The Threat To Finished Novels

Now that I am writing every day and the creative juices are flowing, my old enemy is resurfacing.

It's not procrastination.

It's not laziness or distraction.

It's new ideas.

What do you do when a new idea calls to you so profoundly that your old idea seems less cool?

Jot it down so you don't lose it and keep working on the old idea.

^ Usually. On occasion however experiment with the new idea so long as it doesn't break the rest of the work. (Otherwise you have to do as I did and go through the whole thing to iron out all the problems.)

Basically, this. My 'outline' document at the moment (which is where I organize the random thoughts that I've actually found a place in a story for; ideas don't really leave my head until they've gotten some amount of development) is about eight pages of tight bullet points. The upside is I'm pretty sure I could run through three entire careers as a published author while writing fanfic on the side and never run out of ideas. (Now I just have to get good enough at writing. )

There are two things at work here (obviously). On one hand, you have an old idea you want to see to fruition—on another, a new idea you want to develop. Here are your options.

If you really think the new idea is better, drop the old one. It will still be there when you go back to it. If you don't go back to it, it couldn't have been that good to begin with.

If you're not sure the new one is better, put it in an empty folder. It may wither and die once the initial fascination wears off, but it will still be there when you have time to work on it.

Work on both at once. If you find yourself spending more and more time on one over the other, you've made your choice. Sometimes, once you start in on execution, you find out that great idea doesn't have the possibilities you thought it did.

Be prepared to drop both ideas when another one comes along. You must discipline yourself to finish what you start. If you keep putting new ideas in a folder, you'll have a treasure trove waiting for you when you finish with the current one.

Buy a notebook and title it "Random Ideas For Tomorrow" or something catchy like that, and write the stuff down for later writing whether it be for later in the novel or for a new novel.*

edited 4th Nov '11 12:32:50 PM by EldritchBlueRose

I treat new ideas the way the German language treats short words: I mash them together relentlessly into larger ideas that end up having nothing to do with the original kernels.

Or, to put it another way, I like to incorporate new ideas into my pre-existing work, where I can.

Likewise. My ideas tend to be bits of scenes and characterizations, so I end up jigsaw-puzzling scenes with characters I can have carry them out and plots that justify them. The final result usually ends up actually containing no more than a quarter of the seeds used to inspire it, but it works.