
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  To be honest, writing my second book was a cake walk. Well, as much of a cake walk as writing any book can be.

  God’s War was still making the rounds at the publishers, and I had a draft done by the time we went to copyedit the first one. When we got dropped and it started making the publisher rounds again, I was revising it, albeit slowly.

  What I couldn’t figure out is why so many authors had trouble writing the second book. I mean, hey, who cares? It’s just another book. I had already written a ton of them – just never published them.

  But the thing was, I was writing the second book without any real input about the first one. Only a handful of people had read it. I wasn’t obsessing over sales numbers and reading one-star reviews. I was not fielding angry emails from other writers or assuring readers that I really didn’t have anything to do with the way electronic copies were formatted.

  I was just… writing a book.

  Writing a book in a vacuum is easy. It’s writing my third book – the first one where I really have some fan input to take into consideration – that’s the tough part. (more…)

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• Obligations and Homecomings

  Writing the Second Novel

  This week we’re celebrating the release of Teresa Frohock’s Miserere: An Autumn Tale. If you comment on this or any other blog posting, you’re registered to win a free copy of her awesome new book.

  —–

  The root of the word obligation is the Latin obligatio which means to tie or bind.

  You can see where I’m going with this, I imagine. Writing the second novel in a series – especially if you’re contractually bound – is a challenge. Because YOU’RE UNDER PRESSURE. *Cue Vanilla Ice* Because you’re not free-form associating your plot or character motivations anymore – you’ve got a roadmap or you wouldn’t have sold the damned second novel. You’re not flying by the seat of your pants anymore (or maybe you are but you’re just a good faker, like me. On a related note, I recently got a … ahem… a three book deal for my YA series. The first book in the trilogy, The Twelve Fingered Boy, was  written at the time of the sale. The other two, I know in general what they will concern, but we sold them with just a paragraph outline of each. So… I’m still making this all up as I go along, figuratively, literally, and literately.) (more…)

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• You’d Think It’d Be Easier, or, On Writing the Second Novel

  Writing the Second Novel

  First of all, a hearty round of applause to Teresa Frohock on her debut novel, Miserere: An Autumn Tale! I love the premise of this novel, and I can’t wait for my to read pile to shrink a bit so I can sink my teeth into it. As a reminder, Teresa is holding a giveaway for a signed copy of her book. Just comment on any of the posts this week with the name of a sequel or second book you really enjoyed. For multiple chances, comment on more than one post (but only one chance per post will be counted).

  Ok, on to the subject at hand… I recently published my debut novel, The Winds of Khalakovo. I also recently finished the first draft of the second novel in The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy, so when Aidan brought up the possibility of a guest post, one of the things I immediately thought of was talking a bit about the differences in writing Book 2 vs. Book 1.

  I had been wary of writing the second novel in a series for quite some time. That sounds strange, even to my ear, but it’s true. I didn’t used to think this way. When I first starting writing seriously, ten years ago or so, I thought a sequel would be a natural extension of the first book, and in many ways that’s true, but as I grew in my craft and began to go to conventions and get advice about writing a sequel, I grew … not worried, but certainly concerned.

  Why? Well, there are a few things going on here.

  (more…)

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• Dealing with Number Two

  Writing the Second Novel

  Congrats to Teresa Frohock on the official release of her debut novel Miserere: An Autumn Tale. If you’re unfamiliar with her, she’s a wonderful, interesting person (with good taste in reading material, I might add — oh, and not just because she liked my novel ) she works hard and is a talented writer as well. I wish her the very best of luck. She deserves it. If I’d been a faster reader and not in the middle of writing the follow up to Of Blood and Honey, I’d have read Miserere before now. (Alas, not so much.) Dark fantasy with elements of Heaven and Hell and people caught in between? What’s not to love? Anyway, in case you didn’t notice before now, we’re running a contest. Name a favorite sequel in the comments below and get a chance to win Miserere.

  On to other things. Contrary to what one might think, I’ve written a sequel before.* After sixteen years of running a role-playing game, the concept of “and then the story goes on” is one I can hardly get away from. So, writing that first sequel was dead easy, and I thought the same would be true with oB&H’s sequel. Only I was missing some very important information — everything is different once you’re published. All of the sudden, you’ve an audience. Suddenly, people have Expectations. That’s more than a little nerve-racking. I mean, it’s a good thing. You want an audience. But it definitely has a new set of problems. Also, as a new author, there’s the emotional process one goes through with the first book (reviews, sales, and hopefully, signings) and the inner critic’s reaction to all that (Is it good enough?) and then there’s the fact the inner critic acquires a new script (Book, the second, will never be as good as Book, the first.) It’s an up hill battle all the way. (That was my experience, anyway. In case you’re curious, I went into detail about the whole process on my blog a while back.) Am at the end of it now — a very good thing. Here’s hoping that the rest of the career-path smooths out a bit. Although, I understand the pressure to perform never lets up — only gets worse. But hey, every job has a downside. That’s reality. That’s also why everyone involved in publishing will tell you that you’d better love writing with your whole heart. You have to love it to handle the stress. The compensation — regardless of the get rich quick bullshit people spout on the internet these days — isn’t that much considering all the hard work involved, and no, you won’t be famous either. If fame is your goal, you’re better off going into acting. People know what actors look like. No one knows what a writer looks like because — as Wednesday Addams says of serial killers — we look like everyone else.

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  *Most published authors write a lot of dud novels before they hit upon something that works. Almost no one hits the mark with that first ever novel. Seriously. That’s just part of the process of becoming an author.

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