The book I’m editing at the moment was an absolute monster. I sent it off to my editor with an actual apology, because I hated it at that point. The plot, the characters, the complete lack of any conflict or motivation. Worse, it was the sequel to a book that did really well, a book I love and worship.

She merely replied, “You felt that way about the first book, too.”

I completely understand what it’s like to know in theory how to do something, but be held back by the mental aspect of it. It’s kind of like losing weight. We all know how to lose weight–workout, eat less–but doing it is a different matter. Writing can be overwhelming, the amount of time and work involved, and you can work for hours and see very little progression. It’s easy to get frustrated and give up. The key is to remind yourself that it’s only as hard as you let it be. Even those who don’t think they can write a book can write a page, and a page a day for a year is a book.

So you’re right. It’s all about perspective.

I understand The Rot idea. It makes a lot of sense. It’s not unlike my post-it saying WRITE CRAP or my habit of writing XXX in a ms in the places where I’m stuck so I can just go forward, or my determination never to edit while I’m writing a first draft. And these things do work.

But not down deep inside, you know.

I will look for that book. Have you read The Courage to Write? I found that helpful too, mostly in a “yes, Virginia, other people ARE as insane as you” sort of way.

In this instance, it was sort of interesting because I’m reading the proofs of book 12 just after having edited book 13, and I agree with you about being surprised when it’s more whole than you think it will be. In my case, both books have quite different main characters and their voices are different, and it surprises me how that is something that just comes by itself, even though I don’t always think about it. But also both books have similarities in ideas, which are worked out totally differently because of the different conflicts. Not conscious at all, but more whole than I thought they would be.

It took your editor 2 days to read it.

What you’re experiencing, I like to call “The Rot”.

Imagine your book as an apple. Your editor ate a 2 day old apple and loved it. You ate a 10 month old apple and it made you sick. Your apple…had rotted. Hers hadn’t had the chance.

It goes a little like this…

Take the word “boy”, for instance. You recognize it. You know its definition. It has a purpose. It’s a good, useful word. Say it a hundred times in quick succession. It’s not a word anymore; now it’s an annoying sound that doesn’t make sense. It has gone rotten, and it’s all your fault, Julie! How could you be so careless? That was a perfectly fine word before you got ahold of it, and now it’s ruined. Obviously, you can’t be trusted with words anymore.

And if you went to a friend with those thoughts, she’d think you were insane. Because the word boy was fine, see, I just used it in a sentence, and it made sense to you. You know?

Things go rotten in my head ALL THE TIME. So often, in fact, I’ve learned to deal with it by creating a mental refrigerator. It’s a little place I store things that are starting to go bad, so I can keep them fresh for a little bit longer.

The next time you find your internal editor/critic spoiling things while you write, take a moment and write (FRIDGE) where you’re struggling, and move on to something new. Then, when you’re done with a first draft, do a search to find all those (FRIDGE) mentions, write them down on a slip of paper, and forget about the book for a week or so. I’ve even gone so far as to put an actual manuscript in my actual freezer, so I have a reference point to conjure up when I start trying to spoil it.

I’m also going to recommend a book you might find interesting, because it deals with exactly what you’re talking about here. It’s called THE WAR OF ART, by Steven Pressfield, and he agrees with your editor that resistance is the path to growth.

So, yeah. You’re still a nutjob, but only in a good way, and that’s why we love you. Mwah!

Seriously, I think your editor was right about stretching. The more we do this the more we try to do it better, smarter, tighter. We expect and demand more of ourselves and feel we are missing the mark. But really, most of the time we’re not.

I’m editing my current ms and it is nowhere near as disjointed as I thought it was going to be.

But I think that liking it during edits is a good sign.

About second books—
You know, I don’t think second books are actually any harder than any other book following your first book. It’s just that when you’re writing the second book, you’re feeling all this for the first time. Little do you know that it will haunt you for the rest of your freakin’ CAREER…