With book one safely back in my agent’s(!!!) hands after round one edits, I’ve turned my (admittedly flighty) attention to book two.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a Google spreadsheet with all my ideas for each book laid out so when I began thinking about book two I had a good starting point. I knew roughly what I wanted to happen over the course of the plot, I just had to string it all together.

And yet.

It wouldn’t gel. I realized that my characters actions made no sense, the murder was unrealistic, and I was trying to squish too much in that didn’t fit together.

I figured “no problem.” I’d give it a few days and let everything bounce around my skull until a more reasonable story presented itself.

Y’all, I waited a week.

Toward the end of it I began to panic. What if I had used up all my writing potential on book one? What if I never wrote another (good) word again? My self-confidence took a serious hit.

I tried taking it out with my rubber duck friend, but didn’t get anywhere. I tried free writing. Kevin and I talked at length, but to no avail. This was it, I was over. Time to get a real job.

Thankfully, I had one of those magical, middle of the night revelations where I sat up in bed and said “Oh! Duh.”

So, good news, book two’s first draft is under way. The even better news is that none of you will ever have to deal with me as your customer service representative. (I’m not a people person.)

Has anyone else had this ‘vanishing ability’ problem? Is book two always harder than book one? 

P.S. My new manuscript is at about 300 words!