By Lisa Phillips, @LisaPhillipsbks
The life of a writer can be a rocky one. Most of us are now uncomfortably familiar with rejection. Or watching others succeed while we await “the call.” Seeing other authors get contracts, and hit bestseller lists, while you wait and wait for a response.
Yay! We’ve got a new submission.
But we spent so much on polishing those first three chapters to submit that the rest of the book feels like it falls short, or it just doesn’t live up to what it could’ve been.
For some authors we work so much on our debut, that often book 2 can feel like it doesn’t measure up. It’s not as good. There’s something missing.
I feel like this is true of every series I write – so now I know I have to account for that book two syndrome and find ways to make it sing in its own way. I have to hack the problem and implement a solution.
I’m working on book 2 of a series right now, trying to outline it. I’ve deconstructed book one because it’s been a while since I wrote it. The book is COMPLEX. Which is great, until I realize book 2 has to be just as good. Cue the swell of fear.
Then there’s a phenomenon I’ve come to call “growing pains.” So I did some research, and what I thought apparently isn’t even true.
I used to think bones grew first and then tendons, so the growing pains were because of that disconnect. Apparently, that was decided back in the 1930s and 1940s, and doctors now believe it isn’t true. There is evidently no basis for “growing pains” as a thing. Apparently growing pains aren’t caused by growing.
Who knew?
But I’m a fiction author, so suspend disbelief with me for a second and let’s go with it.
When we begin our journey as authors, we have that thrill of something new. It’s fresh. It’s exciting. After we get knocked back a few times, and maybe have some small successes and maybe a few setbacks as well, I believe we hit a point where writing becomes harder.
It becomes work.
There’s a disconnect between great books we read, and what our brains can come up with.
Let me say that again, because I think it bears repeating.
We read, and we enjoy books. Then when we try to write, we think, “eh? This is rubbish.” (Your internal editor is British, right? Cause mine is, but there’s a reason for that.) We literally look at our prose and think it’s terrible. Meanwhile people are publishing these great books and it’s like we’ll never measure up.
The first draft is no good. (Pro tip – it’s supposed to need fixing.)
What we think we should be able to do and what we are actually producing are so far apart we have a hard time pushing through this growth spurt where we experience that upset to the finished book beyond.
Like a toddler whose sleep is upset for a week for no conceivable reason, but they’re experiencing an emotional or developmental stage of growth.
We run across a kind of resistance as a result of this disconnect.
We encounter fear that holds us back.
What if this next book isn’t good? What if it feels like there’s something missing, and I can’t tell what it is?
This can make it harder to plot and write the next book, because I can’t focus or let go of that internal editor if in the back of my mind I’m worried the whole premise is flawed or there’s something missing.
Sometimes we aren’t even aware there’s something wrong. We simply know the words won’t come.
I’m no good at this.
I’m not a real author.
We’ve all listened to that voice.
Here’s the biblical answer to it:
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Cor 10v5.
Fear wants to argue with you. Demolish it.
The pretense the enemy or your flesh wants to hand you? Knock it down.
Take every thought captive.
Rest in the hope you have. In the call God has on your life. Lean on the inspiration He gives, and the creativity He put in you. Remember why you wanted to be an author in the first place.
And then write that book.
Tell me if you’ve ever encountered a season like this. How do you push through?
I tend to plot more thoroughly, so I can be sure before I write that the book works. So my mind doesn’t have to come up with everything as I’m trying to write. It definitely frees up some brain space so things aren’t so overwhelming.
How about you?
Do you have any tactics for pushing through that authors might find helpful?
A last resort.
One final chance for the future they want.
Joseph is the name they’ve given him. Before that, he was Casper—a trained killer. Now he’s been sidelined to a summer camp retreat center, and if he doesn’t make this work he’ll get kicked out of the Accountant’s Office program for good. The only problem is this retreat center is a hotbed of decades old mystery and murder—and missing treasure.
Medical Examiner Sarah Carlton wants to make chief. When the boss orders her to take a “vacation” volunteering at the retreat center she’s not exactly jazzed. But she’ll use the down time to work on the drug overdose deaths she’s been puzzled by lately. Until the nightmare from her past shows up in her cabin, and everything crashes in on her.
With Sarah the target of a deadly group, Joseph is the only one with the skills to keep her safe. But how can it possibly all be connected? Is this about a new drug about to hit the market…or decades old missing treasure?
Together they’re going to find out. No matter if it costs them everything.
USA Today and top ten Publishers Weekly bestselling author Lisa Phillips is a British expat who grew up an hour outside of London. Lisa attended Calvary Chapel Bible College, where she met her husband. It wasn’t until her Bible College graduation that she figured out she was a writer (someone told her). Since then she’s discovered a penchant for high-stakes stories of mayhem and disaster where you can find made-for-each-other love that always ends in happily ever after.
Find out more at www.authorlisaphillips.com