After I spend a few days with my family later this week I will be spending my vacation relaxing watching basketball making snowmen working/reading and finishing up a round of edits for JACOB WONDERBAR.
And yet even with that task at hand I’m already looking over the horizon with a great deal of nervousness as I merely contemplate finishing one book and starting another. I have the new book jitters.
As many/most/all of you know, starting to write a new book can be a hugely daunting task. I liken it to staring down at a deep, dark abyss. You know it’s a long way down and it’s pretty scary to jump.
Some writers I know just try and block out how much work they have ahead and just chip away as best they can. I always try and remind myself that it will get done eventually with just a little constant steady progress. Other people try and outline so they can break it all down into comprehensible and non-daunting chunks.
What about you? Do you find it difficult to start a new book project? Or are you so jazzed about the new idea that it carries you through until the new book jitters pass? How do you cope with staring at the abyss?
Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!
For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book.
And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!
Art: Thomas Moran – Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Indigo says
Dive in. The next book can only get better. (Hugs)Indigo
Anonymous says
Hi Nathan, I finished my first book this summer and have been editing it these past few months. I'm still looking at the marketing phase of it, but eventually it will be time to start a new project. I enjoy the researching part, outlining, and even the writing process, but the after part scares me — who will want to read it, will it ever be good enough, am I good enough, is it worth all this time and effort?
The answer that usually comes back on a good day is YES. Keep writing, keep going, keep believing.
Happy holidays and thanks for all you give to us year round.
Janet
Melissa says
The jazz of a new project definitely carries me through, but I have to have an outline to know where I'm going.
Valerie L Smith says
I'm jazzed and can't wait to get it started.
For me, the deep, dark abyss doesn't come until I'm a few chapters into it and I'm wondering how I will ever connect the beginning with the end.
Natasha Solomons says
Only write on paper plates…
I was really worried before starting my second novel. The first has garnered a bit of buzz in the UK, and I was intimidated. Surely, all I could do was disappoint. So, I chatted to my friend Jeff Rona, a well known composer.
Jeff told me how he struggled writing his second commission. He knew he was creating pieces of art, and this thought often made writing music difficult. Nothing was good enough – what would posterity think? Sometimes it wasn’t even fun. Then, one day he was in the studio trying some stuff out when he ran into a well known RnB artist. This guy was recording and having a great time, and he and Jeff got chatting. ‘The problem is,’ said RnB guy to Jeff, ‘You think of your music as fine china while I think of mine as paper plates.’
From that moment, Jeff resolved on only ever making paper plates. He sits in the studio and plays about, experiments, tries stuff out, has fun and doesn’t worry about the significance of his composition. And believe me, his music is amazing (it’s the staple of my playlist for book 2).
While Jeff is talking about composing music, I think the metaphor holds for writing fiction too. I write ‘literary fiction’ but I don’t think of my writing as either important or significant.
I like to have fun when I write. It’s not always enjoyable – some days it’s just hard and I feel that everything I do is nonsense. But, when I don’t worry and try stuff out, play with words and see what works and what doesn’t, good things happen. I can always cut the mistakes. Throw stuff away. After all, I only write on paper plates.
Chuck H. says
I guess I'm a little different. I'm working on my third book (none published) and I already have starts on at least two others. My problem isn't getting started, it's finding the time to finish one so I can start the next one.
WV: cones – ice cream? traffic? Madonna?
Kirsten Hubbard says
this is funny. I'm never really nervous at the early brainstorming/first few chapters stage. For me, that's the most exciting part: ideas are abundant, and pressure is slim. It's when I'm several chapters in, and the frozen wastes of Everest loom in the middle-distance, that I start questioning my sanity. Like around now.
Autumn Rose says
I try not to worry, saying it's "just fun, it's okay if it stinks." It's a strange thing to fool yourself into not worrying or putting stress on yourself by thinking it's "no big deal," when deep down you know it's a big deal and you want to produce a successful work. Your have to compartmentalize your mind.
May @ Anne and May says
Much like Annie Lamott, I write bad drafts and promise myself no one will ever see them. Otherwise I wouldn't have the physical strength to start a new book.
I hate new books. HATE THEM.
CB says
I just dive right in when the inspriation strikes. Starting a new project is the best part.
If I'm tossing around an idea and I haven't gotten that wave of inspiration on how to start it (usually a nice opening line, even if it doesn't ever turn out to be the *actual* opening), I try to focus on the idea/project during moments when my mind isn't otherwise engaged, like when I'm in the sower or when I'm chopping vegetables. Inane tasks like that are great to get the creativity rolling and BAM the inspiration hits and you're banging away like a madman on the keyboard.
Good luck getting started!! 😀
Matilda McCloud says
I enjoy starting a new project, but I have to wait for a good idea to bubble up first. I can't force it. I like to start with a vague outline, make a word file and index card for each scene, and then write the scenes that inspire me most first. This method helps me with writers block.
Jamie says
I dive into outlining and then just start putting words down. I'm finding, though, that going from heavy editing into writing a new rough draft I am getting really frustrated with myself. I have to constantly remind myself that it's a rough draft and it's going to sound rough. It won't be as good or tight as the final edit I've just finished, and that is okay. I just have to tell the story, then go back and polish it.
Joseph says
Nope, not daunted. It takes a few swings before I hit the ball, though. I wrote a combined 4000 words on two other manuscript ideas before I started the project I'm working on now (80k and counting). If I were to make myself write a specific book, I'd probably be a lot more stressed. I have enough ideas written down, I just dabble at them until I find a hook and then dive in. (mmm, mixed metaphors!)
Rachel Hamm says
I tend to be really jazzed about a new project in the beginning and I hit the ground running, but after 12-15 chapters I lose interest. Hence I have one finished novel and five that I've started but am not sure if there's an end in sight. I think my problem is that I wrote the first one strictly for me, without having any intentions of showing it to anyone else ever. It was easy to finish because I was only trying to please myself. Then I found a online writing workshop and suddenly my writing has become about trying to make other people happy. Not exactly the best formula for getting things done. Somehow I have to learn to turn off the internet and just write, then worry about feedback when it's finished, but that's hard because now I depend on getting feedback to let me know if I'm heading in the right direction! The writing workshop has improved my first novel by leaps and bounds, but it's kinda stunting my creative growth in new projects.
Thanks for letting me ramble!
Stephanie says
I definitely think I dive in with excitement. I just started a new 3 book YA time travel series and I haven't even plotted it out yet. Must do that soon, but the excitement is killing me! I have to write while I'm "feeling it", ya know?
JDuncan says
Because I do a lot of plotting out and planning before I start writing, the jitters usually hit me before I ever start to write. I'll be looking over what I've got or pondering a blank area in the outline, and wonder if what I've come up with is really worth reading or I've got a blank spot because the story sucks and there really is not logical way to fill in the missing pieces. I take a break, stew on it a bit, and usually the mess will sort itself out and I'll get things done. I just have to have the patience to know that it's sometimes a fairly long process. Once done though, I'm jazzed to write the book. I can't wait to start working it out on paper and make it come to life.
Dara says
I dive in with excitement. At least for the first 10-20K.
Then the jitters come when I realize just how much editing and research will be involved to get it even close to readable…
Pseudonymous High School Teacher says
I envy you all. I am trying to finish my first book while teaching 150 10th graders.
Josin L. McQuein says
Starting a new novel is never my problem. In fact, if I get an idea, I make myself write a preliminary 1st chapter so I feel bad if I abandon it after putting time and effort into it.
The problem I have, more often than not, is keeping the storylines and characters straight. They like to bleed into one another so that characters leech from one WIP to another where they fit better. Which is annoying because then I have to find someone to replace them in their story of origin.
I'm so happy I found Liquid Story Binder so I can keep all of the parts and pieces in their own place, but all fluid at the same time. Saves me a lot of headaches.
Gerrib says
The abyss is after page 25 or so. Beginning is easy. Continuing, that's hard.
Steve & Sarah says
Best of luck wrapping it up, hopefully you will escape the grind of final details by thinking creatively about the next book. Happy holidays
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist! says
yeah, it's hard to start a book (or script). Usually it starts out with some interesting characters I come up with in my mind. Then I have to figure out the plot, which is hard.
but it's all worth it in the end
Anonymous says
I'm a little more than half way through my book. I'm at about 70k words, and I figure I will end at around 100k words. But I have been starting to think about my next book. I want to write it before I revised and edit the one I'm working on.
So what am I thinking about? The number one question that is tough to answer is: what genre? I'm thinking about either a romance novel or a mystery novel. My current book is a urban fantasy novel.
Once I make a decision on genre, I need to decide who my main characters are in my story. And are they compelling and interesting?
Finally, I need to write a synopsis for the story.
All this planning stuff is really boring. I hate it.
So my plan is to write a short fiction piece between the two novels. This will provide me some excitement while I finish planning my next book. I figure I will make notes between now and the time I start up the new one.
Oh, one more thing. I came to the realization that I can handle criticism of my work better the longer I let dust accumulate on my work. So now I'm starting to bring the beginning chapters of my current novel to my writing group. These chapters were written a month ago, so I feel less attached to them.
Bane of Anubis says
Depends on how my last book's doing on the query rounds. Were I in your position, I'd definitely be raring to go.
Chumplet - Sandra Cormier says
Actually, I'm excited to start the next book. I see so many possibilities before me, like furnishing a new home.
Maybe my nomadic upbringing is filtering into my writing.
C.S. Gomez says
I just finished my first book as December was beginning, and it's sitting in the proverbial drawer right now while it waits for my editorial pen.
My problem with starting a new one isn't that it's an abyss. It isn't not knowing what's going to happen or what it's about. It certainly isn't finding an idea. The biggest problem is that I don't know which one to dive into. I've got way too many ideas for the next book(s). Each one has a whole notebook dedicated to it through outlines, character sketches, and even a page or two of opening prose. And that's only for three of my ideas. The others are only on the computer, including the one I've half decided to start in on (but I don't have a notebook for it; aagh!).
And on top of that, I'm taking a screenwriting course next semester which will require using one of my ideas and turning it into a screenplay (already picked one) before actually writing it as a book.
So yeah. My problem isn't the big, dark abyss of emptiness. It's the big, dark jungle wealthy with ideas.
David Eric Tomlinson says
I've learned that I must have an outline. Getting a good one complete is a task in and of itself – but then the daily chunks are all progressing towards something that has been thought through several times from start to finish.
cipherqueen says
Just write! You can only get better.
Vito says
As my novel manuscript is currently under review for an M.F.A. degree, I find myself struggling with starting a new project. I've already begun drafting some new work and it's quickly become apparent that this will soon be a new novel in progress, even though I promised myself I would stick with short-form fiction for a while. Yet, with the outcome of the first novel yet undetermined, and the knowledge that some rewrites and revisions on that first project will soon be in order, I find the notion of jumping in head first with this new novel, well, terrifying.
Mira says
Natasha, that was helpful, thanks.
🙂
Well, my advice to you, Nathan, would probably be different than my advice to myself.
For me, I've built a whole log cabin at the edge of the abyss. I'm quite comfortable there. Every night I take a big bowl of popcorn, and I munch it while I stare at the abyss. I contemplate how I just don't have a concept yet. Then I go back inside and watch T.V.
My advice to myself is: Are you kidding me?! Get off your duff and start writing!
Well, you didn't actually ask for advice, but I can't resist. So, my advice to you, Nathan, would probably be the opposite. I'd encourage you, for example, to spend time this weekend watching basketball and building snowmen! Take time to relax and replenish. There's no rush here. Creativity likes to meander around and do nothing for awhile.
Of course, there's a limit to that, too, which is why my advice for myself is of a very different nature! 🙂
Anonymous says
start start – beginning? or just getting started? forget starting at the beginning; work out the ending, think middle and end and then and then … you'll see how it all began or at least where to start from. as to getting started – imagine your life depends on it, there's a gun to your head … like that, get me …
Sarah Laurenson says
I have so many books in varying stages that the problem is choosing the right one to work on now.
Controlling shiny-new-idea syndrome can be just as bad as jumping into the abyss.
Best of luck!
T. Anne says
I like to start with a good old fashion notebook and jot down some thought and create a very loose outline. I love starting a new WIP. Sometimes I get the feeling that I can't do this because I've somehow forgotten how, but then it all comes back to me. Revisit this line of thought with us when you get to the sagging middle. We'll walk you through it 😉
BTW, I hope you really do build a snowman and watch some basketball. It's all about balance.
If you get a chance, hop around the bolosphere and check out all the great kissing scenes in honor of mistletoe! Go ahead and start with mine, I won't mind a bit 😉
Stephanie Thornton says
I have to look at it as every little page helping. It's overwhelming to think of starting from the beginning again, but it has to be done.
It's totally an abyss! A big, scary, Star Trek, foreign planet abyss!
Laurel says
Go, Nathan, go!
Right now you are in the hard work stage of Wonderbar, and have been for a while. But the fun part of book two is still ahead of you. Lots of fun part.
Robert Burton Robinson says
I've written three novels, two novellas, and a collection of short stories—mostly suspense. My stories begin as movies in my head. I can't write scenes until I've visualized them.
Actually, they're more than movie scenes. They're like real events I've experienced. I become each of my characters. I see what they see. Feel what they feel. That's how I know what they're thinking. How they will react. What they will say.
One of the things I've learned to be careful about is creating too many characters. I usually write in third person, and tend to take the reader into most of my character's heads (not in the same scene). So, the reader gets involved with them—wants to know what happens to them. And if I never go back to one of those characters, the reader sometimes feels cheated.
Best wishes to you, Nathan, for getting your project off to a great start.
Anonymous says
I think you have to stay with a book all the way. For me, this means through the editing too.
But when a book project is complete, one also has to rest. The field needs to rest before the next planting cycle, otherwise it gets depleted, burned out.
When it's time to begin again:
Sometimes I go for tiny projects first, short-short stories, flash fiction, etc just to get more instant gratification.
Then I test drive ideas. I take them to where they stop naturally.
(i.e., the plot wants to go in two directions and I can't choose.) Some of them require travel and if I can't follow through, I put them down. Maybe I will be able to travel at another point in time. They are also fine to let go.
There are so many ideas.
When one catches my imagination and runs away with me, I find myself compiling the character sketches, dancing with the plot, and I'm off and running.
A book to me, is about a two-year project through editing.
I have to be in love with it to run away with it.
I don't worry about abysses. There are so many ideas that all want my focus. For me, it is about choices, which idea to choose. And inspiration. I have to be inspired.
dendrophilous says
I'm always so excited about the new idea that it's hard to rein myself in and finish the previous project or take the necessary planning steps rather than diving in and writing.
It's the beginning of the rewrite/revision process that feels like an endless abyss.
Anonymous says
Lois Lowry said it best. "It isn't the beginning or the end of a novel that's hard – it's the middle." Amen to that, Ed Earl.
mkcbunny says
I just finished my first novel this fall and am facing the same thing. I know that I need to jump into the next one, and I have a couple of ideas that I'd started before committing to the recently competed book, but it's been so long since I even thought about those other stories that I'm having trouble immersing myself in them again. I don't know if I care about them anymore, or if they are worth pursuing. The alternative is the great abyss, from which I have yet to pull a captivating story.
Meanwhile, I feel like I'm losing time and have to find that idea now, now, NOW. This whole stage is terrifying. In addition to writing, I sill have to find representation for Novel #1; that's a big chunk of time allotted to something that isn't actually writing or getting me any closer to having a second book finished.
Combine all of that with holiday obligations, and, well, frankly, I find it overwhelming.
Rowenna says
Well…since I'm still working on the agent phase of book one…writing book two is far less nerve-wracking and harrowing than that process! It helps to get attached to new characters, fall in love with new scenes, put ideas in a different egg basket. It might help as well that I don't really write linearally–I'm not looking at writing a book, starting at the beginning. Instead, I'm writing each scene at a time–I get wrapped up in a scene, write it, am engrossed in another–it makes the abyss seem, to me, manageable because it isn't straight down.
mkcbunny says
Nathan, did you mention that your book could turn into a series? If you have that as a starting point to play with, you could have fun playing around with sequel ideas to get the juices flowing.
Charlee Vale says
I'm not really daunted at this point. I"m close to finishing one novel, and I'm so jazzed about the next two I can't wait to get started. But my method is, refuse to put a word on paper for the next two until I've finished the absolute full rough draft of the first one. Because I don't want to take the risk of never finishing.
But the beauty of this system is that while I'm finishing, the next novel is broiling in the back of my mind, and the longer it broils, the more it scripts itself for me, and the less work I'll actually have to when the time comes to write it down.
Best of luck! Are you allowed to tell us if this new book is a SEQUEL of Wonderbar?
CV
Nathan Bransford says
Yup! Contemplating a sequel.
a cat of impossible colour says
I started the next book before I had a deal for the first, so it wasn't too tricky. As soon as I got an agent and a publisher, however, it became much more difficult – suddenly there was such pressure for it to be better than the first, and I didn't want to let anyone down. I stalled for a while, but then got over it. Now it's chugging along nicely. 🙂
I find setting a daily quota of work helps a lot with that staring-into-the-abyss feeling.
a cat of impossible colour says
I also agree with a few commenters here who have said that the first few chapters are easy – it's when you need to connect the dots and make a coherent plot that things get scary!
Anonymous says
I also have used coaches to work the rough spots with. The coach helps me to do a little four days a week and stay focused on my joy.
I write a paragraph or a scene on each of my writing days (and often it's more, but it needs to be quality more than quantity. That it comes alive for me, is the magic!
The parts I once thought I "had to get through" became some of the most exciting parts ever.
Malia Sutton says
I always begin a new book on a Friday. It's become habit for me. The only problem this time is that I'll be ready to begin a new book this week, and Christmas Day is on a Friday this year. So I'm going to have to begin this next one on a Wednesday and I'm not too happy about that.
But I always know, while I'm writing one book, what the next one is going to be. Not in detail, but I know the basic storyline.
AB says
I love a new project. Like waking up with the world covered in snow, it makes me feel like anything is possible.
Ink says
For me, starting is always the most difficult part, both from an emotional standpoint and a technical one. It's difficult to commit to that first word: the story pushes back. But if an idea is really good I find it gets heavier, it builds a certain density and weight. It begins to move all on its own and its momentum grows and grows…
There's usually a point when I know I have to write it. The momentum of the story is greater than the force holding it back. And then it's just a matter of finding that first word. It helps to just sit down and write it. It probably won't be the right word, but sometimes you won't find the right one if you don't put down the wrong one first.
And I know that once I start, once the words start flowing, the story will be there. Starting is hard, but continuing isn't (with the exception of occasional outside interference). I don't find middles hard, and endings are easy. Endings drag me along whether I want them to or not. But beginnings…
Luckily, though, hidden in that wide, black abyss there are little words, all aglow and fluttering, little fireflies buzzing electrically and humming with the possibility of story. It might be hard to track down the erratic little buggers, but they're out there, waiting. You can see them in your peripheral vision, blinking at you. Invite them in, let them glow. The abyss is full of hidden life. Oh the secrets out there in the dark…