So I'm about 20,000 words into the second novel. And it's weird, and I have Feelings.
This is the one book of the five that I never had what I considered a pre-draft for. In 2011, I wrote what was then the second in a two-book series (the novel I just finished rewriting was the first book).
But since then, the second book plot has changed completely. That 2011 book is more in-universe practice than a rough draft for what I'm doing now.
So this is a completely fresh story to me.
I gave myself permission to do whatever I wanted with the plot. As a result, over the past four years of planning the books, I've come up with some fun and wild arcs.
This has led to the writing being enjoyable -- and going fast.
But after planning the books for so long, and struggling to fit writing into my life, to suddenly be speeding through this new story is...bittersweet.
Long story short -- I've grown afraid of the experience of writing this book being over too quickly!
Even though I know the first draft is just the beginning of the journey, it's an irreplaceable experience.
It does capture the tone of the second story, though: trying and failing to keep hold of a brilliant whirlwind of processes you only remotely understand, and somehow existing on the edges of a situation and in the core simultaneously.
