Take the time to enjoy this. Celebrate all the work. Bless it, breathe light over it, send it into the world. Honour your work and your gift to readers. It is a gift that will help them grow.
Don’t push the next phase, take and create space and let it come to you.
I’ve had a lovely long tail with The Seasonwife and I’m gradually learning to let the novel have life after me. This gives me permission to conceive the next ideas and labour in that art.
This was the perfect thing to read today. I have just finished my debut novel (so exciting!) and although I am so excited I have fallen into a sort of paralysis and can't do a single thing - even read. As for working on my dissertation? God no. I have starred emails I want to read and finally this morning opened some - and so this was perfect - the decompression and the lethargy is part of the process? That's exactly what I need to hear. Thank you for sharing and writing x
I think how long it takes depends on how much energy the previous project ends up consuming - I started working on something new before my first non-fiction book was published, almost as a pre-emptive tactic against feeling directionless and that despair that Geoff Dyer describes. And it worked, sort of, until the book was actually published. Then I was completely sapped of any creative energy for about six months. With hindsight, I think I should probably have just made a note of the idea and then tried to rest more, read more and deliberately not try to write for as long as possible. But I felt very panicked about what was next. (I think the old freelancer/journalist mentality has a lot to answer for here though - 'you're only as good as your last story, etc etc...') x
So interesting – you're right about the journalist mentality. I wonder if there is also a personality type (mine) that is drawn to this kind of self-employment/self-driven work exactly because it reinforces our own insecurities again and again! That feeling that if you're not pushing forwards, you're falling behind. I will think very carefully about your wise words about resting and reading. x
I am currently in the ‘gap’ between book one and book two, although I have a 15 month old son now and the availability of those long and productive writing sessions has gone to zero. I long for those days. But they will come again, and then this second book will be that much better for it, the long period between that is. Or so I’m told.
I think the length of the pause probably has something to do with genre. I’ve noticed that writers who write suspense or very specific non-fiction and have book deals that require a book 2 or 3 seem to be back at it within a month. But for non-genre fiction I think it’s different- without the constraint of a set of rules/expectations I think a bit of free fall is a necessary part of the process. At least that’s what I’m telling myself!
Take the time to enjoy this. Celebrate all the work. Bless it, breathe light over it, send it into the world. Honour your work and your gift to readers. It is a gift that will help them grow.
Don’t push the next phase, take and create space and let it come to you.
I’ve had a lovely long tail with The Seasonwife and I’m gradually learning to let the novel have life after me. This gives me permission to conceive the next ideas and labour in that art.
Huge congratulations Hattie. Will place my order!
Such a lovely and wise message – thank you Saige <3
This was the perfect thing to read today. I have just finished my debut novel (so exciting!) and although I am so excited I have fallen into a sort of paralysis and can't do a single thing - even read. As for working on my dissertation? God no. I have starred emails I want to read and finally this morning opened some - and so this was perfect - the decompression and the lethargy is part of the process? That's exactly what I need to hear. Thank you for sharing and writing x
Thank you Rosie. I'm so thrilled for you about the book! x
I think how long it takes depends on how much energy the previous project ends up consuming - I started working on something new before my first non-fiction book was published, almost as a pre-emptive tactic against feeling directionless and that despair that Geoff Dyer describes. And it worked, sort of, until the book was actually published. Then I was completely sapped of any creative energy for about six months. With hindsight, I think I should probably have just made a note of the idea and then tried to rest more, read more and deliberately not try to write for as long as possible. But I felt very panicked about what was next. (I think the old freelancer/journalist mentality has a lot to answer for here though - 'you're only as good as your last story, etc etc...') x
So interesting – you're right about the journalist mentality. I wonder if there is also a personality type (mine) that is drawn to this kind of self-employment/self-driven work exactly because it reinforces our own insecurities again and again! That feeling that if you're not pushing forwards, you're falling behind. I will think very carefully about your wise words about resting and reading. x
I am currently in the ‘gap’ between book one and book two, although I have a 15 month old son now and the availability of those long and productive writing sessions has gone to zero. I long for those days. But they will come again, and then this second book will be that much better for it, the long period between that is. Or so I’m told.
They will come again! You're in the eye of the parenting storm with a 15-month-old. It's a great sign that you're missing writing.
I think the length of the pause probably has something to do with genre. I’ve noticed that writers who write suspense or very specific non-fiction and have book deals that require a book 2 or 3 seem to be back at it within a month. But for non-genre fiction I think it’s different- without the constraint of a set of rules/expectations I think a bit of free fall is a necessary part of the process. At least that’s what I’m telling myself!
Love this point. Thank you Charlotte!
I'm with the fox- I'm sitting and resting and watching you very carefully^^