Is Colleen Hoover Writing Another Book? What She Says About Her ‘Dry Spell’ (Exclusive)

Author Colleen Hoover’s breakneck output is almost as famous as her romance novels: over a 12-year span, she’s written 26 books. But since her most recent book, It Starts With Us — a prequel to the bestseller and soon-to-be feature film It Ends With Us — came out in 2022, fans are wondering when the next Hoover installment is on the way. And so is Hoover herself.

“In the last maybe year and a half, closing in on two years, I haven’t written at all and I feel a lot of guilt for that,” Hoover, 44, tells PEOPLE for a story in this week’s print edition. “But I’ve also been extremely busy, and my mind has been in other places.”

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One of those other places is the movies. It Ends With Us will hit theaters Aug. 9 as a film she co-executive-produced with Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (who also directed it). Working on the movie has been “a masterclass in filmmaking,” she says. “I enjoy it so much that I want to be more involved on future films now that I’ve had a little taste of it.”

She and her husband Heath, 48, also recently became empty nesters after all three of her adult sons Beckham, Cale and Levi moved out, which has taken some adjustment.

“A lot of stuff has just happened in my life where writing has kind of gone on the back burner for a while,” Hoover explains. But never fear, CoHort: she’s not done writing forever. The time just hasn’t been right, although she’s confident it will be once more.

Many authors stick to a strict schedule, or have detailed outlines and plan to keep their writing moving. But Hoover, who says she has “ignored every rule, every writing rule, every piece of advice,” doesn’t find that those strategies work for her.

“I tend to go with my own gut. It’s worked for me, up to this point,” she says. “I write when I feel like writing. If I’m late on deadline, I’m late on deadline. I want to put out books that I don’t feel I have been forced to release, and I think that’s the key.”

This isn’t the first time she’s hit a dry spell, but that doesn’t mean it’s easier. “Sometimes, there’ve been other times, I’ve gone six months or more without being able to write anything, and I get just so into my own head and depressed, but then it always comes,” she says. “And so I just try to remember that it’s been working so far for this long. You’re not done. It’ll come. Your brain’s busy right now.”

The fifth and final installment of her romance book festival, Book Bonanza, wrapped up in June, and she’s looking forward to the film hitting theaters. After that, Hoover says she’s hopeful that calmer days are coming. Her process requires a degree of obsession to work, and obsession is time-consuming.

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“I need to write; it’s my therapy. I just haven’t had that moment where I sit down and get the book started enough to where I become obsessed with it and finish it,” she explains. “How writing goes for me… I have to feel that need to write and forego sleep and eating and speaking to anyone and just get this book out. And sadly, I haven’t had time for that to happen. So I’m hopeful that it’s coming.”