Not the David Bowie song… Although it seems to be stuck in my head now… Anyways, moving on…
So I have this bad habit of finishing stuff and asking myself “what now?” I’ve been thinking a lot about book 2 recently, and talking with my husband. He’s really great to bounce ideas off of, and I’m starting to think he should have some kind of title for book 2 because most of my really awesome ideas are from talking with him. But the closer I get to finishing book 1 the more pressure I feel for book 2 and I wonder is this a common thing? Do other author’s also feel pressure when they sit down to write book 2? I’ve got about 7000 words of it, and 3 or more pages of notes of things I want to do, could do, or don’t want to forget JUST in case it fits in somewhere. I’m not writing it seriously, because I’m too focused on finishing book 1, but the more I edit book 1 the more I think “Is this good enough?”
Logically I know my story is too big for 1 book, therefore it makes total sense when I think of book 1 as a total whirlwind affair, that Alice gets swept up in. There is obviously character fleshing and development, because any character SHOULD grow with her experiences, but I feel like the real background and serious character development won’t even happen until book 2 because frankly, I just don’t have the space to do it in book 1. Too much other stuff happens in book 1, I don’t have time to do chapter long background stories on every character. And I feel like people want that in book 1, so I’m starting to feel all this pressure to add stuff to book 1 and then make up for everything in book 2 because god forbid my characters should be one dimensional and hated. I know its virtually impossible to please everybody. There are going to be people who give my book 1 star because they didn’t like it for whatever reason, I know this, logically, but that doesn’t mean I won’t sit here and freak out about the possibility that my book doesn’t have enough of something.
I know that’s not true, LOGICALLY. I’m sure I will write the draft for book 2 and it will be similar to book 1, and I’ll read it a whole bunch of times to make sure its sensical and then I’ll re-edit it seriously, line by line to make sure all my grammar, syntax and details are there. Logically I know this, but emotionally I’m still freaking out slightly. So is this normal? I feel like book 2 has to be EVEN BETTER than book 1. I don’t want to be one of those authors who you read the first book and its amazing and then you read the second book and are disappointed. I want the whole story to flow, so that in reality you could read the books one after the other and the story would flow and continue exactly where it left off (to a certain extent) because it is one continuous story and the only reason why I have to separate it into multiple books is because most people find books that are 800 pages to be a little daunting. I’m no Stephen King.
Am I totally off my rocker?
~Kat
Tempest in a Teacup 