Hi friends,
You know what’s fun? Editing novels you wrote last year.
You know what’s not fun? Editing nonfiction books you wrote years ago.
BUT, I am pleased to tell you that after months of on-again-off-again with my freelancing books, I have read, re-read, edited, and proofread all of eight of them, and am ready to move forward with the next step. Which is interior design. And will require one last round of proofreading. Oy.
Once that’s done, I’ll be able to get them all on different online platforms. And then I’ll need a one-year-nap before I even think about print and audio versions.
This is the problem with the creative mind though. I know these are assets that will make me money and should have my full focus. But I’m excited by the new and shiny. I am so distracted, not only by the novel I’m currently editing, but the novel that will come after. I have the fourth novel outlined, the fifth and sixth gestating. I have broad ideas for all of them that will simmer over the next few months and likely, years, and then one day, it will be time, and I will sit down and bang out an outline in less than a week. (I have started writing them down now, so I don’t lose track.)
When I was writing my first novel, I used to think it was the only idea I would ever have. Which is why, like most writers, I was precious about it. With my first novel, it was always, “I’m writing the novel.” Not A novel, THE novel. As though I’d been allotted one in my lifetime and once I’d written it, that was that. Done.
This is natural. Especially when a first novel takes many years to write, it’s easy to think that the next ones will be like that as well. I honestly thought I’d be the kind of writer who finishes a book and then doesn’t have any ideas for a while.
Thankfully, it hasn’t worked out that way. It never was going to. That’s just not who I am.
I’ve always hated the “birthing books” phrase, the analogy that compares writing a book to “birthing a baby.” It’s moronic.
But like with babies, after you’ve written three, you stop tracking their every move. I had a friend who, with her first child, was so vigilant about pretty much everything that went into the little darling’s mouth and by the third, she’d see her kid picking up food bits off the floor and be like, “Well, at least he’s eating.”
I feel like that about my books now. With eight published nonfiction titles, two novels finished and one on its way, and a memoir getting ready for submission, I’m not that fussed about which one rises and which one falls. Back in the day, it was a big deal. I was writing a novel! Now, well, I’m always writing a novel. Of course I’m writing a novel. This is what I DO.
I’m also, for the most part, not that fussed about which one succeeds first. I mean, sure, if I had to make a strategic choice, I know which order I’d publish them in, but that’s not up to me, so who cares? They’re all standalone books, I intend for all of them to be published, so pick any one.
It’s like I’m auditioning my children for a show. Choose whichever one. The one that gets through will open doors for the others, but honestly, I love them all and I won’t begrudge one’s success over another’s. Let whichever is most palatable to you be the first one through the door, and the others can follow.
I realized the other day that I’m never going to experience the Sophomore Slump, which pleased me greatly. One of the biggest challenges in a writer’s career is not writing their first novel, but their second. You spend years writing your first book, then success! You sell it, and it does well, and now you’re expected to write the next. And this is where many writers struggle, because of course, there’s pressure now. For the first time, there are expectations from your fiction, in a way that there weren’t when you were just writing that first novel for fun. It can derail many a confident author.
I’ve had other problems, but I guess I’ve been saved that one. I know I can write a novel. I know I can write a good novel. I know I can write a good novel under pressure.
Which means I can now confidently make this a career.
As soon as they buy.
In the meantime, I’m editing. And absolutely loving it.
Cheers,
Natasha