Here's an essay from the Sydney Morning Herald on the subject of "Second-Novel Syndrome."
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/01/05/1136387558132.html?page=fullpage
In short, SNS is an author's feeling of inadequacy when faced with the prospect of writing her second novel--the nagging fear that "I can't do it again."
I haven't felt SNS yet, but that may be because: a)I'm a pretty methodical writer, and b)my first novel hasn't been published yet! If anything, I hope that my second novel will be better than my first, because writing the first taught me so much. I do believe that writing the second novel will feel different. I have a challenge that not all writers face: the second novel is a prequel to the first. That means that I have to go back in time and depict characters who were middle-aged adults in the first novel as young people in the second novel. How they appear in the prequel must be faithful to who they eventually become.
The other challenge of writing a prequel is that the reader already knows how the story turns out. But, as I've noted before in this blog, genre fiction is always predictable. The outcome of the plot is not the compelling aspect of a genre novel. What matters is how the author resolves the plot, and whether the characters are substantial and organic enough to allow the reader to invest in them as real people.
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3 comments:
You wouldn't by chance have been dreaming about my rejections would you?? Ugh. It's so frustrating I can't even tell you. And hey, my next book has pine trees in it. :0)))
Blah. It'll happen eventually I guess, I just have to be patient.
Sorry it took me so long to pop in and say hi, I am still on dial-up and almost at the end of our summer holidays. back home on Tuesday. Are you going to the ACFW conference?
Hi!
Great to see you here. Yes, I did dream about your rejections. I hope that shows empathy rather than neurosis. :-) I do feel for you very much about that particular kind of pass from publishers. It has to be so hard when the industry crosses off a whole period of history as non-marketable, when you've spent all that time creating a good book. I chose to go to Glorieta rather than ACFW this year, but next year I'll be at ACFW. It's a lot easier for me to get to Denver than to Minneapolis. Still, I know I will be experiencing major twinges when the ACFW dates arrive!
Hi Rosslyn, I followed your link from Rachelle's blog. I too am unable to go to ACFW and feel like an orphan of sorts. I went to Greater Philly Christian Writer's conference earlier this month, though, and that was great.
It seems that we have much in common: I'm a teacher too (not English, alas) and a musician. :) As for second-novel syndrome...I have that too, I guess, when it comes to potentially publishable fiction. I've started novel number four, but one and two were strictly for practice. I'm more a SOTP writer. I do plot, plan and outline to some extent, but not to the extent you do from the way it sounds. I admire that though, because when I get stuck...I get stuck.
Good luck with getting started and good luck with novel number one as you try to find a home for it! Pop by my blog for my email address...I would love to hear from you!
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