Resetting After Writing A Book

When it comes to writing a book, there’s always plenty of advice about how to get started, research, write, edit, query, sell, publish, and promote it—and so there should be. As writers, we need to know those things.

But when the book has launched and the release day has arrived, been celebrated, and then settled into a memory, what then?

If your answer is to write the next book, you are correct!

This is what authors do when a project is complete. But sometimes that book we just released took everything out of us. After what was most likely years of writing, editing, rejections, stress, and learning new skills as we queried, revised, doubted, signed contracts, or self-published.

After such a mammoth effort, the thought of writing another book is the last thing some of us can do. If that sounds like you, here are some tips to reset.

Resetting After Writing A BookPhysically And Mentally Pack Everything Away

We put our all into writing a book and it can leave you mentally exhausted. It can also be hard to switch off from that book world and the characters. Or you could find yourself with no new characters or book world to move on to next. While waiting for inspiration to strike, do what you can to leave the previous book behind by mentally and physically packing everything away.

For the mental part, write a journal entry about what the book meant to you, your hopes and fears for it, how you felt about it ending, what you’d like to see happen with it in the future, what you’re thankful for, and what you’ve learned. Jotting down such notes should help put things into perspective and prompt you to move on.

For the physical, take any printed manuscripts, hand-written ideas, notebooks, etc, and pack it all away. This could be in a box in your writing space or somewhere else in your house. Or it might be enough to file everything in a binder/folder on your bookshelf or desk. In any case, pack up your book files and give yourself the mental and physical signals that the project is done so that you can reset and move on.

Connect Back With Your Writer Brain

If your writer-type isn’t the kind that has endless ideas, writes multiple projects at once, or already has a pile of half-started shiny-new-idea projects lying around (raises hand), you may need to connect back with your writer brain.

If you’re like me and only get ideas when you’re working on a specific MS and that MS is now complete, your writer brain may be very silent. Try not to panic. You will get ideas again, you just need a top-up from the creative well.

Read books, watch shows, go for walks, listen to music, clean the house, and let your subconscious wander. Brainstorm, or look at your ideas file and see if the various random notes you made on the back of receipts or the illegibly scribbled 2 a.m. notes made after waking from that bizarre dream are something that you can turn into your next book.

Once you’re open to writing something new and have immersed yourself in inspiration, the story ideas and characters will eventually form.

Give Yourself Time And Then Set A Deadline

If your last project was a book that took decades to write, one you queried for more than a year, had to be shelved because it never moved beyond rejections, or you self-published and it’s now out in the world doing its thing, you’re coming off years of hard work. Years that require time and space to give yourself a break.

Completing that last book to whichever stage it got to may have also left you so overwhelmed that you don’t want to do the things that usually give you purpose.

Sitting at your writing desk to create, or to share promo content, may be the last thing you want to work on right now. That’s fine. Burnout happens to all of us. Take the break, but set a limit, and when that limit is up, give yourself a deadline.

This is not a must-be-done-by deadline but one that is a solid starting point instead of the mythical one-day… deadline that is only going to ensure that you don’t start writing your next book.

Even if you have no clue what that next book is, or the idea isn’t fully formed, giving yourself a deadline to start the new project is a great motivational tool.

It could be next week, it could be next month, in 6 months, or it could be next year. Just set it and stick to it.

Slip Back Into Your Routine

If you completed a book, chances are you did so because you had a writing routine.

It could have been writing every Sunday afternoon, keeping your Tuesday evening free for plotting, or penning down words every lunch break. Whatever the routine, if it worked for you, slip back into it now.

It should be like riding a bike, even if you haven’t done so for years. Your body still remembers how to pedal, and your writer brain still remembers how to write.

So, dust off your writing routine or establish a new one and put yourself back into a familiar creative space to get writing again.

Read Research And Craft Books

If you’ve sat down at your desk, fallen back into your writing habits, looked at notes, and are still coming up with nothing, don’t despair! Now is the time to level up your writing skills.

Read writing craft books or start a course. You can find free and paid ones online at all different skill levels, and you can visit your local library and see what writing craft books you can borrow. If you thought the dialogue in your last book could be improved, now is the time to learn all about it so you can nail it with your next manuscript.

If you’re happy with your writing skills, do some research for your next work in progress. If your dream has always been to craft a fairytale retelling, re-read your favorite fairytale and research its origins to see if an idea sparks.

Get your research on and polish your skills. Pair it with mentally and physically packing your last book away, connecting back with your writer brain, setting a deadline after taking a break, and re-establishing your best book-writing routine and your reset will be complete!

After that, the final tip to remember is that you do actually enjoy writing. It might feel forgotten amongst the burnout, endless editing, rejections, lack of sales, and social media promotion, but writing a new book will bring that creative joy back. All it takes is a little reset.

— K.M. Allan

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