I am sure that there are a lot of people out there who will be quick to tell you that writing your first story is the hardest part of becoming an author. There is so much that is unknown, unpracticed, and an anxiety that builds up before you even get started, not to mention the horror involved with actually getting to the middle or the third act of a story that you've already put some much time and effort into already...only to wonder whether or not you're doing any of this right. It can be sooooo stressful for a new writer to deal with the challenge of penning their very first project. Believe me...I get it.

However...speaking from personal experience...it's not the very first story that you write that causes you the most grief. In fact, it usually ends up being the second or third that ends up being the real headache. Because that first outing comes with a certain amount of excitement and discovery for a lot of writers. You sort of get into a 'zone' and are just happy to doing something that you've been dreaming about doing for (what I assume is) a long time now. It's fun, you know? Especially, if your story does well and captures a wide audience. It's exhilarating!

But...that always leads to the inevitable question of...'what now?'

And that can be an aggravating question for any author to ask him or herself. Whether it's your second story, your 10th story, or your 100th story. Sometimes the anxiety just sets in when you least expect it. So let's take a look at those projects that you may decide to tackle in the near future, and how to calm those negative thoughts down and pursue new projects without feeling like they're taking years off of your life, just trying to get them right. It's easier than you think.

The first gay story that I ever wrote online was "New Kid In School". I actually typed it out in an email, did the whole thing in one night, and then sent it in to Nifty, making SURE that it would just be listed under the name Comicality, and that none of my private information would be visible to the rest of the internet. Hehehe, the internet was still pretty new to me at the time and I didn't know what to expect, exactly. But I wasn't 'out' to anybody and was afraid of being found out by my friends or family. Still, I took a chance, and that first chapter was the very first gay anything that I've ever written. That was a milestone for me. And within a few days, I found my email filling up with positive responses to my story. I was seriously flabbergasted by that! It blew my mind that people even read it, much less enjoyed it. That was both a surprise and a huge blessing for me. And I love writing and creating stories...so I wanted to keep going. So I followed up with stories like "Boy Next Door" and "Eddie And Me"...and it's not like they were bad or anything, but it was obvious that they weren't ever going to get the same kind of response as my first story did. Lord knows I tried. So, even though "New Kid" was originally written as a one time short story with the possibility for a sequel...I decided to write a second chapter to continue the story right from where I left off.

Again...responses were all positive. And readers wanted more. Cool, right?

The thing is...I wanted to be more than the "New Kid" guy. If that makes sense. I had so many ideas and characters and stuff that I wanted to say...but after a while, it was almost like "New Kid" was getting in the way of me being able to express myself fully. It's almost like an actor getting typecast in a role that they can't break away from. You just want some room to spread out, you know?

So I tried more short stories, something meaningful, something cute, something that I was hoping would catch fire like that first "New Kid" chapter...but nothing really did. They didn't do poorly, but it was obvious that all of my readers were only looking for one story...and one story alone. "When are we going to get another chapter of 'New Kid In School'?" And it was around that time that I really began to realize what I was doing wrong...and by doing so, I corrected course...and that's what led to the huge variety of stories that exist on the Shack Out Back website right now.

I kept trying to focus on "New Kid" and basically recreate it...but better. That's the biggest mistake that I could have ever made. I could try to make the boys even cuter, the sex even hotter, the stakes even higher...but none of that was going to work. I wasn't trying to build up new characters and creating a new story that could stand on its own the way the first "New Kid" did. I was simply using my first successful venture as a blueprint to repeat what I had already done before. And that kept me in a hole that I never would have been able to dig my way out of, no matter how much hard work and raw emotion I decided to pour into it. If you've written something that people love and appreciate, and you want to keep going with new projects...you need to start all over from scratch. Square one. My mistake was thinking that I could have an army of "New Kid In School" stories under my belt...but why would anyone want that? They've already read that story. And it's still running now. So why read a "New Kid" clone when they can just go read the real thing?

The main point is that you can't really be free to create new stories and original ideas if you're constantly comparing your next project to the projects that you've done in the past. You have to sort of work to get rid of that mentality. I know that there's this burning desire to always top everything that you've done before and do it better...but it took me a long time to break that habit and understand that every story deserves to be its own entity and stand alone, without being used as a comparison to its predecessor. And realizing that helped to take a lot of the anxiety off of the table almost immediately.

Whatever you write, however it is received by your audience...whether it be in a good way or a bad way...you have to force yourself to toss it all aside when starting your next project. Get it off of your mind. Build your new story from the ground up. Characters, dialogue, plot, theme...get back down in the dirt and act as though your last project never even existed. Treat every new story as if it was your first. It's the only way to truly clear your head and come up with something original that will (hopefully) capture that same heart and quality that your fans have come to know and love about your work in the first place. Trying to work in a state of comparison to previous works is only going to stifle in one way or another in the long run. I think this is a really important part of the writing process, personally. I was working with the idea of building on a strong foundation to build a proverbial Tower of Babylon over time...when what I really needed to do was strip myself down and build new foundations with each new story so that they could thrive and grow without having to worry about riding "New Kid's" tail the whole way. I know that it sounds weird to some of ou, and I get that...but let me tell you...once I discovered that one principle for beginning new projects with different ideas and different characters, etc...the whole site began to grow in ways that I never thought was possible.

"A Class By Himself" was the first series to actually compete with "New Kid In School" on my site. And that's because I took "New Kid" out of my thought process completely when I began writing it. Then came other stories that were able to grab equal attention because they existed as their own property. "Billy Chase" led to "Gone From Daylight" and that led to "My Only Escape" and "On The Outside" which later led to "Jesse-101"...and once I had three or four separate stories running, each one of them being special and unique in their own individual ways...the mold had officially been broken, once and for all. Thank God!

Now, I know that a lot of people have different methods of writing and different vibes that they like to approach in their stories, and that's cool. But for me? I really feel 'trapped' when confined to one story or genre. I write what I feel. Not in general, but in that particular moment when I'm sitting down and placing my fingers on this very keyboard. I can't write something happy if I'm not happy. I can't write something sad if I'm not sad. Not effectively, anyway. My emotions sort of guide me when I'm putting a story or a new chapter together, and I'm not good at faking it. Fiction or not...the emotion is real. You know?

You're a writer! You have the ultimate power of creation at your fingertips! Explore the infinite space that you have at your disposal and try out a few new tricks when your muse starts tapping you on your shoulder. Why not? Tear your previous notions of story and character down to the ground, and build something new without looking back at anything you've ever written before. Free yourself from reader expectations and any desire you have to top your last story with something even more amazing. Trust me...the very fact that you finished your very first story at all will pretty much guarantee you a better project moving forward. Your vocabulary will increase, your confidence will grow, you will take chances that you might have been scared to take before. Your instinct will grow automatically with everything that you put out there. I truly believe that a writer's natural instinct is a side effect of hard work. You can't just work hard to produce it. The only way to write a GOOD story...is to start off writing a few BAD stories. It's the only way to learn. We might swallow some water while learning to swim, might skin our knees and elbows when learning to ride a bike...but this is how you earn your medals as an author. Explore the space. Start from scratch and see what you can come up with.

Never depend on previous rewards to mean anything when it comes to your next project. Show the world what you're made of. You've got 'magic' in you! Try experimenting with different characters, or a different dynamic between characters. Maybe your first story had two guys that were crushing on one another but were wrestling with getting the courage to say the words out loud. Classic romance trope. But...maybe in your next story, the main characters start out not liking one another at all. Or maybe there's another obstacle in their path that's keeping them apart. For me...in "A Class By Himself" had a big financial gap between my protagonist and his love interest. In "On The Outside", we had an openly gay teen and a teen that was terrified of being found out, so he was deeply closeted about his feelings. There are many ways that you can play with this idea...so why not try them all. It's certain to speak to somebody out there. And if you can capture an audience with one story...they're sure to check out other stories that you've written as well. And the last thing you want is for them to go in feeling like they're reading the same story over and over again, just with different character names.

Change up the formula a little bit, while still maintaining a recognizable writer's voice in your work. I'd like to think that, no matter what I happen to be writing, readers can always see hints of 'Comsie' in there somewhere. The voice is present...but I like to stretch out whatever talents I have so I can reach into other territories that I might not be used to tackling for whatever reason. Whether I'm writing romance, or sci fi, or horror...I want readers to still see 'me' in the text. If that makes sense.

This is how you can try out different things and keep your options open as an author. I, for one, am constantly looking for things that I've never tried before. It's a self-challenge, I guess. But those challenges keep me racing forward instead of looking backward. I can honestly say that I don't have any real desire to recreate something else that I've done before anymore. I definitely want to finish everything that I've started and bring it to a conclusion the way I always wanted to. But I really want to avoid repeating myself if I can help it. My last big leap was trying out a full blown 'fantasy' story for the first time, called "The Plateau". I had never done one of those before because I was worried that I'd totally screw it up somehow...and I have pages and pages of notes for what I want to do with that story! It's like...it's one of those projects that gets me excited and scared at the same time. It's a part of that stripped down, start all over from scratch, vibe that I was talking about.

Now that doesn't mean that I don't still LOVE "New Kid In School" or any of the stories that I've written since then! I just love having enough space to spread my arms out and know that I can take chances and risks on the type of stories that I'm already known for. I want to try something new. Maybe it'll do well, maybe it wont. But find the courage to take those risks as often as you can. You never know when you'll stumble into a niche that really suits you. If you don't have more failures under your belt than successes...then you're not taking enough chances. Spread out. Challenge yourself and see what you're really made of when it comes to new ideas. It's not about success or validation. That's not why I do it.

I do it as a part of breaking that 'next project' anxiety wide open and reminding myself that I don't have to balance, one-footed, on what I've already accomplished before. No easy wins. I want to drain my creative well dry and see what I can come up with. Even I'll be surprised from time to time...which makes writing fun for me. Let me scrap all of that tried and true for a short while to see if I can catch a whole new audience. Stories with a different tone, theme, plot, characters, and a different style of dialogue as well as a unique perspective on life, love, and anything else that I might want to throw in there for good measure. Hehehe! Develop your instincts. No one can teach you that, you have to learn it on your own.

The main point is...tear everything down. Treat every new story the way that it deserves to be treated. As a NEW story! Give it its own breath. Its own life. Don't worry about making it bigger or better...just make it 'different'. What is it that you haven't tried before? What do you worry most about failing at when it comes to your writing? Do THAT! Hehehe!

Never be afraid to reinvent yourself. Take the anxiety out of trying to outdo your first big outing in the writing world. The growth and evolution is there whether you see it or not. I think you create a feeling of trust between yourself and your readers by trying a few different ideas out when the feeling sparks your inspiration. If your story does well, then awesome! You've got another mark in the 'win' column! If it doesn't go over so well...still awesome! Find out what went wrong and learn from it. What does it matter? You're just going to tear it down and start all over from scratch with the next story anyway. So you end up winning anyway. Crazy right?

Anyway, I hope this helps you guys think about things a little bit differently when starting a new project. I realize that there are writers who really want to tell ONE story and get it out of their system, just to say that they did it. And that's cool. But...for those of you who want to keep going and write multiple stories, or try your luck with multiple genres...always remember to start with a blank slate when you go into it. Don't be intimidated by the idea of breaking your old formula, and don't try to copy and paste a formula that you've used before in the past. Be 'present' in your work. Use your writer's voice to express itself without guidance. What you end up with is a story that is familiar enough to entertain your audience, and yet it will still be different enough to give them something new and unique at the same time. It'll work. Promise.

Happy writing, you uys! And I'll seezya soon!