Motivation For a Second Book
Writing a first book, for most writers, is a monumental task. There is an endless amount of second-guessing, edits, revisions, and sleepless nights. Then one day before you know it, the book is finished. There is not a single word that you can change that will make the book any better, and there are no more punctuation errors to correct. The book has been proofread over and over again, and you are at least somewhat satisfied with the final result. You complete your final read through of your author’s proof, receive your first few copies of the book in the mail, sweat profusely, and it is a done deal.
So, now what?
I completed and published my first book in December 2019. It was a collection of short stories, and when I was finally finished, it contained a total of 41 tales, spanning 56,000 words. At 255 pages, I thought this to be a respectable length for my first short story collection, so I called it a day.
I had expected that I would be exhausted once the book was completed, and I was, to a certain extent. But I never stopped writing. Sure, I might have taken a week or two to myself, but I never really stopped thinking about ideas for new stories or outlining them.
I started right in on the second book without much of a break. It was a daunting task, though. I was used to working on a manuscript that was 30,000 words, then 40,000 words, then 50,000+ words in length, continuously revising and editing until I was happy with the final product. I had forgotten just how small I felt as a writer, staring at my computer screen with only one or two pages completed.
But I just kept working on the second book, one paragraph at a time. Now here we, are four months later, and I’ve completed the first 140 pages. My only “trick” is that I write the type of stories that I love. More specifically, I give considerable effort toward writing the type of book that I would want to actually purchase and read. For me, that includes short stories in the range of 1,500–7,000 words. Many of my stories are westerns, relationship tales, and surfing and ocean themed stories. As a reader, I also enjoy more “highbrow” literature by authors such as Jonathan Franzen and Wally Lamb, but I don’t have any desire to try to write that way, so I just stick with what I know.
When I read about other writers struggling with “writers block,” or otherwise just getting caught up on endless revisions, I get the sense that their hangups may be the result of trying to write something MAGNIFICENT or GROUNDBREAKING. The best advice I can give to a writer struggling to complete a first or even a second book is to just sit down and write and ignore all of the static. You may find that your mind knows exactly what to do.
J.S. Lender’s new book They Are Here Now (Short Tales) is available in paperback on Amazon.
