Lessons from Birthing a Second Book

by Linda Dindzans

My most recent blog compared the release of my first book A Certain Man with birthing
a baby. The next book in the series, A Certain Mercy, is undergoing content edits. This manuscript has readily confirmed that writing a second book is like expanding your family by the birth of another child.

When I was expecting my second child, I would gaze at my first, asleep with an angelic look on her face, and wonder how I could ever love another child as much. Upon the births of my second and third, I quickly learned that God enlarges your heart. You love each child individually in a way that defies quantification.

My multi-published author friends have assured me that I am not alone in my “second book jitters”. My desire to make the second book as strong or stronger than the first is a common one. But there are challenges––

Just as with the birth of a second child, the author must tend to the continued care of the first––launching, marketing, and selling the first book while writing the second. This ushered in a time of learning to juggle the demands of each book, stack tasks, and work ahead. I enjoy traveling, so I must learn to grab snippets of time and write while on
“vacation”.

The second book requires writing to deadline. For me, it meant writing faster––cutting the wordy fat of the story but not its life’s blood.

It is unfair and unwise to compare children with one another. So too with books. Each is an individual creation. New mothers often worry. What if my child becomes ill? What if my children don’t get along? New authors worry too. What if readers don’t like the first book? What if readers who loved the first book are disappointed with the second? What-ifs abound.

Mothers learn quickly that each child needs different parenting skills. Manuscripts are the same. An author may need to abandon techniques that worked for characters of the first book to allow the new characters to speak.

Second books, like second children, form a bridge between the first and others that follow. As such, the story may need to close open threads with characters of the first book and set up hooks for the next––while standing strong on its own.

After, reflection and prayer, I have come to believe each book, like every child, will have its own strengths and weaknesses, and offer different challenges.

As Christian writers we pray for our readers. We ask God that the words we write be inspired by Him. I must trust that the book will be placed in the hands of those He intends to read it––recognizing that the greatest impact may not be during my lifetime.

Jesus would have gone to the Cross and fought for my salvation alone. So, I must count
my struggles to birth redemptive stories as worth every bit of writer’s block, every deleted darling, and every late night or early morning spent. I will be satisfied if my work is a seed of salvation or kernel of correction in the heart of just one reader.

I now realize my prayers should also include editors, critique partners, writing coaches, agents and publishers who carefully parse each word.

While writing this blog, it occurred to me that I am the first and most frequent reader of my work. Since the Lord has called me to birth new manuscripts what lessons has He sown there for me?

What important lesson from your writer’s journey would you share with a new author?

Linda Dindzans, M.D. is a writer with the heart of a healer who offers readers stories of redemption and restoration. Though her compelling characters inhabit the treacherous times of the Bible, Linda believes ‘there is nothing new under the sun’. The struggles of her characters still speak to hearts today.