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142,053 Literary Works • 676,495 Reviews
There's a phenomenon known among authors as "sophomore book syndrome" (although, properly speaking, it's not really a syndrome). Many authors find that their second book is extremely difficult to write after selling their first book.
I didn't feel this feeling for my second book, but that's probably because it was already written by the time I sold Edna! While I did do some edits with my agent - and, later, more edits with my editor - the big work of drafting the book and doing major edits was done before my writing career really started.
Unfortunately, "sophomore book syndrome" is hitting me in time for my third book...because this book (and any other book my editor might approve instead) is NOT written yet. I'm very, very aware that the opening chapters need to be halfway decent by the time my proposal is due. So that's been a big stall, since normally I'm able to get through a first draft by reminding myself that first drafts don't have to be good.
It's also been a struggle because beginnings are normally very easy for me. Usually, I have a clear idea of the book's opening and don't start to struggle until about 30,000 words in. With this book, I restarted the opening four times in the last three weeks, until finally I landed on an opening that did what I wanted and did it reasonably well. 0/10, do not recommend.
Today, I finally hit insert-page break-spacebar-spacebar-spacebar and started the fourth chapter! While I know there'll still be some serious humps to get over as I continue drafting, I'm so relieved to be past this major one.