It's snowing!

[ksmith]

Why couldn't it have done this when I was on vacation?

Anywhere from 1" of slush to 5" of snae, depending on which weather report I read. I may be shoveling the drive this evening instead of treadmilling.

Talk in lnhammer's group about the downturn seen in the second books of series, and why that might be. My contention, which may not be true in all cases, is that you have no deadline for the first book beyond those you impose upon yourself. No contracts, CEs to ship back, overlaps with the outline that's due for the next book. No marketing to worry about. You were able to take as long as you needed to write it. You were able to fix the things that bugged you.

I have always heard that you need, at least in mmpbs, to kick out a book a year to build an audience. Any longer than two years between books, and you slip off peoples' radar. Dust accumulates. Folks, frankly, forget about you. I don't know if it's the same for genre tp and hc.

Yes, I know all about the authors who write one book every 4 years and whose names are Legend. Well, for every Vinge and Martin, there are a hundred 'whatever happened to...?' It may just be a fact of life, and depending on how you write, it may be something you will always wrestle with. I'm a slow writer with a day job--a book a year is not an option. So I'm left to consider how to construct a winning series, build an audience, and, well, have a life.

The importance of balance--friends, taking care of oneself, getting out of the house occasionally--is being discussed in another writers group. My 0.02 were:

I have a day job, and went through several stretches where I worked,
came home and ate dinner, then...worked. What's aggravating is when
you run into the people who question your commitment if you
complain, because you're supposed to be willing to do whatever is
necessary in order to write or promote your work. I love writing,
but it isn't a hairshirt. If I drive myself into the ground while
doing it, which muse am I feeding, exactly? Masochista, the goddess
of the midlist?

Having a life is so important. *Balance* is important.

So, I'm left to consider, how much can I do? Just because I can do it, does it mean I should? Where do I draw the line with self-promo? Where do I draw the line with schedules? What type of career do I really want, and how do I go about building it?

I am the one who has to live with these choices.

Comments

[larryhammer]

I suspect the deadline that comes with the second book has a lot to do with it. But it doesn't explain, or not very well, when the writing gets better but the story gets less interesting.

Which was not the case in Rules, I might add -- I liked it as much as the first.

---L.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Especially with trilogies, it's hard to do the second volume--it's a sort of literary middle-child syndrome. I was very lucky with the second Brennan book that the editor came down on me like a ton of bricks and made me do a heavier rewrite than I've done in many a year. It wasn't a slump so much as not knowing how to write the book as if it were more than just a transition between the big events of the first book and the blowout conclusion of the third.

So that might play into it. Doesn't matter where you are in your career, either. I'd never written a trilogy in the sense of "long story chopped into three bits" before. Mine had always been interrelated stand-alones.

I do believe time is an issue, too--and also a sort of mental collapse after you've created this Grand! New! Thing! and now you have to do it again. Better. With more G! N! T!'s thrown in.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I do believe time is an issue, too--and also a sort of mental collapse after you've created this Grand! New! Thing! and now you have to do it again. Better. With more G! N! T!'s thrown in.

*whimper*

The need to repeat G!N!T! on a regular basis is not discussed enough, at least from what I've seen. So much time is spent discussing that First Novel.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of advice is aimed at younger writers. Publication is this huge honkin' thang, and after that you're presumed to be one of the Illuminati.

Or something.

It's just as hard to keep up the quality as it is to get it up high enough to get published. Which you know and I know but do they know?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I think if someone had tried to tell me all this stuff in the late 90s, I wouldn't have listened. I would have considered them Hardened and Cynical (tm), lost to the ways of wonder and really cool covers.

Of course, now I'm one of the H&Cs (read, Illuminati). Some things, I guess you just have to pick up in the streets and alleys.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Then-agent and editor did not like it as much. During a panel, someone in the audience (yea!) commented that it wasn't as good as CODE. It settled in my stomach and kind of burned a hole.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Everybody has an opinion. I have been told that the same second book of trilogy is 'way better than the first and 'way worse, and one person will think the protag needs a good shaking and another will think she's the best EVAR. Of course we take all this to heart, we're writers, we're living with our skin off, but if black is white and A is Z and good is bad, how do we keep from going crazy? We have to learn to take it all with a nice heavy 50lb block of horse salt.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Salt. Yes.

The skin needs to come off when I write, and go back on when I go out into the world. It needs to come with a zipper.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

But it doesn't explain, or not very well, when the writing gets better but the story gets less interesting.

The writing gets better because the
author has had more practice.

The story (sometimes) gets less interesting lll
I *think* it's because when most of us
are writing our first novel, we're
writing to please ourselves, and we can
take as long at the business as we want
and do as many weird things as we want,
because really, who's going to see it?

And then it sells, and you have to do it
again, only on deadline, and people are
looking at you. And now you
have to write a Real Book, because it's
serious now, not just a hobby or a lark.

To Sum Up: The story goes flat when
the author stops having fun.

$0.02