A new idea is threatening to keep me from finishing my novel. Gah!
It never fails. I can see the very faint light at the end of my first draft tunnel. Then a new idea (for a screenplay) invades and occupies my brain.
It was looking like Iraq inside my head. I didn't want to keep writing my book. I wanted to brainstorm the new thingie.
Beware this tendancy, writer babies! It's something your writer-brain does to keep you from finishing things. The old stuff pales and you think, meh, no one else will ever love it, and now that I think about it, it's kind of dumb... and oh! Shiny pretty new idea over here will solve all my problems.
It's like buying new make up when you've got three half-used blushes in the drawer and five different lipsticks that are all the same color.
Stick with the old! Finish that last pinky brown lipstick before you buy a new one. Scribble down your thoughts on the new idea real quick so you don't forget it, then Finish Your Novel.
2 comments:
This is, essentially, my biggest problem with writing anything longer than a poem. I seem totally incapable of finishing anything! I start out, I love the people, the story, the scene...then I think of something else and the old...well, it gets put in a drawer or tucked in a file folder and I never finish. Someday, I will die and someone will have to wade through pages and pages and pages of stories that never end.
I hear you! Try writing a story that's really short, maybe? Or just SLOG through till the end, no matter what on one of your stories. Force yourself, give yourself no choice, make it life or death. Once you do finish it feels so damned good! Then you can start worrying about selling it. There's always something new to worry about! :)
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