Oooh, Shiny New Things!
Sometimes it's impossible to resist. It might start as a concept, or a snippet of a scene that takes root and grows in my imagination. Sometimes a character shows up, fully formed, and will not stop talking until I get the words down on paper.
Those moments when inspiration strikes are special. It's insta-love. And I've been known to gush. Yes, I'm one of those authors, the kind who emails her critique partners in a fit of excitement, going on and on about a new story as if it is the one, before I've even written a word. I usually make it an entire 24 hours before the idea is honed into a pitch and dashed off to my agent, who will politely respond without even mentioning the revision that's due next month. (Love her!)
Then I write. Before I even realize what's happened, I'll have fifty pages. I will love those pages. I do love those pages. But by then, the idea is not quite so bright. Certainly not new. And it does start to look like work.
And that's when we have our first fight.
"How do I know that you're the one?" I ask. "I thought I knew where this was going, but you keep changing directions. It's starting to feel like we're going nowhere."
The cursor blinks up at me accusingly.
The guilt sets in. Is it fear of commitment that's keeping me from seeing this through? No, I love this idea. I want to commit to it.
I swear.
I do.
It's just that this morning, on the way to the work, I was hit with an idea that I can't not write. A character so compelling, that I'm already falling for her. A plot twist so delicious, that I want to write that last scene before the rest of the book.
Okay, maybe commitment is a tad scary.
Confession time. Right now, I have three partial manuscripts sitting in my drawer vying to be the next novel. One of them might even be the one.
Maybe.
Oooh. What is that? Pretty....
4 comments
Ah yes, I can so relate to that. You get catch the shiny new idea bug. Sometimes you're supposed to be writing or revising this other WIP, but inspiration has hit so you run off and do something else. And you totally this is THE ONE, score! But as you write more and more, you're like hang on, it's not as great or easy as I first thought. :)
I have quite a new ideas and I'm sure which one to write for Nano. They all seem so good.
The shiny new thing is kind of a curse, kind of not. Your brain is constantly working. And you've shown you can finish projects already. Maybe you're still looking for the next Ms. Right.
Maybe these story that aren't quite right for a novel, might be perfect for a short story in a anthology :-)
Petra,great idea! Of course, one of the shiny ideas is mapped out as a trilogy, so a short story might not work so well.
It's hard to know which one might really be the one sometimes. I'm hopeful that all three might see the light of day at some point.
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