After You've Done All You Can - Part I

How do you know when you've done everything you can after you've finished your book?

There are plenty of books that tell you how to prepare after your manuscript is done. They give you a list of agents and publishers who are interested in your genre, provide you information on self-publishing and how to write a query letter.

But none of them mention the fear that often comes when you've finished that book and the silence that comes after you've written the last line and your characters have spoken their last word.

And the most significant question...can I do it again?

After a few months of decompressing from writing my first novel, I sat down to work on my next and guess what? Nothing came. I was lost on what to do next.

There was a time when words just floated out of me...poetry, short stories, scripts but now I was lucky if I could write a general email. I was empty. And I wasn't sure what to do about it.

At first I had a pity party. I told myself, this is it. There's nothing more to give. I read over things that I had written and wept at how good it felt when it flowed but I would never again know that feeling.

This went on for months. I would come up with wild ideas on what to write...should it be drama, love, comedy, thrillers? Eventually, I finally pulled myself out of it. How did I do it?

First, I told myself to calm down because I didn't want my writing to come from forced ideas or desperation. Next, I decided to do some leisurely reading.

After a short period I again sat down at the computer and I asked myself a very important question--what if an agent or publisher ask me what I have to offer besides that one book, what can I tell them.

The answer was clear; stay with the genre I love and start from there. That helped me to start work on a new outline for my second book and I was even able to come up with an idea for a third.

It's important to take some time for yourself after you've written a major piece of work. Writing takes a lot out of you and can leave you feeling like a damp cloth (you know that there is more water but no matter how much you squeeze that cloth, nothing else will come out.

I'm sure there are writers who can start on a project right after they've finished one. I'm just not one of them.

There is no one formula. Just remember to always utilize the one that works for you.