In today's guest post, British author Tom Rob Smith (CHILD 44 and THE SECRET SPEECH) talks about the thinking and overthinking around writing "the second book". And read on for a great quote from Lee Child about advice.
THE SECOND BOOK
Your first book is a success. No matter how success is defined, the specter of the second book looms large. The question you’ve been continually asking of your narrative – “What happens next?” – is asked of you. And it seems as if the story of your career is already written: success is followed by a fall.
In storytelling there’s little drama in consistency. But your career is not a piece of fiction and there’s no reason why a monotonous pattern of success couldn’t be established. In many ways, the odds are in your favor. You’re no longer subject to the corrosive uncertainty of wondering if you’re wasting your time. You have editors, agents and readers who want you to repeat your success. Perhaps there lies the problem, it isn’t one of success – it’s one of repetition. Writing is creative. Repetition is mechanical. Factories and assembly lines repeat. Artists do not. Should everything that was loved about your first book be avoided? To copy yourself is the surest way to devalue that which you’ve already written.
And so on, the second book anxieties rumble. There are more, too many to list. For unpublished writers, the obstacles of a second book must appear like a distant and wonderful fantasy. That is because the challenge in being published first time around is one of brute stamina, tolerating humiliation and rejection, and juggling jobs. The challenge of a second book is an intellectual one. You have too much time to think.
I decided to write CHILD 44 after of months of pitching original movie and television ideas. As a remedy, I showed the outline of CHILD 44 to very few people, wary of having my enthusiasm whittled down by a thousand polite doubts. There is no greater enemy to getting anything done than speaking to someone reasonable. If your first book is an act of madness, stepping off a cliff without any idea if there’s water underneath you, the danger with your second book is one of rationalization. You consider. You analyze. You search for a spot along the cliff face where you calculate the drop is shallow and the water deep. You consider some more.
With THE SECRET SPEECH I was lucky. The historical period that follows the end of CHILD 44 was really all about what happens after a bloody and murderous dictator dies, how does a society heal itself. In a sense, what happens next, a perfect fit for a sequel. The historical context enabled me to tell a story that both related to the first novel and was also very different. In CHILD 44 I was exploring a society which denied crime exists. In the second book I was dealing with a society where everyone has been made criminal through their complicity with Stalin's crimes, everyone except the people sent to the Gulags. The world has been turned upside down - the only innocent people are the criminals, and those people who didn't go to the Gulags, who prospered under Stalin are by implication guilty of supporting his regime.
I caught a quote the other day from the very wonderful Lee Child. He was asked if he had any tips for first time writers. His advice was to ignore all advice. It strikes me that a first time novelist will run with that sentiment, charging headlong into success or disappointment. A novelist writing their second book will spot the paradox of being advised to ignore advice. Should they disregard this advice also? If so, whose advice should they accept? By this point, the first time novelist has completed his opening chapters while the second book remains untouched.
I hope you enjoyed THE SECRET SPEECH as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Tom Rob Smith, Author
