Second Book Syndrome

Jeffrey Eugenides on Second Book Syndrome (the tendency for second novels of writers to be mediocre and overly ambitious):

“No one is waiting for you to write your first book. No one cares if you finish it. But after your first, if it goes well, everyone seems to be waiting. You’re suddenly considered to be a professional writer, a fiction machine, but you know very well that you’re just getting going. You go from having nothing to lose to having everything to lose, and that’s what creates the panic.”


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