- Joined
- Jan 26, 2017
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- 16
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I am not sure if this needs to go here, but it seems as appropriate a place as any.
Two years ago I finally finished, polished and self published my first novel. After the initial rush of friends, family and supporters bought it, it quickly stopped selling even the single occasional copy. I spent some money to get on a couple book lists, which did not result in much. It was reviewed a few times, all well, but that didn't help. It's "failure" got into my head and while I was doing pretty well working on the follow up I abandoned it. "Why write a sequel to a book no one read in the first place?"
I have tried a few different projects in the intervening time. I do some tabletop RPG writing and design on the side and that has been working fine for me, creatively speaking, but everything I have done fiction wise has been fits and starts and amounted to nothing. I finally realized I needed to slay the dragon that is my failed novel and its sequel. I intend to read through the finished novel, polish it some, maybe it expand it a little, and give it a new cover plus add the first few chapters of the sequel to the back. With that I will give a date for release of the sequel to force myself to have a finish line. AT least, this is my idea.
Is this a good strategy? Is it worthwhile to go back and continue this series despite the fact that the first book gained no traction? Can you overcome "writers block" (it seems like a mismatched term since other kinds of writing are working) by beating a project? Is it better, smarter or more worthwhile to just start fresh with a completely different idea?
Thanks.
Two years ago I finally finished, polished and self published my first novel. After the initial rush of friends, family and supporters bought it, it quickly stopped selling even the single occasional copy. I spent some money to get on a couple book lists, which did not result in much. It was reviewed a few times, all well, but that didn't help. It's "failure" got into my head and while I was doing pretty well working on the follow up I abandoned it. "Why write a sequel to a book no one read in the first place?"
I have tried a few different projects in the intervening time. I do some tabletop RPG writing and design on the side and that has been working fine for me, creatively speaking, but everything I have done fiction wise has been fits and starts and amounted to nothing. I finally realized I needed to slay the dragon that is my failed novel and its sequel. I intend to read through the finished novel, polish it some, maybe it expand it a little, and give it a new cover plus add the first few chapters of the sequel to the back. With that I will give a date for release of the sequel to force myself to have a finish line. AT least, this is my idea.
Is this a good strategy? Is it worthwhile to go back and continue this series despite the fact that the first book gained no traction? Can you overcome "writers block" (it seems like a mismatched term since other kinds of writing are working) by beating a project? Is it better, smarter or more worthwhile to just start fresh with a completely different idea?
Thanks.