Some writers get blocked. I chase the pretty butterfly of indecision!
Posted by Andrew Girle on July 13, 2010
The third false start has occurred. ARGH!
After finishing my first manuscript, I sat straight down and begain a sequel. Then this great idea came along for a spy/crime genre novel in a fantasy setting. Oooohh better get some notes on that one, says clever-me, so off I wander down that forked path.
Then (of course) the world got in the way, the ideas seem to dry up so I went back to hammering out the crime-sequel – the ‘what happens next’ for the writer in No Working Title.
Then… you guessed it… along comes steampunk detective noir and I chased THAT elusive butterfly until I got it tohe 20K word count with chapter outlines written but now it just won’t come OUT!
So one bright sunny day while having a coffee with my long suffering wife at a bookshop (Riverbend Books, I blame them) I had another idea. A series of linked short stories.
Damn, that butterfly is back. Pass me the insecticide, somebody!
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Kev Webb said
I know where you’re coming from Andrew but we have to have somewhere to put all the ideas or we will lose them. Consider your bits and pieces as prized possessions that must be saved at all costs, including at the expense of our other works. I know time marches on and we feel that sometimes we won’t get it all done, but all we can do, is all we can do.
andrewgirle said
As much as I can, I scribble the ideas into a story file – I know that the vast majority will never get acted upon (for instance, a locked room murder mystery about aliens trapped on a roller coaster – sounds good but I am not sure I can get it off the ground!). From reading and talking to my few published friends, it would appear that a ‘writers brain’ just continually bubbles up ideas like the best bits in a good stew.