The Lure of the Next Story

I think that sometimes when we are stuck in the middle of the book -- or even later, awash in my least favorite part, 3/4 from the end -- or even after revising the first 3 chapters of a book several times -- the lure of dropping this for the next story is almost beyond resisting.

So, what should we do?

Well, I wish a couple of months ago when I was slogging through Heart Quest that I'd written down the brilliant ideas for Heart Match and Heart Fate that I had. It would have helped me now that I'm working on their proposals.

But I didn't. I've jumped from story to story before, early when I seriously began writing (I have at least 2 proposals that never went anywhere). So I kept my nose to the grindstone, didn't even take time out to jot down the ideas, and they are gone, gone, gone.

On the other hand, I know some writers that never get beyond the first three chapters. They get bored, or people want them revised until the spark is gone and they can't get it back.

So I've decided that the best thing to do is use the timer. Give myself an hour or two break from the current book to test the greener grass of the next book, write my frenzy out, then go back to the book under deadline.

In the short gray days of fall and the long dark nights, I felt as if I couldn't even spare an hour on a different book, that maybe I wouldn't come back to the story currently being written drop by drop by word by word as if I'd opened my veins. And I've done that -- walked away when the going got tough, read favorite authors of mine.

But trying something else -- like the timer thing -- until you (I) find something that works, I believe, is the best way to handle the lure of the next story.

Hope I made sense, and may your current story enchant you today.
Robin