“After that I’ll have to see what else I can come up with because one good picture is never enough.”
Those of you who read last week’s blog post will remember that I discussed this phrase in relation to Katie’s character arc in Untold. I also teased that I’d tell you about how this relates to me, and my experience with Untold, so here I am, keeping my word.
In my recent trip to Fairfield, Iowa (home of my alma mater) I had a conversation about publishing with friend and former teacher Cullen Thomas. I began filling him in on some of the ups and downs of the publishing process that I have encountered so far, and he met me with two pieces of very good advice.
1.) Do not read your reviews. Ever.
“Everyone knows this rule, and everyone agrees. They don’t matter unless they’re from the true taste makers, and even then, don’t read them.” He thought for a moment and then said, “Of course, everyone breaks this rule. But still, it’s one you need to know.”
2.) Publish your first novel, grin, look at it on your shelf, and then throw it into the trash can.
“Keep promoting it,” he assured me. “But really what you have to do is keep writing more.”
And this is what brings us back to the quote. I, like Katie, have taken my moment to lie back on the grass, close my eyes, and take a bit of a rest. And, after that, I wrote a first draft for two different novel ideas I have. For me, first drafts are effectively glorified outlines, which is actually one of the reasons why I keep going back to NaNoWriMo year after year. The more 50,000-word manuscripts I have kicking around in the “stories” folder on my computer, the easier I can breathe. I know what’s coming next. I have options.
I’ll admit, one of my driving forces for getting Untold finished and out there was to give myself a feeling of accomplishment. My majority of work on it was during a time when I wasn’t doing much else; I was working maybe ten hours a week and spending the rest of my time crocheting, planning my wedding, and learning Dutch. It was a cozy existence, and a nice breather after graduating from college, but lacked direction. I worked fervently on the manuscript, telling myself that it was okay that I spent so much time re-watching Gossip Girl because I was doing something. And, thankfully, it panned out.
What I didn’t expect was how short the high of having done something would be. And how glad I would be when it wore off.
“I just don’t have the time,” I’d tell my husband as day after day of not meeting my word count goal, or even writing at all, went by. “I’m busy with Untold. I don’t want to divide myself between two stories.”
There was certainly an element of truth to this. It’s extremely taxing to spend a great portion of your energy trying to convince people to buy one book while spending the rest of your energy trying to build a new story from the ground up. But I think that my main problem was that the feeling of necessity was gone. I had done it. I had published a book. Where was the urgency for the next one?
Fortunately, it’s very rare for your first novel to be the only thing you need to create, ever. And, even better, it turns out that writing and publishing more books is an excellent marketing strategy that ties in with promoting your current novel. These factors don’t make the attention spread any less exhausting (especially since my day job has blossomed into full time), but I feel that kick of motivation again.
I’m going to do it. And this one will be even better.
— Amy
I’ll never throw you in the trash can <3