The state of my writing career right now
Jul. 7th, 2022 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkWHEW. I *finally* turned in Novel #4 to my agent this week. It's definitely felt like a load off my shoulders, although I'm not sure if the timing will work out for this book to go on submission this year (it might have to be pushed back to the beginning of next year, sob).
Does it sound weird to say that, four (ish) novels into my writing career, even though I don't have a book deal yet, I finally feel like I'm hitting my stride? I have so many ideas now that my main issue is just finding a way to balance writing with rest and keeping on top of chores and other things I need to do in my personal life.
(Though, I'm taking a break from drafting anything new until my agent gets back to me in 1.5 months. I've spent the past 9 months working on Novel #4, with only a one-month break, and I'm hesitant to throw myself into the workaholic lifestyle again. Although, I've also forgotten what I used to do after work/on the weekends when I wasn't writing, so...who knows?)
For one, I envision Novel #4 as being part of a series. If it gets picked up, I would like a two-book deal so I can write a sequel. I'm risk-averse, so I don't want to commit to more than two books at a time, but *if* it sells really well or something, I'd be open to writing two more books in that universe. So...potentially four books?
Then I have a haunted house horror book that I started drafting earlier this year and have about 11k words of. I reread it recently and still like it; the only problem is that it breaks my brand (welp) (again). And then I just came up with a killer idea for a high-concept contemporary mystery/thriller novel. Although technically, that also breaks my brand.
(I don't know, I just want to be an author like RF Kuang or Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who is allowed to write books in whatever genre they want. T_T)
I guess the more books I write, the easier it is for me to focus on high-concept, commercial books, because I've already written the extremely personal books of my heart. And I'm the type of author who doesn't like to retread the same ground over and over.
But yeah. For the first time in a long time, I'm drowning in book ideas. Now I just need to find a sustainable way of writing them all.
Does it sound weird to say that, four (ish) novels into my writing career, even though I don't have a book deal yet, I finally feel like I'm hitting my stride? I have so many ideas now that my main issue is just finding a way to balance writing with rest and keeping on top of chores and other things I need to do in my personal life.
(Though, I'm taking a break from drafting anything new until my agent gets back to me in 1.5 months. I've spent the past 9 months working on Novel #4, with only a one-month break, and I'm hesitant to throw myself into the workaholic lifestyle again. Although, I've also forgotten what I used to do after work/on the weekends when I wasn't writing, so...who knows?)
For one, I envision Novel #4 as being part of a series. If it gets picked up, I would like a two-book deal so I can write a sequel. I'm risk-averse, so I don't want to commit to more than two books at a time, but *if* it sells really well or something, I'd be open to writing two more books in that universe. So...potentially four books?
Then I have a haunted house horror book that I started drafting earlier this year and have about 11k words of. I reread it recently and still like it; the only problem is that it breaks my brand (welp) (again). And then I just came up with a killer idea for a high-concept contemporary mystery/thriller novel. Although technically, that also breaks my brand.
(I don't know, I just want to be an author like RF Kuang or Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who is allowed to write books in whatever genre they want. T_T)
I guess the more books I write, the easier it is for me to focus on high-concept, commercial books, because I've already written the extremely personal books of my heart. And I'm the type of author who doesn't like to retread the same ground over and over.
But yeah. For the first time in a long time, I'm drowning in book ideas. Now I just need to find a sustainable way of writing them all.
