Recovery Time

Well....you'll get lots of different answers to this, I expect.

My last novel, I finished in April, edited most of May, and began querying in June. It was during the query process that I began to think about my next novel, but I needed a break so I wrote notes. And notes. And notes. For several projects. And I've had a few false starts to novels. But I'm making headway now.

I remember the day in April when I wrote The End and how elated I felt. I danced around the kitchen and celebrated with a glass of wine.

Mine typically overlap. When I get into the editing phase of a novel, I usually come up with an idea for the next one and begin writing it.

Does that mean I never recover?

no break

I try to keep three projects going at once. One in editing, one in writing, and one that is being developed.

Once I finish the first draft, I move the draft to editing and move the development to writing. The editing manuscript usually is finished long before the writing, so that has already moved to marketing to editors, agents, or wherever hasn't previously rejected it.

I'm with CaroGirl. I just finished a novel and the first-pass editing. I'm going to put it aside, give myself one week to recover (and clean the house which suffered terribly during this last novel) and then go again with something new. I'll get back to the one that needs editing in a month or so, it'll be fresher then.

Between my first and second novel, I had planned to take a year off, but then two weeks later, I was already at it.

Once a first draft is complete, I give myself a few weeks to go back through and make any changes that need made (I don't go back and edit while writing, I make notes on the way and then go back later), or fill in any "NEED WORD" spaces with the correct thing. During the editing, though, I'm usually deciding on my next project, and I'll get to that once the finished book is out to my betas.

I tend to dig right into the next. I just can't stand the thought of not having anything to do. I have no real life to speak of so what's the point of cooling off? (Plus I'm not submitting anything for publication, and I try to write it the best I can the first time, so there's no editing process.)

I remember when I finished my first Web serial. I had so many plans of taking a break from THAT story and working on something different before I started the sequel. But...I just couldn't do it. I loved the story too much. After a few days I launched right into the next. And the moment that one was finished, I started the third (current) one. And I expect that the moment this one is done, I'll start the fourth, simply because I haven't anything better to do with my time.

I should note that I have various projects ongoing at once so there's always SOMETHING going on, even if not in the same storyline.

I have to have overlapping projects otherwise, if I give myself any down time I might get out of the habits I have developed. It's like going to the gym, it's too easy to stop doing it if you don't discipline yourself.

Once a book is finished (and I mean rewritten, edited, picked over till I can just about quote the entire story), I spend anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month writing a few short stories and kicking about ideas for the next book. I don't mind not actually writing anything new and big for a few weeks as long as I have chance to think about it.

I'm always working on several projects at the same time, so I just shift my attention around like I usually do.

I'm somewhere between 80-90% complete on one novel and already have started the next.

I havent finished my first draft, but because it is part of a trilogy, I plan to keep writing the second book, without almost any break.

The first book will need to cool down in my mind instead, for 2-3 months, before i'll start revising it.

I had already begun planning for my second novel when I was still working on the latter half of the first. So, by the time I was (more or less) finished with the first, I was ready enough to begin work on the second.

But, my third novel... Since it will begin right where the second one will leave off, I sort of have to wait until I finish the second (and know where I leave the characters) before I can start serious planning of the third. I'll probably be doing that as I edit the second.

I already have a ton of ideas for the sequel to the story I am writing now so I'm sure that as I am editing book one once it's finished, I'll jump right into book 2.