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

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

I agree with you that the writer has to decide what manner of career s/he wants. And maybe (this not in reference to you) not criticize writers who are making other choices.

There are so many other issues tucked into these questions.

One, of course, is how the choices a writer makes affect the choices she then has to make. Am I going to work a day job knowing this will slow down my production and mean I'm less likely to be able to support myself writing? Am I going to go for supporting myself writing, knowing I won't have the luxury of taking 4 years to write a book (unless I'm GRRMartin and on the bestseller list)? And so on.

But I don't think it's always a matter of the first novel being 'better' because sometimes writers so clearly improve beyond their first novel. In other cases, a writer produces a beautiful first novel and is faced with the sophomore slump. Myself, I did not fall into the latter category, so in some ways that's a nice thing. No where to go but up!

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

Not that I'm to your level of things yet, but let me tell you, kids certainly seem to complicate the question even further. Charlie Finlay (father of two) once said to me that having kids almost militates against the long-term focus novels require, and that's when he focused more on short stories: they could be written on a much shorter term than novels, and thus easier to wedge into the rest of Real Life. Definitely hard to build a broad readership just through short stories, though.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I was informed by several folks that I sophomore-slumped. I like RULES as much as my other books, and wonder whether I could have made sufficient changes in the existing story to de-slump it. But I'll never know--that book has flown.

Yes, choices build on choices, which build on choices. Would I be a better writer if I didn't have the day job sucking my energy? OTOH, does the day job provide experiences and material that I wouldn't otherwise have?

And sometimes you need to decide what's best for you, not your writing career. Those are the toughies.

I am currently playing my life by ear.

[hoosier-red.livejournal.com]

I think you nailed it in one -- balance. You can't stay up late or get up early to write because that sort of schedule doesn't work for you. You can't devote huge amounts of time to PR because, hey, you've got to work. You can only do what you can do -- pushing yourself works up to a point, and after that you're on the road to burnout and not getting any useful writing done. Screw that. Even Roxanne Conrad, she of the 72K/month schedule, takes breaks, and deems them necessary to the writing process.

And anyone who tells you that you should be doing these things or you don't have adequate dedication to the craft should get a rap in the mouth.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I recall a female writer once saying that one child equals one novel you will never write. I am *not* going to get into the discussion as to which is more important. That is an individual decision.

So many younger writers--I'm such a fogey--seem to have built their reps via short works. Much attention is paid to the novel, and the pay is better, but it doesn't seem to me to be the only way to go.

[janni.livejournal.com]

The long term sanity question really is an important one. It's easy to ignore in the very short term -- when one is a new, maybe young, certainly intense writer. It takes a few years to realize that writing is important, but that there actually are other parts of life that need nurturing too; and maybe a whole life to figure out how to do this well.

I also think when one is young and intense, it's easy to be critical of those who aren't; and to not understand the deeper issues until later.

[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.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

And this is where the decisions come that aireon mentioned, because they will affect your career. So even as you do what you can, and do what's best for you, you accept that each move you make limits subsequent options.

It's the acceptance of the limits that sometimes hurts, because you see how folks without those limits maneuver, and sometimes excel. Which gets into the madness that is comparing oneself with other writers. Which happens, no matter how many columns you read telling you how unproductive it is.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I felt that intensity at *40*, because it was, well, a contract. And I didn't learn my limitations until I was knee-deep in alligators.

Sometimes I think you need a life agent as well as a business agent. Someone with experience who would sit you down during these times and tell you, you don't want to do this.

But would I have listened? Would I listen now?

[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]

*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.

[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.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Huh. Rules is the one that hooked me...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Thank you, as well.

Some of the scenes in that book are numbered among my favorite scenes.

[daveamongus.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't touch that comparison with a ten foot pole, myself.

But yes, and as a Younger Writer(tm), I wish I had more ideas that fit in under 15k or so, so I could build some kind of readership, my first sale aside.

One of the things that I think might help stretch the acceptable lag between mmpbs, though, is the growing blog environment. I think it's not so much the simple lack of novels at an annual pace that dooms the midlist, but the exposure vacuum. The average midlister didn't have, before this here internet-thingy, as many opportunities to get their names in front of people when they did not have a book imminent or just out. Cons (as we all know) only go so far and are only so accessible, less true of the internet.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

One reason I would like to get some short works out there is to fill the gaps between books. Fingers crossed I can give the editors in question what they like.

FWIW, I have noticed more activity on Big Brazilian River since I started blogging. It's not OMG, but it's there. Online exposure does help.

[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

[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?

[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]

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]

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.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I've come to the conclusion that balance is everything, and adds to our ability to write well. I wanted to write fiction full-time -- now with the medical problems, I know I'll need to re-train in another area to make decent money without using my hands so hard.

I tell myself the writing will come back, and I will be Caroline Stevermer instead of Mercedes Lackey, with one wonderful book every five years. But I hope to still like what I write, and find an audience for it.