Laura Henning
asked
Robert Ellis:
Hi Robert! Why do some writers talk about how difficult it is to write that second novel? Thanks!
Robert Ellis
Hi Laura!
I added this to my blog when another reader, Tracy M., asked a similar question. Please don't take it as anything more than my opinion based on my own experiences writing more than one novel!
I think that what gets in the way between books 1 and 2 is sort of the shock that your voice as a writer follows you from one book to the next. Here you are working on a new story with a new cast of characters and your voice as a writer hasn't changed one bit. The truth is that a writer's voice is the one aspect about writing that can't be taught, learned, modified or changed. It's something very unique that we're all born with. It's also the great identifier to your readers that you in fact wrote the novel they're reading. Even more, it's the big tell if a writer isn't doing their own work anymore, but putting their name on the cover! If the voiced changed, that means the writer did too!
Hope this adds a bit of something to the conversation! And thanks for the kind words about Matt Jones and City of Stones. Hope you'll hang around for what comes next!
All best,
Robert
I added this to my blog when another reader, Tracy M., asked a similar question. Please don't take it as anything more than my opinion based on my own experiences writing more than one novel!
I think that what gets in the way between books 1 and 2 is sort of the shock that your voice as a writer follows you from one book to the next. Here you are working on a new story with a new cast of characters and your voice as a writer hasn't changed one bit. The truth is that a writer's voice is the one aspect about writing that can't be taught, learned, modified or changed. It's something very unique that we're all born with. It's also the great identifier to your readers that you in fact wrote the novel they're reading. Even more, it's the big tell if a writer isn't doing their own work anymore, but putting their name on the cover! If the voiced changed, that means the writer did too!
Hope this adds a bit of something to the conversation! And thanks for the kind words about Matt Jones and City of Stones. Hope you'll hang around for what comes next!
All best,
Robert
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