Sequels and Their Secrets
I recently finished drafting the sequel novel in my Hands of The Order series.
It took so much longer than I had anticipated, but the rough draft is now officially complete. It clocked in at 113,087 words and I have now been working on revising it for about four days. It’s already up to 115,00ish words, which means that this novel is definitely going to be longer than my debut novel, A Kiss of Glass. But, I’m okay with that. This story needed more details, more complexity, and that’s what I’m delivering.
One thing I think I’ve had to learn the hard way about writing is that one book cannot do all of the literary things. As I was writing the rough draft of the sequel, I continually got stuck and couldn’t figure out why the book was such a chore to work on. But then, after stepping away from it for a couple of months over the summer, I realized that I was trying to tell too much at once and it meant that none of the threads of plot were getting the development they needed. And even now as I’m going through and revising, I’m seeing how many scenes and even paragraphs weren’t really “completed.”
And that’s okay. That’s what revision is for, taking the thing that still needs work and polishing it to look as shiny and complete as possible.
But I will say that this draft was considerably harder to work on than my debut novel. I’m excited to see these kinds of struggles come up in my writing process because it means I’m stepping into new creative territory. My debut novel was the first full length work of fiction that I ever actually revised and edited through to completion. Now, this rough draft is the first ever sequel novel that I have completed the rough draft of. So already, I am making my own creative history, a new personal record. And that I will never stop celebrating.
There is a part of me that wonders if I can keep this going; can I really revise this sequel novel to be as polished and well done as the first? I want to say that the answer to that question is yes, and at some point I have to just believe in my instincts as I write these books, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. Despite my four college degrees focusing in writing and literature, despite the many individual pieces of mine that have been published online and in print, and despite the fact that I have already released a novel that has received incredible recognition for an independently published debut by an unknown author, I still struggle to see myself as a professional writer, as an expert in my field. So it’s been challenging to push myself, to keep moving, to keep writing even in the face of self-doubt.
But that’s also a huge part of the writing process. Learning to recognize your weaknesses as a writer and working on them to improve your craft, while also allowing yourself to be confident in your storytelling abilities, is a fine line to walk. In both my undergraduate and grad school experiences, I encountered a lot of other writers who had an abundance of confidence and no ability to recognize their own weaknesses as writers. And let’s be real: we all have weaknesses with our writing. Mine is dialogue. There are moments when I feel like I do well at dialogue, and there are others where I feel like I’m tumbling inside of a never-ending wave.
And this is why I make sure that when I’m in the editing phase, I take one solid round of edits to focus entirely on my dialogue and nothing else. When you’re honest with yourself about your writing, you give yourself more chances to improve, rather than insisting that you’re the shit. There was actually an author on TikTok a few months ago who believed that he was worthy of being a New York Times bestseller, and the ways that BookTokers took him down over his arrogance was incredible to watch. Because, of course, his book was absolutely horrible, according to those who read it. And when he started “asking for feedback,” readers started giving it to him in a respectful but honest way. His response? Nothing but defensiveness and resistance to any kind of willingness to learn and grow. He asked for feedback believing he would only receive praise, and then when people — constructively — tried to point out some glaring issues in his writing, he lashed out and started a huge battle on TikTok with other authors and literary content creators.
Some people genuinely think they’re the shit, and that attitude annoys me to no end. Yes, I think I’m a damn good writer (and my writing CV would support this assessment), but I never have and never will ignore or deny the ways in which my writing can improve. I will advertise and promote and market my work, I will submit my books for different literary awards (because you miss all the shots you don’t take), but I will also always look for the ways in which I can improve.
These are the thoughts I consider when I’m revising. My goal is to complete my second draft by the end of January, send it out to beta and sensitivity readers, get feedback from beta and sensitivity readers by the end of of February, finish my third draft by the end of March, finish the fourth draft by the end of April, do a reverse edit by the end of May, and then publish by the end of June. I am really hoping I can keep to this timeline, but we will see. I’m really motivated and now that I am done with my second master’s, I have a lot more time on my hands.
Today is a half day at work.
This weekend is a three day weekend.
And I am celebrating by relaxing and then taking a trip up to Seattle with my partner for Christmas.
Happy holidays, everyone.
