Difficult second album

[Emilymcplugger]

So after the success (ish) of my first story I’m dipping my toe in with my next adventure (should it ever get finished). I’m about 40,000 words in, it will be 7 parts long and approximately 70,000-100,000 words, give or take. Progress is steady and occasionally spectacular but it’s much slower going than “All the Devils are here”.

So my question is this…did you find your second story to be a bit of a “second album syndrome” or where your stories so planned out that once one was done you just smashed it ever onward?

Just curious.

 

[SimonDoom]

No, it's up and down. My highest-rated story remains the first one I wrote and the second I published. I interrupted the completion of that story to spend 24 hours writing a story to meet a contest deadline, and then I published the first story a few days later.

I don't sweat it too much. I write stories with many different artistic purposes, and I know some of them will be better received than others.

For me, the right attitude is just to keep moving forward. Sometimes I write a story and after its publication think, "I could have done that better." But I try to learn whatever lessons I can and make the next story better rather than worrying about the previous one.

 

[lovecraft68]

There's really two questions/answers here.

Because its how you feel about your second effort vs how readers react.

There are people who have been writing here for years who will tell you that how you think it went and how readers respond is not consistent and there's countless variables as to how each story can hit, or miss, vs how prior stories went.

I put more stock into how I feel over the readers because they're a fickle lot and the smallest thing can set them off. Best to just keep going and not compare one to the other

If writing a series expect lower readership numbers as the chapters grow as not everyone sticks with it, but on the plus side scores generally rise due to dedicated readers.

 

[NotWise]

I had a goal when I first started posting stories to Lit that was completely different from yours, so your experience is unlikely to mirror mine.

Before writing for Lit, my stories grew out of hand. I'd have an idea for a short story, but then wouldn't be able to stop writing until I had an epic novel. My goal here was to write well-constrained short stories--the more compact, the better.

My first story wasn't a complete page, but it did OK for a first story. My second story was less than 2K words. I was happy with it, and happy with reaching my goal, but it still stands as my lowest-rated story. So, I did have a second album slip, but it doesn't sound like your problem.

 

[KeithD]

Once one was done, I just smashed on with the rest.

Doing that first one of just keeping the bedroom door open was several years of writing and waiting before it happened. Once it did, the floodgates of writing erotica were blown off their hinges.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Once one was done, I just smashed on with the rest.

You keep on, keeping on. I like that about you.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I had a goal when I first started posting stories to Lit that was completely different from yours, so your experience is unlikely to mirror mine.

Before writing for Lit, my stories grew out of hand. I'd have an idea for a short story, but then wouldn't be able to stop writing until I had an epic novel. My goal here was to write well-constrained short stories--the more compact, the better.

My first story wasn't a complete page, but it did OK for a first story. My second story was less than 2K words. I was happy with it, and happy with reaching my goal, but it still stands as my lowest-rated story. So, I did have a second album slip, but it doesn't sound like your problem.

No, I’ve never had problems getting keys to keyboard, just finishing stories.

It’s kind of weird for me though cause my first story of over 100,000 words was written in about 2 months or so. It was remarkably fast work and I’ll probably never have such a light-bulb moment again.

It’s probably gonna be more sloggish from now on but I think I’ve got at least one more story in me.

We’ll see.

 

[Bazzle]

Every story we learn as authors?
Hoping to get better?
So don't worry, it will fine.

 

[NotWise]

No, I’ve never had problems getting keys to keyboard, just finishing stories.

It’s kind of weird for me though cause my first story of over 100,000 words was written in about 2 months or so. It was remarkably fast work and I’ll probably never have such a light-bulb moment again.

It’s probably gonna be more sloggish from now on but I think I’ve got at least one more story in me.

We’ll see.

Might be slower. I slowed down a lot, and I think that's natural once the excitement of doing it isn't new anymore. I relaxed and raised the bar a little on technical issues and self-perceived quality.

 

[MelissaBaby]

When I started my first story (a series, actually), I had no plans to write anything to follow it up. But somewhere along the way, I knew I would continue writing.

By the time I started my second series, I knew what I wanted to do. Basically, I set out to write something as different from the first series as I could.

To use your analogy, I went from Please Please Me straight to Sgt Pepper. I think my very conscious determination to not try to repeat the "success" of my first effort really helped me in growing as a writer.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

When I started my first story (a series, actually), I had no plans to write anything to follow it up. But somewhere along the way, I knew I would continue writing.

By the time I started my second series, I knew what I wanted to do. Basically, I set out to write something as different from the first series as I could.

To use your analogy, I went from Please Please Me straight to Sgt Pepper. I think my very conscious determination to not try to repeat the "success" of my first effort really helped me in growing as a writer.

Yeah, I’m not trying to repeat it, considering how the first 5 part story came about I don’t think that’s even possible.

Funnily enough even though my title was difficult second album I didn’t think of a comparison to that until you used The Beatles (very effectively).

I'd like to think that my first story has comparisons to “Born to Run” in that the main body of the story occurs over one crazy night (probably around 80,000 words of it), whereas the new one is a cast of characters but with a fun bent, more akin to “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”.

Here’s hoping anyway. It’d be bad if it wound up being “Neither Fish nor Flesh” by Terence Trent D’Arby.

Eeeek!!!