I’ve just recently finished the book I’ve been writing! At 4.06pm on November 3 to be exact and suddenly I have whole blocks of time on my hands with which I can now do whatever I want and what did I decide to do with that time? Believe it or not I decided I should start a second book.
Whaaaat? Am I nuts?
Maybe…but the thing is, I spent five years writing my novella, tapping away at my computer whenever I had a spare moment and I think I must have become so used to “working on the book” that it’s now become ingrained in me to the point where I’m finding myself pulled toward writing another one because, well, having finishedthe first one I now have the time to write another one. I know, it sounds like I should get a life but hey, writing is my life so like, hello…!
Anyhoo, I already have the plot outline because it will actually be an extended version of a short story I penned about 20 years ago for a competition. But the comp had a strict word count (3000 max I think…) and it just wasn’t going to happen really as there was so much I wanted to do with this story but couldn’t because it would have exceeded the count. I can’t remember if I even entered the eventual, greatly condensed, story in the competition but no matter because now I can write it as it should have been written and it should easily make the word count for a full length novel.
But I’m still wondering if I might be a little nuts. Writing a book, while incredibly satisfying and really exciting as the word count grows, is also more exhausting than I ever realised it could be and I’m sure I could find other things to do with the time I now have on my hands. I just don’t want to though. I want to write another book.
The upside is that at least I know what I’ll be in for so that’s got to be a plus and I know that should I come down with a dose of writer’s block it will pass. I’ve also come to realise that writing into the early hours of the morning because I just happen to be on one heck of a roll is also okay. I can always turn in early the following night to catch up on sleep if I need to. That’s the thing with being on a roll; the adrenalin can keep you firing on all cylinders for hours and by the time you finally drop, you’ve written two or three full chapters so you go down happy. It’s how it seemed to work with me so I don’t figure I’ll change my tack with Book II.
All the same, much as I want to get straight into writing my second book I am taking a brief hiatus because I think it would probably be good for me. Just a couple of weeks to unwind from Book I so I can be completely refreshed to begin Book II. I intend to catch up on a few things and might even have a few nights veging in front of the telly. What I’ll defintely do is spend some time reading and picked up three titles from my local library with just that in mind.
I feel good though. Really good and have put it down to the fact that I feel I have actually achieved something here and the psychological impact is amazing! Book I is with an agent now and with luck, she will like it and like it enough to want to help me to take it further.
I’m a very happy nut right now.