I began work on a new manuscript a couple months ago. I've plotted it out, written my outline, done my character sketches, assembled pictures for my picture board, even ordered the cover. And now I'm almost at 10,000 wds but, in the last week or two, work has stalled. My output is nowhere near the 1,000 wds. per day I usually aim for. What, you wonder, is the problem?
Simple. Earlier this year I started turning over an idea for a new story, a mystery that deals with some of the issues of human smuggling and drug trafficking with which the Caribbean struggles. I collected articles, roved through countless reports put out by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and suchlike but I couldn't figure out the angle I wanted to take, who my characters would be or how the plot would unfold so I turned to the other story, a women's fiction.
Then, for some reason, the crime story began to come together a couple weeks ago. In my free time I rifle through the articles I downloaded and watch YouTube clips of U.S. Customs intercepting traffickers. Slowly, slowly, the story has taken form. And, in the last few days, I've taken to waking up with it on my mind. I know the names of the characters. I know what they want. I can see them.
My instincts say I must drop the women's fiction, for now, at least, and work on the mystery instead. It's the one my muse clearly wants written and if I don't get it down now, maybe it will all go wrong and when I finally turn to it, my muse will have weakened, maybe died altogether and the story will be a husk. So far, I've resisted. I power up the computer and begin working on the other story because it's the one I've already started and I must be disciplined. But writing isn't like that, is it? What the muse wants, the muse gets. I think I'm going to have to try working on two manuscripts simultaneously. This will be new to me but we'll see how it goes. Any tips, anyone?
10 comments:
Run with it. I always have a couple of projects going at any time, because if I can't make headway with one, I can chip away at the other.
What William said. Having more than one project can keep you fresh and your options open. There is a danger of having 13 half-novels. A good tactic is focusing on two or three and jotting any other ideas that pop up on an index card for later consideration.
Early in the process of a long project I will let myself drop one for another. Eventually I have too much invested, though. You gotta do what you feel best doing.
I'd go with the one that's begging to be written right now. Beating the iron while it's hot and all that.
Do them both. When the muse gets satisfied for one, turn to the other.
The MUSE always knows what's best.
I was half way through my second m/g fantasy novel when my muse did an about face and flooded my mind with an edgy Y/A story. I wrote it in six weeks!
Two years later I still haven't returned to the other story... I will some day. I am now working on tweaking the first in the series. We writers jump from story to story... wherever our MUSE takes us... It's normal... enjoy the ride.
I know someone who uses two different writing spaces if they are working on two projects. He says it helps him keep the right frame of mind for each one.
Most definitely, follow your muse.
At the moment, my muse has me writing a story in a genre that I have serious misgivings about from time to time and while this is going on, has decided that I should take advantage of fellow writer's offer of help in the submission process elsewhere, so it's got me editing an old novella and thinking about a query letter for the old novella and a synopsis for same.
Help?
Writing is hard work, so working at a story driving you is the right choice!
While I've never subscribed to a muse, I do tend to have multiple projects going at any one time, so I don't get burned out or tired/bored of looking at the same thing all day, every day. My current project is a contracted novel, so the deadline is my main motivation right now. While I've been writing it, I've also written a few short stories, some web content, and some sample material for a possible new contracted project.
As for dealing with new ideas/etc. when they come along, I just do a variation of what Kevin suggests: Either scratch out some quick notes and table it for later, or--if I'm really churning out a lot of thinking for something new, I open a new Word file and dump everything in there, play with it for a bit until I settle down, then close the file and get back to the other work.
It's those ideas that strike at 1 or 2 in the morning, right as I'm drifting off to sleep, that really irk me.
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