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Yesterday I put the first words down for A Magic of Nightfall, the second book in the Nessantico Cycle. I probably should have done that a week or two ago, but I stood there on the rock-strewn beach of the Novel Sea, staring out at that distant horizon and the unseen shore on the other side where I hoped to land, and hesitated before diving into those cold waters again.
Gene Wolfe, in answer to someone's question at a convention, once said this: "There's no right way to write a novel. There's only the right way to write this novel." I've found that to be a particularly cogent statement. That you've managed to write one novel successfully is no guarantee you can repeat the process... because the next book will demand you find a unique path through it. The characters are new, the landscape has changed, and there are different demands you'll have to face. You plunge into the nine-to-eighteen-month slog without any guarantee that there will be a reward at the end of it.
But as they say in martial arts: it's not the destination, it's the journey. We're off again.
Gene Wolfe, in answer to someone's question at a convention, once said this: "There's no right way to write a novel. There's only the right way to write this novel." I've found that to be a particularly cogent statement. That you've managed to write one novel successfully is no guarantee you can repeat the process... because the next book will demand you find a unique path through it. The characters are new, the landscape has changed, and there are different demands you'll have to face. You plunge into the nine-to-eighteen-month slog without any guarantee that there will be a reward at the end of it.
But as they say in martial arts: it's not the destination, it's the journey. We're off again.