Thread: To all "experienced writers": does it get easier?

Does writing get easier after you finish your first novel? Is your second novel usually an easier mountain to climb?

From my experience, I can definitively say "yes". I'm just curious to observe if my experience is different from other people's.

Your writing gets better. I don't know that it gets progressively 'easier' with each novel. I'll offer an example which makes me think it does, though:

I wrote my first novel back in 2000. It took me seventeen months and a lot of hard work to write it. It finished at 130,000 words. I began the sequel in early 2002, which finished at 160,000 words and took nine months. The third novel, I started again in early '04 and it took four months to finish at 240,000 words. That may be evidence that it gets easier with time and experience, but I don't know how true that is.

I decided, in early '09, to rewrite that first novel again from scratch. It took around fourteen months (I finished it in May of this year) to write at 150,000 words. It was almost as hard as the first one all over again. Don't know whether that had anything to do with it seeming like my first novel again. Just recently, I finished the rewrite of the second one, at 200,000 words, taking just seven months to write.

Take what you will from those numbers.

I think that when writing, self-satisfaction is key to how an author will see his or her progress. I think it technically becomes 'easier' when you're able to launch into a chapter, and re-surface satisfied, even if it took you longer time-wise to do. Then, on the flip side, if someone is satisfied with their writing style, they may find trouble in giving their plot fluid motion, or their character's a believable level of depth.

For me, I've finished three books to date, but I'm not happy with them. It took about a year a piece, and I haven't finished another one since 08. It's gotten easier in a sense where I feel like as I write, I know my books and style enough to cut what becomes unnecessary paragraphs where before I would have left it in. I know how to draft more efficiently, and I know how to integrate my cast more thoroughly; but my technical skill--my 'voice', is still foreign to me. So each book remains about as difficult as the last.

But again, I think it depends on how much we learn from our past endeavors. I know that once I find how I'd like to write my stories, I will probably be able to write my draft manuscripts much more confidently, which translates for me into 'more easily'. =)

My justification for saying it becomes easier, is that finishing my first novel was a huge self confidence booster for me. I could launch into my second novel saying confidently, "yeah I can do this!" Now don't get me wrong, my first and second novels were full of holes, but if you consider the sheer size of a novel, and the length of time it takes to write it - it becomes substantially less daunting.

I never had a problem with confidence when it came to writing, simply because I never had a fear of failing. It started off as an experiment for me, grew to a hobby, and then became a passion. I think too many writers, mostly first-timers, get themselves bogged down with too much information. Some critiques can be detrimental to a young writer's confidence. There are people who say things like 'Show, don't tell', and 'don't use passive voice', and after a while it starts to play on a writer's mind. You start to question every word, and it can cripple a writer before s/he even starts.

Aim for greatness, of course, but don't aspire to it from the start. It rarely happens. It usually takes two to three good-sized novels before you find your own voice and improve your writing skill. Most of all, have fun. I can't tell you how much fun it was to write my first four novels. It was only after I joined a forum like this that I started to become hyper-critical. Don't get me wrong, it's helped my writing immensely, but you have to know what advice to take and what to ignore.

There are people who say things like 'Show, don't tell', and 'don't use passive voice', and after a while it starts to play on a writer's mind. You start to question every word, and it can cripple a writer before s/he even starts.

Yeah, overthinking things causes you big problems. I know two people from other forums that I've been part of, and they gave up writing because of that. No plot idea was ever good enough for them, and no chapter was ever of a high enough quality for them. They were very talented at the start, compared to the rest, but they only got so far before they gave up.

The reason I don't like general statements like "show don't tell" is that they're so general. Examples through your own work are far far more useful, IMO.

Most of all, have fun.

QFT! Once you lose the enjoyment factor, you have nothing to motivate you, at all.

first novel any easier than the second. hmmm, that is a hard question, because though you understand the workings of a novel better after the first one, it was still wrote in a rough form compared to what you should be able to do on your second with that new experience.

hard to say. easier, yes, in a way.

For me it got easier in the respect that I knew how to research my information better and I avoided the traps of "telling not showing." My novels follow one another through time, interesting parts of history. It is the same original family and their offspring living a rebellious lifestyle not of their choosing, but relishing in it never the less.

My first novel took place in 1614, it actually began in 1596 so there was a lot of original research. How far could a cannon fire? What did it weigh? How long did it take to load? What other weapons did they use? Was makeup and dye used? What was the currency used? How did they raise the anchor? You get the picture. By the second novel, the time and place was firmly in my head. I built detailed model sailing ships of that era to familiarize myself with the construction of them, the foremast, mainmast, mizzenmast, cannon deck and anchor capstan.

I had explored the Mayan ruins and surrounding jungle in the Yucatan so I was intimately familiar with the location. of the first two in the series. Now, they are involved in the Beaver Wars in America so it's back to the books. But yes, for me it does get easier.

I think the second novel is usually better than the first, but easier? It might be if one wasn't still trying to push oneself to write better/more ambitiously. Personally, my first and second novels were my most ambitious works (Because I was so in to multiple viewpoints, I realize now). I think its going to be different for everyone, though that is old new when it comes to writing advice. I do think my first book was the easiest to write, because writing anything at the time was a win (As it always should be, if I can manage it).

The problem I've developed with the more books I've written is that I want them to be better than the one before. That actually slows me down. When I'm at my best I'm just writing, not thinking about how to make a rough draft strong while I'm writing. All things considered, I think I could have worse problems, but time-pressure to finish things is also an issue for me sometimes. If I try to give myself a due-date I often choke and find the writing a lot harder. That said, I think timelines are an important part of my writing process, just as long as they're loose.

Okay, I rambled. There is a simply way of putting this: I don't think books just get easier.