Is it more difficult to write your second book?

[Darren]

Tiffani wrote: "With two kids and a full-time job it's hard to find the time."

Amen to that.

[Andrew]

I'm really starting to struggle balancing my writing and my full-time job. Without trying or even really wanting to, I seem to have become quite senior, and certain expectations are starting to be made about the amount of time I spend in the office over and above normal working hours.

It looks like I'm going to have to give up doing something, and the candidates are: the job (unrealistic), acting (no way, it's my social life as well), fiction or freelance articles.

If I ever want to get another book out, I think I need to stop doing the freelance stuff. It'll hurt, as it's been very lucrative over the last 3 years, but it needs to be done.

[Andre Jute]

Whether your second books is more difficult than the first depends on whether you have developed a professional attitude already, or not. Just in case I'm boring everyone because you've all read WRITING A THRILLER (first Kindle edition now only a few weeks away), I won't explain unless there's demand, but it is a well-known phenomenon to publishers, editors and literary agents, who watch writers with their second books like hawks circling a hare.

[Ella]

Andre Jute wrote: "Whether your second books is more difficult than the first depends on whether you have developed a professional attitude already, or not. Just in case I'm boring everyone because you've all read WR..."

I never heard of that particular book. Its unfortunate there is no ebook. It sounds helpful. I will try to locate a hardcopy. Thanks.

[Harriet]

Andre Jute wrote: "Whether your second books is more difficult than the first depends on whether you have developed a professional attitude already, or not. Just in case I'm boring everyone because you've all read WR..."

One of the many advantages of self-publishing is that you can avoid pressure from the vultures to produce within a certain time frame. Many traditionally-published writers have discovered this and that's part of the reason the industry is changing. It's very difficult to be creative when someone is breathing down your neck, although the vultures' jobs and income are dependent on getting their writers to produce.
As a former journalist, I worked on deadline all the time, but I'd hate to do the same with fiction.
By the way, since starting this thread, book two is chugging along! Perhaps it was good to discover that others had the same concerns...so thank you.

[Alex]

I'm not in a position to comment from experience (so perhaps others will) but I can't help wondering to what extent the answer to this question depends on whether you are writing whilst also trying to do your day job, or have the luxury of being able to write as your day job.

[Marcus]

Hi,
I'm unpublished, but trying! I've written...err...seven! I had very little break between each one. Somehow writing each one seemed to trigger ideas for the next.
What I always find is that after finishing a manuscript, I get a deep feeling of sadness which lasts for several days, as I realise I'm leaving my characters behind.
Thinking about it, there was a longer gap after the first novel was finished...I thought that maybe I only had one story in me. I wrote a follow up story to the first, which could stand alone. It was an entirely different concept, but kept the link in my own mind, back to the first one.
After that, I broke free of the shackles and could write anything. Maybe that was the key for me. Keeping the psychological ties to the first book, helped me to write the second.