Can I really write a second book?

Can I really write a second book?

After publishing my debut novel, "The Mulberry Door", I was pretty busy. As an indie author, I had to arrange everything myself, not only where my book was being offered, but also the marketing and, of course, social media exposure. But I’m a writer, and although coming up with posts and then posting them is fun, I just want to write.

So, two months later, armed with lists (did I already mention how much I love lists?), I sat down at my desk.

A new world opened up in my mind, with new characters and new adventures, and I wrote down everything that came into my head. Eventually, I had written everything down: the characters, the world, short scenes in a preliminary order.

Then I sat down at my Chromebook, coffee beside me, pen and paper for notes, Google Docs open, and the moment a big, blank white screen appeared in front of me, it happened.

I hadn’t expected it to happen, but out of nowhere, a thought appeared in my head.

A thought that could only have been spoken by my ‘evil’ little voice: “Can I really write a second book?”

Suddenly, I had forgotten everything . . .

• All the characters have to come to life on paper; how did I do that last time?
• All the scenes have to appear in the right order to keep things interesting; how did I do that last time?

And many, many more questions like that, some big, some small. But the question, how did I do this before, kept running through my mind.

Of course, besides an ‘evil’ little voice, I also have a ‘good’ little voice, but no matter what the good little voice said, the doubt wasn’t just planted; it was already growing!

I did the only thing anyone can do in a situation like that. When the fear of doing something starts to grow, and simply thinking about it makes it seem so scary that it feels impossible . . . Action!

The only way to overcome fear is to do what you’re afraid of. Of course, you’re still scared while you’re doing it, but over time you discover that the feeling of fear is worse than actually taking action. So just do it, even if it means doing it hand in hand with your fear.