by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell
September of 2009 was Dan Brown week in the world of publishing. It had been six years since his mega-hit The Da Vinci Code. There was a lot of excitement about his new book, The Lost Symbol. Doubleday needed a huge hardcover bestseller in the midst of what’s been called “The Great Recession.” They got one.
The book had a first printing of 6.5 million and sold a million in hardcover and ebook the first day. It debuted at #1 on the NY Times list and stayed there for six weeks.
So why did it take Dan Brown six years to write it? He explained:
“The thing that happened to me and must happen to any writer who’s had success, is that I temporarily became very self-aware. Instead of writing and saying, ‘This is what the character does,’ you say, ‘Wait, millions of people are going to read this.’ It’s sort of like a tennis player who thinks too hard about a stroke—you’re temporarily crippled.”
What happened to Dan Brown on a mega level happens to most writers who publish more than one book. A lot of unpublished writers think things will be just swell once they’re published, and that they can produce book after book with nary a worry. (Insert here the usual jeremiad about AI-slop.)
For those who take writing seriously, who want to keep producing good work, the writing sometimes gets harder, not easier, as some would think. I’ve found this to be true for myself and for many of my published writer friends.
Why should this be? I think it’s because with each book, we know more about the craft and, consequently, where we fall short. We raise the bar because we hope to grow a readership. We want to keep pleasing them, surprising them, delighting them with plot twists, great characters, and a bit of stylistic flair. We keep pursuing that storied “next level.” That can bring on what I call “The Next-Book Willies.”
Dan Brown dealt with TNBW by hanging upside down in “gravity boots.” It seemed to “help me solve plot challenges by shifting my entire perspective.” But then: “My wife was very concerned that I would pull myself up into these gravity boots and not have the strength someday to get back down. I’d just be hanging there forever. So I now use an inversion table.”
Other writers have similar quirks:
Roald Dahl at least wrote sitting down, but insisted on climbing into a sleeping bag before doing so. Truman Capote (In Cold Blood; Breakfast at Tiffany’s) supposedly wrote lying down, a coffee – then a sherry, then a martini – in one hand and a pencil in another….Philip Pullman can only write in ballpoint on lined A4 paper that has two holes in it (not four)….John Cheever, in a 1978 Newsweek essay, confessed that the publication of a definitive collection of his great short stories was “in no way eclipsed by the fact that a great many … were written in my underwear.”
Victor Hugo (Les Misérables) allegedly asked his valet to hide his clothes and wrote in the nude – or at least, on cold days, wrapped in a blanket – so he could not go outside.
Here are a few, er, more normal practices I would suggest, all of which I’ve employed. Not surprisingly, the first is, WRITE. Start a free-form journal and just go. Begin entries with “I remember . . .” or “I really hate…” or “I wish…” This is not work on your WIP. It’s giving permission to your brain to come out and play. When you are working on your WIP, consider starting each stint with a Sue Grafton-style novel journal.
RE-READ. Pull out a favorite novel and read parts of it at random, or even the whole thing. Don’t worry about feeling even worse because you think you can’t write like that author. You’re not supposed to. You never can. But guess what? They can’t write like you, either.
INCUBATE. For half an hour, think hard about your project, writing notes to yourself, asking questions. Back yourself into tight corners. Then put all that away for a day and do other stuff. Your Boys in the Basement will get to work and good things will start bubbling up. For an advanced session, try going 6 hours without phone, computer, tablet, or TV. (Think that’s easy these days? Just try it!) ! You can use a pen and paper if you like. I recommend doodling.
BLOOD TO BRAIN. If you want to try gravity boots, be my guest. What I do is lie on my back and put my legs up on a chair or bed, and then do some deep breathing and relaxing for 15-25 minutes. This is especially helpful to get through the afternoon blahs.
So what about you? Have you ever had the “next-book willies”? What do you do to overcome this, or other forms of writer’s block?
When I’m stuck, usually 2/3 of the way through, I go back to the beginning of the WIP and edit. By the time I get to where I left off, I usually know where I’m headed.
That’s a good method, Jane. Thanks.
I have bouts of crippling self-awareness as well, except my inner pessimist says, “‘Wait, dozens of people are going to read this.”
To get my nerve back, I look up at the printed covers of the magazines featuring my work. They cover the walls of my office and serve as reminders that I’ve done it before and can do it again.
Dean Koontz does the same thing! Only he has an entire room in his mansion with shelves of all his books, foreign and domestic, and goes in there so he can say, “I’ve done this before. I can do it again.” That in itself is a comfort. If Koontz thinks this, we mere mortals can, too.
I’m in the middle of that right now. New book, not part of any of my series. Vacation intervened, and then all the vacation recovery, plus a multi-author library event. (More on that in my next post.) I haven’t even opened the file since I got back.
I’m torn between post processing my images from the trip–hey, my protag is a photographer, so that counts, right?–and looking at feedback from my 2 writing buddies. Or just opening the file and going back to page 1 to see if I even like the first 30K words–which is another brick wall for me.
But the writing itch is building, and the first of your suggestions–WRITE–is spot on.
(And no, AI didn’t write this comment despite the em dashes.)
Yes, write your way out. And keep on using—he says encouragingly—the beloved em dash!
It’s definitely a challenge overcoming the willies at times.
Novel journaling often unsticks me. Jotting down a 30K foot view of the story focuses me onthe story.. After all, I want to improve with each book, and that can be hindering at times. Focusing on the story with the intent of improving in a particular area and putting the fears aside also helps.
I really like your incubate suggestion. I’m keeping that in the bullpen, and ready to be sent out on to the field if needed.
I do love a bullpen, fully rested.😁
Next book Willies, sometimes called Sophomore Slump after the first book, can be paralyzing. At a convention, I once overheard a reviewer talking at lunch. “Well, he did pretty well with his first book. Let’s see how he does with the second.” Brrr. It was like she was waiting for the writer to fail.
I beat the NBW by going for a long walk. It helps reset my brain.
And some nasty critics used to go after that second book if someone had a big best seller out of the gate. Cold indeed!
You are absolutely right about each book being harder to write! I always want my next book to be better than the last one, not that I thought the last one wasn’t good…just that I learn with each book. I’m working on book #20 right now, and life is interfering. Not in a bad way, but in pulling me away from the computer because it’s fun.
That’s another secret, isn’t it? Figure out a way to have fun! I have the most fun rainstorming my book, then writing scenes where I let the characters surprise me.
Great stories of past & present masters, Jim. (The writing naked thingy notwithstanding…)
I like all of your suggestions…let’s see which I want to try primo…doo dee doo… 🤓
I really, really like the framed words on the wall behind Dan Brown. I think that’s what’s going on with my current story-in-the-making.
And, oftentimes I have to remind myself that the story has already happened; I just have to watch and listen.
👍😁
I HAVE TO block the Internet on my computer; I use a little program called Freedom. Get into a session of whatever length, tell the outside world you’re busy, and use the time only for advancing the WIP.
I hate reading anything on my phone, so it is perfect if I simply MUST go research a fact or I can’t keep writing: Safari on the iPhone will find the basic answer, and the kingdom stays locked.
I’m about to do that – I have that tricky THIRD book to finish, the final one in my Pride’s Children mainstream contemporary trilogy, LIMBO. It’s complicated. Threads have been set since page 1 of volume 1, PURGATORY, and I supposedly know where they go (extreme plotter me).
Well, now I have to put up or shut up, and I hope not to quit.
PLUS I just discovered the books’ site/blog to which I have been blithely sending people who might be interested in my work is SEVERELY out of date, even for what I already have! So I will have to find and use some of that precious energy to at least make it minimally up-to-date, when every minute of functional time is costing me everything I can pay.
Sorry, guys! At least the actual books are ALWAYS my A1 task.
Jim, you’re right about increasing pressure. Like Pat, I try to make each book better than the last.
The first four books in my thriller series came easily with stories that had been percolating for a while. But after book 4, the well ran dry and I had to generate fresh ideas. For a couple of months, I worked on shorter projects, wrote articles, read, and took walks, casting for new ideas.
Then the pandemic hit. Friends who’d been married more than 60 years were separated b/c he wasn’t allowed to visit her in memory care. Their plight distressed me a lot and prompted a story about the unintended consequences of well-meaning but deeply flawed restrictions. That book became Flight to Forever.
Subsequent books have also been inspired by current events and real-life situations.
Ideas are everywhere. Many are worth articles or blog posts but not substantial enough for a book. Shorter projects keep me writing until the next big idea.
And lot of long walks.