The Sophomore Slump and Procrastination

In which I send you a second newsletter in the hopes of retaining, not losing, followers

May 19, 2025

Ah the dreaded sequel.

The sophomore outing.

The sequel that never quite hits the same.

The second newsletter.

First of all thanks to the 24 subscribers I got coming along for this ride! That might not sound like a lot to some, but it's about 23 more than I expected, so that's super exciting for me…and also nerve wracking cos now that I have ya, I have to try and keep ya!

So here we are. The sequel. This feeling of living up to the first one is being mirrored in real time in my professional life. Super Unicorn Princess, my debut graphic novel isn't out until August, but I'm already working on book 2.

When I was working on the first one I had several bouts of procrastination. Which inevitably lead to some all-nighters because Procrastinatin’ Mike didn't care about Future Mike and his sleep patterns. It got me curious as to what causes procrastination because here I was living my dream of working from home and drawing all day…so why wasn't I motivated? When I looked into it I learnt a major contributor to procrastination is fear. And that made sense. I finally got this chance to do what I was passionate about, to get a book with my own characters out into the world. But…

… what if people hated it?

Ok not hate, indifference may be a better word.

Would that be my one shot? Would it be back to the proverbial salt mines of customer service again? I mean the characters landed me an agent (and an awesome one at that) and I was in a very very fortunate position of having three publishers tryng to sign the book…which didnt exist (we pitched it without a completed script…the difference between pitching a graphic novel vs a prose book is I didnt need a complete manuscript…I guess with a comic people can SEE if they like it pretty quickly without the investment of time a prose novel takes to read and judge). So clearly some people liked it.

But once it went to auction and I came away with a deal that would allow me to quit my day job (not a flex, apologies if it sounds that way) and make funny pictures for a living, and all the woo-hooing was done, I had that sudden dread feeling of ‘oh no I have to actually make an almost 200 page book of this now’. I had never even got to 20 pages of any comic I wrote myself. What had I got myself into?

Fear.

Then once I was deeper into the writing of the book I realised i was always worrying about things that made no sense. I kept thinking if it wasnt perfect on every page I woud get roasted on social media.

Fear.

It took longer than it probably should have to realise that the target audience for this book was not the same as my audience on Instagram or wherever. This was a kids book. Sure, I hope that readers of all ages will find humour in it as well as a love for the characters, but primarily I was worrying about an audience that wasn’t the intended one of the book, because for so many years I had been making art for online likes.

The most driving fear was that I would only get one shot at this and if i blew it, then that was it. Which is a little irrational since I had signed a multi-book deal. But then that fed into the above - what if people were indifferent to book 1, then I had to keep making sequels to something people weren’t fussed about.

Well, I don’t have an answer (thanks for reading, ladies and gentlemen!)

I mean, I don’t have an answer because book 1 isnt out yet. I have received positive feedback and i have an amazing editor who is very attached to these characters just like I am. I had some peer reviews for pull quotes which were very nice. But imposter syndrome meant I couldn’t take this stuff as intended and instead worried they were just saying nice things, cos who wants to sound like a jerk?

It’s super fun living in my brain sometimes, let me tell ya!

Anyhoo, this is all to say I have been procrastinating with my writing of book 2. Because I want to improve on things i didnt like in book 1 (things the target audience will almost certainly never notice), but most of all I want to make sure that the kids (and adults) who like book 1 will love book 2. And not knowing how book 1 will be received means I am blindly hoping I am on the right track.

Fear.

So status update on book 2 - I received notes from my editor, and I have made some changes which I believe address them all, and ultimately made for some more exciting pages. I’m happy with the direction it is taking. But I have now caught up with Future Mike who is facing a first deadline at the end of this week. Future Mike has sighed in frustration (disappointment?) at the situation he has found himself in (again). But Future Mike will get things done. He always does.

He’s good like that.

OK I hope that ramble made sense - it was a massive stream-of-consciousness brain dump. I had a point in there somewhere.

Question of the week : Creatives, how do you deal with procrastination? What do you do to snap out of the lull and get back to work?

Now on to some recommendations for this week:

What I watched:

OK I’m gonna start with this new show - only 2 episodes in (new ones drop every Friday on Apple TV) - MURDERBOT

Wow I enjoyed this so much. The trailer was great, and the first episodes delivered. It’s exactly the sort of humour i enjoy watching. The designs and special effects are great also. I already grabbed the book that season 1 is based on (All Systems Red by Martha Wells) and can’t wait to get some time to read it.

I rewatched SISU - the Finnish movie about a retired soldier turned gold miner at the end of World War 2, and his run in with some Nazi’s. It’s like a Tarantino film without all the pretentiousness and with the action (and violence) ramped up to 11.

ANDOR Season 2 - Masterfully done. A perfect lead in to one of the best Star Wars movies - Rogue One.

What I’m reading:

The Tower at the End of Time by Amy Sparkes. It is the sequel (ooooo, a theme!) to The House at the Edge of Magic which I very much enjoyed. I found The Tower and the third book ‘The Bookshop at the Back of Beyond’ for sale while shopping a few weeks ago and grabbed them both. I love the characters and can’t wait to read what adventures they find themelves on next!