I hit the wall three times at 30,000 words with The Circus and each time had to start from scratch. You have to not cringe as you post yet another promo author post on Facebook, wondering whether your friends are truly sick of the sight of you and your damned book yet.
You have to keep your head clear as reviews come in, news of others’ successes, triumphs, fellow authors who all seem to be doing bigger and better things than you. But this time, there’s another set of pressures, because now you have to learn how to be a self promotion guru, a whizz at keeping up with the white noise and nuances of social media an organiser of events, school visits, trips to London, split train tickets, best Premier Inn offers an arranger of school assemblies, book tours, book sales.Īnd somehow, i n the midst of all of this, you have to try to find the time and head space to write another book. This time it’s different: as well as writing the thing, you have your daily life to maintain, complete with job, (in my case lesson planning, teaching, exam marking), and family commitments and all of the tiny things that make up your daily existence. Then comes the second, and the deadline looms just as you’re in mid publication frenzy for your first ever published book. No one’s looking over your shoulder, not really.
That feeling of being in the zone, utterly at one with your writing and your passion. The first one is written for yourself, with the freedom to explore, t o be creative, to find your own style, to dip in and out of different writing methods, to l ose yourself in words. Olivia really had nothing to worry about as The Circus is an exceptional YA novel with a truly distinctive voice – check it out! Olivia at the launch for The Circus
In the second part of our On Writing series, Olivia Levez talks about her experiences writing The Circus, the follow-up novel to the critically acclaimed The Island. So what are the some of the problems you come up against? And how do you deal with them without pulling all your hair out and eating every single thing in the fridge (including the mystery condiments)? It’s known to some authors as Second Book Syndrome. An exciting and very rewarding end to, possibly, years of blood, sweat and tears.īut now you must write your second novel which comes with a stricter deadline and the added pressure of living up to the hype and enthusiasm of your first. For a debut author, the publication of your first novel feels like a dream come true.
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