There comes a time in every work in progress, around thirty-three thousand words, might be different for you, where the writing becomes a slog. For most normal novel length manuscripts this is right smack dab in the frothy middle. The roads so bright and clear when the idea was new have run there course. Characters are doing things you never imagined, and now it all has to come together and go somewhere. This, for me, is where bright shiny new ideas pop up the most.
To continue on with the work in progress is going to take a lot of work. Wouldn’t it be nice to shift gears chasing after a new idea so full of promise? A new idea is like a mirage in a desert. It appears to be a savior to immediate problems. However, if you give chase, it keeps moving further away until you realize it’s the same beast as your current work in progress, but in a different direction.
In the past when the dream of an idea popped, I often put down a WIP to chase after it. Getting excited about the possibilities of the beginning and writing several pages before the slog of the endeavor starts. I’ve learned from these mistakes and do not run after them as often anymore.
One of the ways of confronting the desire to explore an idea is to keep an idea journal. As more details reveal themsleves I continue to add to the original idea and soon there is a sort of outline. What I didn’t understand about my writing process back then was that I need time to let an idea marinate in my head. This can happen while working on a different WIP. Often the ideas come to me when I am out and about or in the shower. When they do they go in the journal (after the shower of course). Then when it comes time to choose a new project I see which concepts are the most fleshed out and still excite a spark of creativity in me.
I’ve found through trial and error that I am not one of those people that can work on similar projects of the same style all at once. Working on blogs, flash fiction, and a novel concurrently is about all I can juggle. When I tried to write multiple books at one time, I used skipping from one to the other as a reason to quit when the going got tough, almost always in the middle. Instead of hunkering down and putting more effort into the current WIP I would jump to the next one. Needless to say, this led to a bunch of unfinished projects and no completed works.
Often when the idea is new, I don’t have a clue as to the length it will be. The idea for my first completed manuscript was for it to be a short fairy tale length book. Then as I got into writing, it turned into a two-hundred thousand word epic. There was so much more to the story than my initial impressions. If I forced it into being a short fairy tale, it wouldn’t have been the same. Similarly, there are ideas I thought would be full novels that end up being short stories or novellas. When I don’t let an idea bloom in my mind, I go off without conceptualizing the world and characters in a complete way. Which is what happens when I chase bright new ideas.
I am not advocating for refraining from pursuing passions. Yet, it’s easy to leave a current work in progress when it gets tricky. Try to remember what you are currently working on was once a shiny new idea as well. I use idea journals to remind myself, in the middle of a WIP, what got me excited about it in the first place. If I can’t muster the will to complete it, that’s fine. Sometimes it’s best to put a piece away for a while and come back. But I have to be honest with myself when I am only giving up because it’s too hard and not because the passion isn’t there.
Today, I have a journal full of ideas, some of which may always stay in the idea phase. But I know when I finish a project they are always waiting for me. Be faithful to the current work to see it through if only for the satisfaction of being able to write ‘The End.’ Your characters will thank you for sticking it through with them and following it to the conclusion.