Does writing your second book require a completely different mindset? Love in Mid Air author Kim Wright tackled this question in a guest post on K.M. Weiland‘s blog Wordplay.
Wright argued that it is difficult to recapture the same feelings and passion an author felt while writing their first book. There’s also the possibility that the writer no longer writes exclusively for him or herself during the second book; their growing readership may influence them in some way.
Here’s more from her blog post: “But the biggest reason book two is hard is because the writer is like my grandfather’s bird dog—shaken, spooked, and just plain not right. Even the most successful debuts have moments that sting—bad reviews, declines in sales, that time you drove three hours to a reading and two people showed up. Like a veteran marathoner or a woman pregnant with her second child, the experienced novelist knows precisely how much it’s going to hurt.” What do you think? (via Elizabeth S Craig)