People say that writing the
second book is the hardest. Right now I’d totally have to agree. However, many
authors say that writer’s block strikes as they try to write a second book in a
series. I didn’t have that problem.
No, instead I had the insatiable
urge to make book 2 WAY better than book 1.
I went to Salt Lake Fan Ex (Comic
Con) in April and hung out at a “Why we love Joss Whedon” panel. At least 80%
of the people who talked said that they loved his characters the bestest of
them all. I had complaints about the characters in my first novel, so I figured
it was a sign that this is what I should focus on for a while.
And I have. If memory serves
(haha) then I have blogged about the character thing before. I got a couple of
books on writing characters and method acting that really helped me. I
completely re-wrote book 2…twice.
I thought I had it down, but my
beta readers told me I was off course. Thank goodness for honest friends. Or
mean editors. Either way. So I took another stab at it.
One problem I have is that I like
to employ a large cast of characters. It’s hard for me to have a main
character, their best friend and the love interest. For whatever reason I get
bored. (I probably need better characters) But there are plenty of shows and
books that incorporate a big list of characters without getting too crazy. And
they’re still good books.
A couple of weeks ago I sent book
2 off to my publisher to see what they thought of it. Hopefully I got it right.
Well, more right than before.
Now I’m waiting.
I hate waiting.
In the meantime, I feel like I
should go see Guardians of the Galaxy again. They had lots of characters that
no one really knew, and the writers did a pretty good job of making you care about
them all.
Good plan. I’m off to the movies!
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