What are you working on right now?

[P Drysdale]

I recently finished draft 4 of a fantasy novel, and I have heard a fairly common thread of advice from publishers and agents that you shouldn't work on sequels until you get the first book out (because if it does poorly then nobody will publish the second, and there could be an expensive cost to getting the rights to self-publish sequels), but despite this I have started working on draft 1 of the sequel, because my initial test reader (the wife) wants to know what happens next.

 

[sule]

I have heard a fairly common thread of advice from publishers and agents that you shouldn't work on sequels until you get the first book out (because if it does poorly then nobody will publish the second, and there could be an expensive cost to getting the rights to self-publish sequels), but despite this I have started working on draft 1 of the sequel

Maybe it's just me, but I kind of disagree with those publishers and agents who have the idea that a writer shouldn't work on a sequel until the first one comes out. Beyond the editor wanting them to do extensive re-writes that cause changes in the rest of the series, I don't really see a problem. I'm not a publisher or an agent, but I would have thought that an editor who buys a book that is the first in a series should be pretty excited to hear that the writer is already at work on the sequel. If the publisher likes the book enough to buy the rights, wouldn't that mean that they think that it's good enough to warrant the follow-ups?

Good on you for having the faith in your ability to go ahead anyway.

 

[Bagpuss]

I recently finished draft 4 of a fantasy novel, and I have heard a fairly common thread of advice from publishers and agents that you shouldn't work on sequels until you get the first book out.

Don't get ahead of yourself. You've not published the first novel yet. If you're on draft number 4 of the first one, and you're continuing to re-write it, then you're in no danger of actually publishing anything anytime soon.

if it does poorly then nobody will publish the second, and there could be an expensive cost to getting the rights to self-publish sequels

Well, it depends on the terms of your contract with your publisher. If you're a moron then you won't know what the terms of your contract with your publisher actually are. If you pay attention then you should. And you definitely should pay attention, because the terms of a potential publishing contract are not in your favour, and you should understand that before you sign the contract.

The contract the publisher wants is a situation where you, the writer, agree to sell your book (which means selling the entire world you've created) to the publisher for a reward that will be determined by the publisher. The publisher doesn't commit to publishing anything beyond Book 1, and so has no commitment to publish anything else that you write. If you're not happy with their decision not to go with Book 2, and you want to self-publish a sequel to your baby, you now have to pay the publisher an exorbitant amount of money for the privilege of writing the continuance of the story that you created. In the words of another tv series: "do you not hear the crazy?"

I have started working on draft 1 of the sequel

Excellent news. You have actual progress. You're doing a lot better than some other people are, since if you're starting on book 2 then you've actually finished book 1. You have finished book 1, haven't you? If so, get book 1 published (self-publish the bugger if you can't sell it to someone else on decent terms) and go to work on book 2. Get that written, publish that, and then start on the one after that. Rinse, repeat. Good luck.

 

[HareBrain]

The contract the publisher wants is a situation where you, the writer, agree to sell your book (which means selling the entire world you've created) to the publisher for a reward that will be determined by the publisher. The publisher doesn't commit to publishing anything beyond Book 1, and so has no commitment to publish anything else that you write. If you're not happy with their decision not to go with Book 2, and you want to self-publish a sequel to your baby, you now have to pay the publisher an exorbitant amount of money for the privilege of writing the continuance of the story that you created.

While this might be a publisher's dream contract, I've never heard of one in reality trying to pull off the bits in bold, effectively a no-competition clause barring an author from publishing other books with the same world and characters. Does that really happen?

 

[Ravensirtis]

Hi nice to meet y'all, new to Chronicles

So i am actually taking my first stab at writing sci fi after writing fantasy flops for the past decade. This will also be my first serious attempt at writing as an adult too.

But its a story about a young spaceship racer who has been orphaned (cliche i know) and he needs a hyperdrive to get off his planet to make a better life. Once off the planet he drops out of hyperspace into the the fringes of a space battle, where he is hailed by a federation ship (making up proper government names atm) and is essentially conscripted into a war he had no idea was happening....then it just goes from there about his journey there.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Ta da!!!!

Very early stages of book 2 but the way to start is to start

 

[AlexH]

I've been struggling to work on anything creative since I had to start working from home, but I'm relieved to finish a near-final draft of a flash fiction I'd been sitting on since November. I got a second Honourable Mention in the Writers of the Future contest, so next I'll be working on that to resubmit by the end of June.

 

[Dragonlady]

Just crawled my way to 25,000 words, but last night decided it needs some rewriting to get any further, to build in more conflict.

 

[OHB]

I finally heard back from my beta readers (delayed due to the pandemic), but I had already started working on my next project and don't want to lose momentum on it. The betas' suggested revisions will have to wait until I finish this...novella? novel? I'm not sure what it will be yet, but it's nice to work on something else after having spent so long on my first novel.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I didn't get much writing done the past two days as you can see from my Scrivener stats, even though I've been writing for four hours today and three yesterday. It's not lack of creativity, but it's slow going when you have to double-check facts and investigate how certain people would act. I was also planning on adding to my apropos thread in the Private area <snigger> but my brain's been larruped (!) today.

I started writing on 10th May and have about 7k written.

pH

 

[Night_Eternal]

Finishing up the final stages of my working draft for my first publishable novel, tentatively called 'Renegades of Panaetia: The Last Seed'. It's coming along beautifully. I literally work on the thing constantly: laptop in hand while cooking, while listening to podcasts, before bed, on the toile-erm, mm, excuse me. Once I reach 30ish posts here, I'm gonna release bits for you all to read and get feedback on.

A friend of mine just announced today that he has a publisher interested in his book. Though he is doing non-fiction, it's still a part of the industry. Who knows what connections this may open up in the end.

 

[The Big Peat]

pB, how do you get your history?

I'm nearing the 40k mark on my current manuscript. It's gone back to being utter garbage but oh well. Can't be helped.

 

[Phyrebrat]

pB, how do you get your history?

Project, Writing History on the menu bar.

The angry emoji is for the self-destructive assessment

pH

 

[Tavis Newsome]

Flitting between two projects but have settled on a epic fantasy where settlers/colonists have found a new land that brings them into conflict with the existing First Nation peoples, themselves riven with intra-tribal feuds, etc. Have been toying around with the idea for a few years, drawing inspiration from the French-Indian Wars pre-US Independence. Have done a little world building but am pants-ing the first draft.

 

[Tavis Newsome]

Project, Writing History on the menu bar.

pH

You need Scrivener V3 and above. I too was amazed, went searching, found I needed to buy a discounted upgraded pack for my V2.8, decided word history was a nice-to-have, not a necessity. Still, it's a very nice, nice-to-have...

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Started a new piece, a sequel to a crime novel) about 2-3 weeks ago. Just over 20k written, and flying at the moment.

It’s always like this up to around the 30-40k mark, which is where I lose all confidence in my abilities, decide I’ve been writing s**t, and go off to cry for a while!

 

[OHB]

I think everyone feels that way around 30k into their first draft, Kerry. I've heard big-name writers say that they'll get about halfway into their novels and start to feel like it's all garbage. The advice they give is to keep going because it's not as bad as you think and you can always make it better in the next draft.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I always get through it, but I still hate the middle bits!

 

[Ori Vandewalle]

I've been toying with a story idea for the past couple months but haven't put pen to paper (err, fingers to keyboard) yet. Near-ish future SF story where 3d printing, fabrication, and AI-augmented design become so ubiquitous and powerful that everyone accepts a basic level of "mind control" (really a kind of automated, extremely effective behavioral therapy) to keep people from blowing stuff up.

 

[The Big Peat]

Project, Writing History on the menu bar.

The angry emoji is for the self-destructive assessment

pH

Huh. I do not appear to have that option.

And, well, it's less self-destructive than thinking you're writing something great when it's actually got the literary value of a rotten chilli eating sheep's liquid turd.