Where I am in the writing process: Unpublished. Been writing since Nov. 2008.
My current problem(s): SNIS. Ever heard of this? Shiny New Idea Syndrome. This is what tends to happen after you spent months and months working on a current WIP and are probably about half-way to almost finished. About this time your Current WIP starts to become a bit dull and old and then all of a sudden this shiny new idea pops in to your head. And naturally--after months of working on boring, old idea--you're totally ready for this new shiny idea. BUT don't be distracted! If you fall victim to every SNI that comes along will you ever finish anything? You'll end up like me with lots of half finished novels. That brings me to my current problem. My main novel--Glitch--well, I've been working on it for over a year now. It's still not finished! I'm about 30k into the sucker. And all this week I've been working on SNI. Now, I started SNI--as just a few sentences on paper back in December--and as time goes by I find myself longing and longing to work on this other novel. I even gave in this week bringing my word count total on SNI up to 10k.
This week's question: Do you suffer from Shiny New Idea Syndrome? What are some ways to beat it? (I'd really like to just focus on my novel Glitch and finish the sucker once and for all.)
3 comments:
I love the feeling that comes with a new idea. It screams to be written and you are dying to do it. It's tough to prolong the new idea in favor of finishing up what you may have started, but determination is the key. I stopped working on my SNI in order to finish the edits on my first novel. It wasn't easy!
I'm an outliner. So when I get a shiny new idea, I outline + research it for months while I'm working on the old, less shiny wip. By the time I finish the old wip--or shelf it so that I can look at it later with fresh eyes for revisions and edits--then I can start on the shiny new idea.
YES, I suffer from it. But this is my first book, and I began writing in December 09. At that time I just wanted to write a 12 year old fantasy down, now I realize there are so many more ideas I'd love to jot down on some papers. I came up with two books the past two weeks, so I've written what I'm guessing would be a synopsis of the book, and if it still catches my attention in three years time (or whenever I finish my trilogy) then I'll start writing it.
God I hope I don't spend three years though O_o
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