Your Agent is Coming! Your Agent is Coming!

It's been more than a year now since I've written anything significant, since I turned in the final draft of Icebergs and took a very, very big but well-deserved breather.  Several times over the past year I've made attempts at starting a novel that wouldn't quite get going, but this spring I hit on an old idea that had some new vitality.  I started it only to have to put it aside for the Summer of Hell--teaching, tornado damage, IVF. 

It's not like I've been sitting around doing nothing the past few months, but the novel has been decidedly neglected.

Now comes word that my agent is coming to town in early Nov., and in his own words he's "very excited" about it, so it's time to get off the couch and start writing again.  Every day.

Trouble is, writing the second novel is nothing like writing the first.  My first novel started out as a short story, then grew into a novella, then a novel.  By the time I knew I had a novel on my hands, I was 100 pages in.  Writing a novel seems a lot more doable when you have 1/3 of it already finished.

The new novel has only a handful of pages.  Good pages, but a handful nonetheless.

Then there's the self-delusional aspects of the first novel.  The first time, you think you have unlimited time and an unlimited well of emotional and physical resources to draw upon to get the thing done.  You don't yet know about the panic attacks, sleeplessness, and obsessiveness that are coming your way.   You think those first 100 pages were so easy, the rest of it will practically write itself.

The second time you sit down to write a novel, it's like you're standing at the bottom of Mt. Everest, looking up.  You already know what's coming.  You think, If I'd only known what I was facing the first time, I would never have done it.  Now, you're actively choosing to do it again.  And worse--if it works the second time, you'll probably take on a third.

I'm now looking at, potentially, nine months to finish the second book.  That's not a lot, and this time I won't be able to put myself through the sleeplessness and panic attack wringer to get it done.  The best thing I can do for myself: take a deep breath, and just write.

Comments

[Tara]

As if you need any more stress in your life...Does it seem like they're coming at you from all sides right now?

[tlb]

April was worse. The day the tornado hit was one week after my book came out. The next day was my birthday, and I had an IVF appt. I absolutely could NOT miss and had to have a friend take us to the hospital because our cars were both a) trashed and b) trapped by debris. Ugh.

This feels manageable by comparison.

[Adorable Girlfriend]

Hang in there and breathe. It's going to work out.

:)

[cheryll]

You've had an unusual road to fame and fortune :) in that your first novel sold. Most of us write several before one is good enough not to be classified as toxic waste and stored forever under the bed because local trash companies won't deal with such, LOL.

But I wouldn't worry about obsessing and going neurotic about the novel...

You will be spending all that sort of energy being pregnant, right?

It will make the anxiety of writing another book a relief! Enjoy it while you have it.

[Jane]

I will say that being pregnant is one hell of a motivator for getting a novel done. Nothing like a deadline!

[Brenda]

Good luck! 9 months doesn't seem like much! I've been working on mine for 10 months now and I'm only 3/4 done! Of course, it's my first so I don't really have much of a deadline. I'm sure you can do it!

[Bihari]

Think Nike (as in "Just Do It")

We'll be rooting for you!