A lot of people have trouble with their second novel - the dreaded sophomore jinx. I wrote three books in between the two novels, and they just weren't very good.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I was aware that there is an expectation that writers inevitably falter at this stage, that they fail to live up to the promise of their first successful book, that the next book never pleases the way the prior one did. It simply increased my sense of being challenged.
The disappointing second novel is measured against the brilliant first novel - often no novel lives up to the first. Literary improvement seems like an unfair expectation.
The difficulty of writing a second novel is directly proportional to how successful the first novel was, it seems.
After each book, I get panicky. I don't love the reviews. I don't like going through all that, and you would think that, after almost 40 years of writing, I'd have got the hang of it.
Second novels are bears. As are other people's expectations for them. I think taking the time you need with the second book is key. Writers spend years and years on their first novels and then are often expected to turn out a second at warp speed, a recipe for failure.
As soon as I finished the first book, I wrote a second, which I hope to sell this year, and I have just about finished the third book in the series. Two more are already outlined. I'm in this for the long haul.
If one book's done this well, you want to write another one that does just as well. There's that horror of the second novel that doesn't match up.
The books one has written in the past have two surprises in store: one couldn't write them again, and wouldn't want to.
My second, third and fourth novels were mistakes, essentially.
I personally feel I still have so much to learn as a writer; each novel is better than the one before, just because I'm getting better at it.
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