I’m writing my sixteenth novel. During National November Writers Month – NaNoWriMo – I’ve been fast drafting this next work of literary wonder.

It’s a story I love. A story I believe in. A story I want to capture the hearts and imagination of readers. But will it?

No author starts out to write one book better than another. We give a hundred percent to each book. Even if we’re on a tight or short deadline, we give the story all we have for the time allotted.

My goal is to write a better book each time. I study the craft. I work on deepening my characters and adding story layers. I take to heart the advice and input of my editor and agent, and readers.

I strive so hard to write a good entertaining book, I often try too hard. “Your dialog is too good,” my editor once said.

She’s right. My dialoging can be too fast and quippy, omitting the “dreadful” he said and she said speaker tags. Sometimes, they are quite necessary.

Since 2008, readers have loved my book, Love Starts with Elle. It seems they come back to that book over and over as their favorite. When I ask why, the reader is never really sure. Elle somehow resonates with so many people.

I remember writing that book. I turned it in a month early in tears. The release date changed and I had to write faster than I’d planned. I was changing from chick lit to straight romance. And moving away from first person single point of view to third person multiple point of view.

I struggled. For that one 85K word novel, I probably wrote 200K words. I literally thought, “this book will end my career.” I sent a long email to my editor when I submitted the final manuscript, apologizing for any bad writing and promised to work my tail off to rewrite.

The rewrites were minimal. My editor says in reading Elle she saw my true writing gift. Since then, she’s loved every book, claiming each one is better than the last.

Those accolades do my writer heart proud. But guess what? To my readers, Love Starts with Elle is the hands down best of them all.

Why? I’m not sure. I’m rereading the book myself and wincing at some of the writing, but trying to be a reader and not a critical author.

The truth is, I love all my books. I see major weaknesses, and I see some real genius. Seriously, I’ll read a line and think, “I wrote that?” Wow.

But here’s what I don’t want to do: intimidate myself trying to recreate the magic of Elle or believing I’ll never do it again.

It’s easy for an author to compare ourselves to each other. It’s even more tempting to compare ourselves with ourselves. “I did it once, can I do it again?”The answer is “Yes!”

While Elle is popular with my readers, I really didn’t do anything different with her than I did with Caroline, or Joy, or even Jade. In fact, Elle was extremely taxing to write. I shed many tears and poured out plenty of heart.

Every character is different and I can’t write Elle over and over, but what I can do is create a heroine who is true and honest, and a little piece of all of us. A woman trying to find her God ordained destiny.

New author Beth Vogt, our My Book Therapy mentor is struggling with the concept of her second novel. She’s beginning to wonder if she can write more than one book and if the great idea of Wish You Were Here was her one and only.

No. It’s not. Susie and I have assured her over and over, but in the mean time, she’s in the trenches digging up a new concept.

Authors, God has given us all we need to do the work He’s called us to do. Don’t fear. Don’t be intimidated — especially by your own heart and mind. Especially by a character of a novel-past!

I stopped reading Elle because there’s no use looking back. She is a great heroine, but then again, so is Joy, so is Jade and so is the heroine in my current WIP. I want her to be who she is called to be, not some morphed, distorted version of Elle.

God has a story to tell through this new heroine, and I can’t find her true identity if I am looking backwards.

Don’t let anyone, including your former characters, intimidate you out of the story you are telling now.

Write on.

 Rachel Hauck is an award winning, best selling author who’s made plenty of “author mistakes” and lived to tell about it.