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I hope I'm not writing something that has already been covered or discussed. I'm over 50,000 words into a YA fantasy novel and in the last couple of months, I've had several other series and book ideas come to me. It always seems like the more I write, the more ideas for other, completely unrelated stories start entering my head. Anyway, I tend to get bored with my current project and I always want to start on the next one because it is so new and exciting. Even though the current one will progressing well, I get disheartened and frustrated and I kind of get the "grass is always greener" syndrome and I start plotting my next novel ideas instead of working on what I should. Does anybody else do this? How do you keep focused on the project at hand? Do you work on a couple projects at a time to keep things fresh? If so, do you find yourself favoring one over the other or are you able to balance your time appropriately between the two (or three or four). I'd love some insight. Thanks!
Posts: 10 | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
Welcome to Hatrack. There are no overdone questions here(there are but we're too polite to point them out). Everything has been and will be discussed. Your 'problem' is a good one to have. I tend to get stuck on finishing my WIP and forget everything else. I would love to have ideas overwhelming me. I get scared that when I am finished my novel that I will not have another good idea to go with. I do have other half-finished works that I think about from time to time, but they can wait. I am working on what is to me the important work. I have stopped to outline story ideas and write down bits that will help with other projects, but I always go back to my novel. The Grass is Greener syndrome is a danger that I avoid. I think that when I finished my first story (after starting hundreds--okay dozens) I learned the value of having the whole story written before moving on. That said, when I have written myself into a spot in my novel that I can't write myself out of, I will go back to a story that I want to expand. I plug away at that until I get some inspiration for my other more pressing novel.
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Being flooded with ideas is such a great thing. You wont suffer from writer's block, and you'll always have something to write about.
One of the first things I was taught was to always carry a pen and notepad with me, so when the Muse struck, I could write the idea down for later. And it happens while writing novels, sure. Ideas strike at the most inoppurtune moments...
But, I have also discovered the value of finishing something. Having a completed work you can say The End, about, makes me feel so much better. And if you stop something and start something else, I find it hard to go back to the one I stopped, and I get nagging guilt about stopping it in thefirst place.
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I have the same problem, twice over. About half way through a novel new ideas for other books come. I have started writing them down, as a synopsis of sorts just to get it out of my system and me back to work on the original. Then I finish the novel I am on, but then it hits again, and I tend to start the next project before I fully edit and polish the previous one.
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Yes, I totally do this. I've got one novel in second drafts, one first draft, five novels written part way through, about 10 stories in various stages of drafts, two stories I'm currently working on, and many more stories that I've written the first few lines for and am thinking about.
There are way more story ideas than there will ever be time to write.
For me it's a balancing act between writing something when I'm excited about it (usually when I first get an idea for a story) and buckling down and doing the harder rewrites or seeing a story through a rough patch. Usually harder with books, which require a much more intense and lengthy time commitment.
How to stay focused? First of all, I write down every story idea I have. That way I feel like I'm not losing it, and therefore I can write it whenever I want. Sometimes I'll write out as much as I can about it, intro, first few pages, whatever, again, so I can capture its "essence". For some stories, I realize this is all they deserve, at least how the idea is incarnated at that point. They're dead ends, so I put them back into my mental feeder system for further processing. Once I the urgency out of my system I go back to the project I want to work on. If I'm feeling unfocused or unenthusiastic about it, I'll spend a few moments reading through my favorite passages, or thinking about my characters, trying to recapture what made me want to write that story to begin with. Usually that's enough to get me going again.
Of course, given my current track record, you might want to take this as precisely the advice you shouldn't follow!
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I'm really appreciating the thoughts on this. Annepin, you sound like me. I've always had a tendency to have so many different projects going on at once and with my most current, I decided to stick with it and see it through until the first draft was at least finished. However, as I get these other ideas coming, it's like pulling teeth to get me to keep going with the one book because I'm so excited about the others. I really like the idea of maybe writing a little something here and there until I gain inspiration for the main story I'm working on but I also really see the value in what azwonderdog said. It does make it more difficult to go back to a former story once I've stopped working on it and started another. Everyone's comments are so helpful. They're giving me great food for thought.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
This happens to me. A lot. But luckily the ideas that my Muse whispers to me are for the following books in the trilogy that i am working for. So, if anything, i just get to do my homework earlier =]
Posts: 12 | Registered: Mar 2008
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I often have issues with this. Ideas whizzing back and forth like your brain's a busy freeway intersection and the light's always green. Always in the middle of the night, too....
What I find helpful is to jot a sentence or two in a little notebook, not the whole idea, just a primer that I know will get me thinking about it when I'm ready. Then I make a U-turn and go back to the project I on which I was previously working. Sometimes I can even incorporate my "seperate" idea into it, but I like to finish what I've started. Otherwise I'd have piles and piles of half-finished novels, choppy short stories, and a tangled mess of threads going nowhere.
I call it 'The Fuzz Notebook.' It's also handy for when you're mentally revising those tough scenes you wrote the other day, with no computer at hand... Hope this helps.
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