Then you start another book and suddenly the galley proofs of the last one come in and you have to wrench your attention away from what you're writing and try to remember what you were thinking when you wrote the previous one.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
With each book you write you have to learn how to write that book - so every time, you have to start all over again.
The thing I'm always trying to do when I write is hit that sweet spot where the book both keeps you up late at night, and yet a week after you've finished, it still pops back into your head.
If it's all instruction, you get annoyed with it and bored, and you stop reading. If it's all entertainment, you read it quite quickly, your heart going pitty-pat, pitty-pat. But when you finish, that's it. You're not going to think about it much afterward, apart from the odd nightmare. You're not going to read that book again.
When I complete a novel I set it aside, and begin work on short stories, and eventually another long work. When I complete that novel I return to the earlier novel and rewrite much of it. In the meantime the second novel lies in a desk drawer.
Every book is like starting over again. I've written books every way possible - from using tight outlines to writing from the seat of my pants. Both ways work.
I often reread books I have written.
When a new book is published, read an old one.
I really strive to bring something new to each book. I don't want to write the same book over and over again.
Whenever I finish a book, I start with a blank slate and never have ideas lined up.
Every time I finish a book, I forget everything I learned writing it - the information just disappears out of my head.