Suffering from Second Book Syndrome

Book 2 really is hard.

If you talk to nearly any writer, they will explain that Book 2, or a sophomore book, is harder than Book 1.

While writing Book 1, you’re still writing for yourself on your own timeline. You give it to trusted friends and revise with their feedback, relying on yourself to decide what the best direction for the story is. Then, if you get an agent and editor with the book, you have the confidence that these people—these book people who know the industry—have said it is A Good Book. Talk about a confidence boost!

And then there’s Book 2.

It’s basically the opposite. Suddenly, there’s an expected timeline. There’s also an expectation you can do this again, but can you? No, but really, can you? And even if you get feedback from trusted friends, you also get feedback from an editor, who is paying you and is very knowledgeable, so if you disagree with the feedback, do you really know what is best for the book? Or are you being stubborn and stopping the book from being even better?

Oh, and reviews! People, at least advanced readers, are reading your first book, and critiques are out there. Logically, you know not everyone will like your book, but then when you sit down to write, the voice creeps in to make sure you do X or Y so MORE people like it.

Some of the reviews are good! They say they’re looking forward to the next book! Yay!

Oh wait. Now you have to meet those expectations too! You don’t want to be a one-hit wonder and disappoint readers…

I’d heard about all these woes concerning sophomore books from other authors before I started brainstorming mine, but I never let the warnings bother me.

You see, I was going to be different.

Originally, I was very ahead of the game and had an outline and zero draft (really, really rough and skinny draft) done for Book 2 when I submitted the idea to my editor last April.

She had some good thoughts [read: critiques] on it, and we decided to go in a different direction. It took a month and a half to get the direction right and a green light. During that time, I was distressed. I thought, “Everything I’ve ever heard about Book 2 is right!”

But then it took me only nineteen days to draft this new idea! I was on fire! It needed work, but this book was great! I polished it up in the next month and gave it to trusted friends who raved about it (while, sure, offering some necessary critiques).

Then I submitted it. Yes, I could acknowledge there were flaws. My characters lack depth in early drafts. I was sure I could complicate the subplots more, maybe add another red herring. But on the whole, I felt pretty good about it.

Book 2 was going to be right on schedule.

…And then I got my edit letter. It was actually pretty short, but I suspect my wise editor knew the big issues she named would change so much of the story that it wasn’t worth commenting on the small things yet.

She was right.

She suggested (among other things) moving the second half of the plot up to the beginning, and I agreed with this suggestion.

She also advised cutting one of the two POVs. This idea, I did not agree with. At all.

Suddenly the Book 2 process was horrible again! Everything everyone ever said was true!

We got on a call and she said she trusted me with my story, but still brought up some good points. The problem was, I didn’t trust myself with my own story. I was stuck and torn and running my brain in circles trying to decide whether I should take my editor’s advice or stick to my original vision.

The only solution I could come up with was to let myself imagine. I opened a new page of my notebook and let myself dream. Wonder. What if…what if this story WAS only one POV. What could be gained?

And I was struck with a plot line that excited me!

Yet, I still wasn’t convinced. Cutting a POV and restructuring the timeline meant rewriting 80% of the book. That’s…a lot of work. And don’t forget, this time around we have deadlines! (Though I will admit that at this point I was scared to know what my real deadline was.)

Forget the deadlines. I needed to write! I tried drafting some of the new scenes, just to see if they would work.

Okay, they did.

So maybe I could try from the beginning. See how that worked.

Not bad.

But as this dragged on for weeks, I still kept thinking of all that would be lost with only one POV.

So I committed to using Christmas break, two weeks off with no school, to finish the first draft as one POV and then decide.

Previously, I drafted 46k words in nineteen days with the first draft. Surely I could add 30k more to this draft in sixteen!

Wrong again. The Book 2 process was horrible, terrible, and no good once again.

I had an actual panic attack. I doubted every chapter. I sat for hours at a time going over the story in my head, trying to make sure it made sense and motives lined up and the story was still good and my writing held up.

I consumed more pep talks from friends in those sixteen days than I can count.

But I also tried to hide exactly how much I struggled. In my head, this was something I needed to figure out. I never feel like my writing friends come to me over every little plot hole or scene trouble. I convinced myself that if they could do this alone, so could I. Even when I hinted at my desperation, I tried to hide just how severely I wanted someone to rip the story from my hands and tell me exactly what to do with it.

More than being afraid of writing the wrong thing, I was afraid of letting people know I wrote the wrong thing. It’s a small distinction, but I think my fellow Enneagram 3s may understand.

Coincidentally, in my revision, my main character struggles with letting people know she needs help. Weird how that worked its way in there…

Eventually those amazing, wonderful, selfless writer friends offered to help read anything and everything I needed. I took a leap and sent the first half to friends who convinced me I was on the right track and just in sending to them the pages and knowing I wasn’t SUPPOSED to be working on Book 2 while they read…well, it freed me up to write 3k words.

In all, I wrote 20k total over the break, bringing my total to 40k words. That’s about eighty pages of new material. Not exactly my 30k word goal, but not too shabby. I recently hit the 51k mark, but I’m still struggling. Every time I have a good writing session, the next hour is filled with struggle and doubt again.

I still have a lot of work to do. I’m still not one hundred percent convinced cutting the POV is right, but I’m closer to accepting it might be. One resource that helped me was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Turning to Story. The second episode of season 2 was all about vibes, which I never understood. I’m a plotter! Who needs vibes?

The answer is me, apparently.

The episode spoke all about leaning into the things you love about books and pouring more and more of those elements into your story. I really recommend a listen if you’re struggling, because returning to that advice is the only thing powering me through…and making Book 2 better.

If you’re struggling with a book, you’re not alone. I don’t have all the answers to recapturing the magic, but I do believe trusting people with the struggle is a really big step.

Thanks for letting me share some of mine.