Today, I finished up another book. It was the third book in the third trilogy of a series that’s going to go fifteen by the end. It came in around 140k, which was completely fair and about as expected. Now, I set it aside to breathe while I start working on a new book, this time, another series where I’m on book four of a thirteen book series.

I decided, perhaps foolishly, to read through the other three books first, just to get myself in the right mindset and I’m having a huge problem!

I’m sure that a lot of authors have this problem when they go back and read earlier work. Keep in mind, this book has been out there for a long time. People enjoy it, it’s a good seller, but as soon as I loaded it up in Scrivener, my immediate impulse was to start editing from the very first line.

Granted, I understand why. Instead of sitting down with my tablet and reading the ebook, I was trying to read it at my desk and that’s how I edit everything. I’ll try again on Monday in a different format where it’s very hard to make any changes. Maybe that will help.

I know I really like the book. The first of them, I’d intended as a standalone book. It set up a possible continuation but I’d never really intended to write it. It wasn’t until beta readers first and then actual customers started asking me what came next that I decided to expand on the ideas and that gave rise to a 12-book series, with the original an unofficial first volume. I’ve got two out, I’m going to write number three and four next and if I can get two done a year, I’m going to call that fair. Five more years to get it done and I’ve got the whole thing plotted out, at least in the broad strokes.

It’s just that the editing instinct is really, really strong! I need to be able to step away from the last three books that I’ve written in a row though. They’re entirely different stories. What I’ve been writing, it’s all done in first person. These are going to be done in third. It’s totally different universe, totally different technologies and very, very different outlooks. I need to make a clean break or my just-finished characters are going to start to intrude.

Therefore, maybe over the weekend, definitely by Monday, I’ll get away from the computer and start to read. Hopefully the impulse won’t be so bad. I know that the second I get into it, I’ll be hooked again and that’s the point, I just have to get the process started.

So how about you? Does this ever happen to you? Let me know in the comments.