Saturday, April 30, 2011

One of the few things I hate about writing a novel ...

... is all the ideas I get for other projects. With short stories, it's not that big a deal. I know I'll be done with even a long short story within a few days at most. With a novel, more than likely at least a few months are going to pass before I'm finished with writing a novel.

For instance, a week ago I started my latest novel. Initially I'd had intentions of working on a thriller or maybe a horror project, which would be normal for me as I'd just finished up a fantasy trilogy. I like to switch things up a bit.

But in this case I was feeling the pull to write another Kron Darkbow novel, so I started the next such novel, titled Ghosts of the Asylum. I'd had the idea for a good while, and currently I'm about 12,000 words into it.

Then I get this great idea for a novel. And a couple of hundred other ideas for other projects.

Damn. I hate when that happens.

So, what to do? Well, there are basically two choices. I can either continue working on the Darkbow book, or I can set it aside and get into another project.

What am I going to do? I'm going to stick with the Kron book. Why? Because I don't like splitting up projects. I'd never get anything done if I did that.

Though I have been known to take a break from novel writing to pen a short story. I usually only do this when an editor has requested a story or if there's a really cool anthology coming up that I'd like to be a part of.

Ah, well. The writing life. If I had a real job, I'd bitch about it, too.

2 comments:

nephite blood spartan heart said...

I have the exact same problem-something I need to get done, but the new ideas are always crowding in, demanding attention. I have to sometimes force myself to finish one thing before beginning another-and because of that I fear it suffers sometimes.

Charles Gramlich said...

I don't like breaking up projects either but have no choice with long projects. I can almost never put together enought straight through time to finish a novel before my day job intervenes. I've learned to work on novels when I can, sometimes having months or years between starting and finishing.