Now What?

So the holidays are coming to close and it is time to get back to the grindstone. I've ridden my wave of exultation to its conclusion and now it is time to get back to work.

So what should I work on?

I haven't talked to my agent much about it, so I'm not sure which path to take. Do I start working on the second book in my series? That would be the wise choice, the sensible one. Do I work on the other paranormal I started? Not such a wise choice however I like the story and it is in third person, a POV I'm not eager to surrender writing. Or do I go for a historical, just for the fun of it? I discovered an old one I had started and abandoned. I like the hook to it and the hero. The heroine is usesless and I think it could be a good book with a little elbow grease.

Writing the second book seems the simplest solution, but I don't want to find myself trapped by this series. I'm reading a book right now that is part of a series and while it isn't horrible, it feels tired and sloppy. The characters are interchangeable and I feel like the writer is fulfilling a contract rather than writing what she wants. I don't want that to happen to my writing. Remember "Misery" and how the hero hated his heroine? Don't want that to happen. I would hate to be at the mercy of a deranged Kathy Bates.

I have a plotline for my second book and it feels fresh to me so I will probably work on it, but I don't want to pull all my eggs in this particular basket. Yes, I still feel like my landing an agent is a fluke. I fear that whatever she found remarkable in my book is impossible for me to recapture in the next. I really hate self-doubt, particularly in my writing. I don't want to be the needy writer who slumps in their chair crippled by a need for constant reassurance. I have enough non-writing anxieties to deal with.