One: Less flexibility, because you built the sandbox with the first novel and everything that follows has to make sense and follow the rules you made up. Now it’s up to you to build a worthy sandcastle. Confined by the sandbox on all sides, but absolute freedom to build within those confines. Doesn’t mean I don’t wish I could tweak the confines.

Two: More responsibility. If people liked the first one, the responsibility not to suck is even greater than the first time you lobbed this storyline and this cast of characters into the universe. People care now. From page one. This is both awesome and terrifying.

Three: More accountability. I blew off the idea of spreadsheets to keep track of anything other than word counts and queries sent to agents once upon a time. After several hours spent cursing and trying to find out exactly what I said or how I spelled a minor character’s name, I am now a solid fan of the tracking spreadsheet.

T

hink my learning curve looks a bit like this:

1) Writing thoughts smack you in the face when you least expect it. Recent conversation with a friend:

Him: “Course, I been swinging a hammer for twenty years.”

Me (thinking only, not saying): Anyone who looks at you would know that.

Wait, stop. Why would anyone know that? It’s the way he walks, the way there’s always a phantom toolbelt around his waist, the weight pulling his stride into a swagger. Hmmm.

2) Sometimes you’ve learned all you can from one story, and it’s time to work on a new one, even though learning new things makes me want to stop writing new things until I know all the things. Thankful for patience of wonderful agent who accepts my wordslinging and points things out to me.

3) Gotta persevere.