Is the first book always the hardest?

I think that varies enormously from writer to writer and from novel to novel. I've found each novel successively easier because just doing it has helped me learn and improve. However, I can imagine taking on a tough subject using a challenging style, for example, and the process being more difficult than my earlier novels as a result.

1st was fun and new.. still took me almost exactly a year to complete the 1st draft
2nd was a breeze.. 1st draft took 19 days!
3rd... eh... I'm still working on it.

I imagine that answers to this will be all over the place, and with good reason. For me the first book was by far the easiest (not easy). My knowledge of writing, the industry, dealing with agents and publishers, marketing, etc., was relatively meager and I had the luxury to write without anyone "looking over my shoulder."

I also agree that it's going to be different depending on who you ask. For me, writing the first draft is the easy part. Characters and their stories come easily to me. It's the revising, editing and fine-tuning that is difficult for me.

However, I don't think writing my second novel was an easier or harder... but it is better because of how much I've learned since writing the first.

My first (completed) one took a long time, with a lot of fits and starts. My second one, which I am working on now, seems to be going a lot faster. I just learned a lot about writing from the first one, and the abandoned efforts that came before. I also have a lot more confidence in my ability to do this and that keeps me working. With the first one I went through long dry spells where I decided it was crap and didn't write anything.

Actually, the biggest barrier to my working on my second book right now IS the first one, because I've been going through agent and publisher-suggested rewrites, and every time there's another back and forth, my current work in progress gets shunted to the back burner for a few weeks.

However, I have an idea and some notes for a third book, that if I ever write it, I know will be a lot more time-consuming and difficult for me for a variety of reasons.

Don't really know except that for some.....they seem to write faster and better with each new book. There are some at AW that pump them out like mad now. lol....and my hat is off to them. When I read back to my first one I see many places that needs lots of work. When I read any since then ....I see the same thing. they too need lots of work. But, as long as it remains fun and I get to hang out with those that have such talent all is well.

My first novel was the easiest. I was in junior high and still thought every word I wrote was golden. The second through fourth ones were also relatively easy. The fifth (the first one I wrote as an adult) was more difficult and took me over a year. I'm having difficulty even getting started with the sixth. Somewhere along the way my inner critic changed from not being discerning at all to finding a problem with everything I write. I second guess everything now and wish I could go back to the blissful ignorance I had when I was a kid, at least long enough to get the first draft out. It's funny because I always thought it was supposed to get easier as time went on, too, but for me it got harder.

My first wasn't too hard to write although it is complete crap. Since then, it's varied with each book. I've hit a wall a few times at different points but just keep going.

The first novel I wrote was the easiest. I was fifteen and enthusiasm shot me through two drafts of the thing in about six weeks. And, of course, it was a masterpiece.

I still try to get through first drafts quickly -- within three months. But I find doing it takes a lot more energy. I think more about my sentences, about my characters, about pacing and structure and point of view. I wake up at three o'clock in the morning realizing I've been going the wrong direction with the story for the last week and have to rewrite 10,000 words. Or that I had a character do something he wouldn't do -- not as I've drawn him to this point -- because I thought it would be a cool moment, except it doesn't ring true. Or something else.

It's still fun and enjoyable, and there are many more good days than bad, and I'd rather be doing this than anything else. It's just that when I first began I was unaware of so many things that I could bang through a novel without even once thinking about them (you don't worry about things you're unaware of) ... and now my mind is full of various concerns.

Fortunately, these worries only get to be when I'm not at the keyboard. I can still fairly easily fall into the world of the story when I sit at the typer, and everything else fades away.

They're all hard.

it's as hard as it is.

sorry i can't offer any more than that, but there are so many factors that effect each book that there is no way to say if one is actually more difficult to write than the other,

I find the second book harder than the first. I'm not used to writing sequels.

Hardest in which way? My first attempt was a novella. Although I had dreams of publishing it, I didn't know what I was doing, made a lot of newbie writer mistakes, and had a ball doing it. I knew it was unpublishable and at the time I didn't know if I would try another novel, so I had it printed POD as a souvenir (someday I will be able to spell that word without having to right click on my first attempt).

My second attempt was much harder. I wrote the first draft much like the novella, writing what I wanted how I wanted to. It came in at 230K words. I wanted to give publishing a serious try, so I had to learn about publishing, getting an agent, and how to cut 120K words from a novel I loved. That was the hard part. I'm now looking over the 109K word draft for final changes and will start querying agents soon.

My third isn't done yet. I've done the 80% that only requires 20% of the work, so things start getting harder now. I'm hopeful I can get to a query-able product more easily than the previous book, but we'll just have to see.

The alternative is to stop writing, which is not an option.

Reading the other responses, I'm reminded of learning how to drive. All three of my kids I've taught drove really well the first few times, and then REALLY badly the next few times. Then they got better. Someone said inner critic above, and I think that's very, very true once you start getting into it but before you get good at it.

Traditionally, the second book is supposed to be the hardest. It sure was for me. The sophomore jinx smacked me up side the head every time I sat down to write.

I will say the sophomore jinx only seems to apply to the second book if the first was published. I suspect it's trying to live up to your first published book that causes most of the problems with writing a second.

Other than this, I don't think writing a novel is ever hard work, but this doesn't mean it should be easy. If it's too easy, you're probably writing teh same book over and over.

Whichever ms I'm working on at the moment is always the hardest.

Jamesaritchie said:

I will say the sophomore jinx only seems to apply to the second book if the first was published. I suspect it's trying to live up to your first published book that causes most of the problems with writing a second.

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It can be that, but it can also be that someone who had a big twist at the end of book #1 may not have a similar twist for book #2. If you're holding back a key piece of information until the climax of book 1, that information is already out there in book 2 so the surprise is gone. You can't use it string the reader's interest and have to find another angle.

Cyia said:

It can be that, but it can also be that someone who had a big twist at the end of book #1 may not have a similar twist for book #2. If you're holding back a key piece of information until the climax of book 1, that information is already out there in book 2 so the surprise is gone. You can't use it string the reader's interest and have to find another angle.

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Which really only applies if you're talking about a series...

Book 1 was REALLY easy for me, as was book 2, but book 3 is kicking my ass. Partly because, as someone else mentioned, I keep getting jarred out of the flow because I've got to go and review proofs or whatever for the first two, but also...I'm not sure. I think I'd been storing up ideas for a long time for my first couple books. I've always been a day-dreamer, so when I started writing stuff down, there was loads of residual material in my brain to review and chose from. But after I used all that up on the first two, I'm left having to imagine everything fresh for the third book. Fun, but it's taking a lot longer.

willietheshakes said:

Which really only applies if you're talking about a series...

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The OP said "sequel"

Cyia said:

The OP said "sequel"

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Yeah, I was just noting that the thread had drifted from there almost immediately.

Cyia said:

It can be that, but it can also be that someone who had a big twist at the end of book #1 may not have a similar twist for book #2. If you're holding back a key piece of information until the climax of book 1, that information is already out there in book 2 so the surprise is gone. You can't use it string the reader's interest and have to find another angle.

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Yes, I see your point.