Ever since I
published Iridescent back in
July, I've been working on its sequel. I have to admit that I'm way
behind schedule when it comes to this WIP, and that's something I
really need to work on. This is the first sequel I've written, and
that makes it a learning
experience. And what better way to discuss this learning experience
than in a blog post or two?
Obviously
writing any story can be a learning experience. Iridescent
taught me a lot. It was my first
story, and the first story I've ever published. Since publishing it,
I've learned that there are some areas where I can
improve with my writing. Which is great. I imagine there will
always be new things to learn as I grow as a writer, and I hope that
I can continue to make my stories better. I'm hoping that I can take
everything that I've learned from Iridescent and
use it to make Coalescent even
better.
But
here's the thing.
Sequels
are hard.
I
know what I want to do with this story, but I keep getting stumped in
trying to make it better than my first novel. I'm constantly feeling I'm being plagued with questions. Is the pacing going
better this time? Is it too boring? How can I make sure these
characters are more interesting this time around? How can I make sure
that the interesting characters stay interesting and don't get
boring?
Oh,
and of course my very favorite question.
Does anyone
besides me even want this sequel?
Ah,
insecurity and self-doubt, how nice of you to pop back in again.
I'm
going to be honest here. In my ideal fantasy world, Iridescent
would have taken off the second I hit the publish button.
Reality, though, is much different. I'm grateful to everyone who has
bought a copy of Iridescent so far, and to everyone who has
left a review. It really does mean a lot to me.
That
being said, I think it's safe to say that this story still hasn't
entirely found it's audience.
Which
is fine.
These
things take time and like I said before, this is all a learning
process for me. Marketing a book and finding an audience for it is no
easy feat. I can admit that I'm not the best with social media. I
think it's probably safe to say that this blog post itself will have
very few viewers. I'm still learning, I'm still trying.
But
that only makes the sequel writing more frustrating.
It's
hard finding motivation when you don't know if anyone is going to
want to read your work. It's hard when you see other people finding
their audiences and gaining fans of their work. It's easy to get
jealous.
And
I know the age old saying that I shouldn't compare my work and life
with others. That doesn't mean that it's not an easy trap to fall
into. It's way too easy to get caught up thinking 'Why isn't that
happening to me?', 'Why are things going so easily for them?'.
The thing is, I'm sure that these writers have their own struggles
that I can't see, and that's something that I'm trying to remind
myself. That, and that things will work out when the time is right.
I
love my characters. Aly, Riley, and Leo in particular have invaded my
mind and they're making it clear that they're not going away until I
finish telling their stories. Which is good, because I do enjoy
writing these characters and the adventures they go on.
So
I'm going to keep writing them.
Even
though it can be hard and frustrating, I'm going to keep pushing on
with this sequel. I'm going to find my motivation and inspiration.
And
you know what, sequel writing isn't always a frustrating mess. There
are some big high points to it as well, but I'll talk more about that
next week. ;)
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