Rating the torture

The other day I listed my books in order of which was most difficult to write. Outside influences aside, just which stories and characters I struggled with the most during the writing process.
Princess Academy
Forest Born
Calamity Jack (upcoming sequel to Rapunzel)
The Goose Girl
Enna Burning
River Secrets
Rapunzel's Revenge
Austenland
Book of a Thousand Days
The Actor and the Housewife

I have very fond feelings for those last four. There were certainly hours and days of wrestling with the story and waking up in the middle of the night unable to sleep for thinking about what was wrong and how I could fix it. But compared to some of the others, they were a breezy walk in the park. There's no real pattern that I can see. Graphic novels can be as hard to write as traditional novels; standalone books as sequels; short books as long books. There's no way for me to know when I start a book if it's going to flow or fight.

The contemporary comedies are much less demanding of me than the period fantasies, as evidenced by austenland and the actor and the housewife there at the end. The scifi trilogy I'm starting is in a contemporary setting (like the adult books) and first person narrator (like book of a thousand days) so I'll see if those choices make a difference.

I get asked often if it's easier to write books now than it was when I was starting out, or if writing later Bayern books is easier than the goose girl because I already know the world and characters. The answer appears to be no, sadly. When you're compelled to be a novelist, you're in for a long haul of excruciating torture as well as ethereal bliss. I don't think writers are allowed to live for long in the cozy in-between.