Ideas really seem to come at the worst times. When you don't have time to work on them. When you've already been working on a novel for three years and you really just want to finish it. But new ideas are exciting, too. They can give you a much needed break from the monotony of working on the same project day after day. They can give you reassurance that you have something else to work on once current work is done.
I don't even know where this new idea came from, really. It's kinda sorta a sequel to the book I'm working on now, but also not. The main character for this new book, if I write it, is only mentioned in the first book. She's the sister of one of the main characters (I mentioned her briefly in this post). For some reason I just kept thinking about her, wondering what her life is like, how she has to deal with things that happened in her past. And suddenly there was a story idea buzzing around my head! I never actually thought my book would have a sequel, especially one where Jordan isn't in it. At all. He's going to be mad at me for this one...
Here's my dilemma, and I think I'll go more in depth with this concept in a different post at some point, but I'll explore it briefly here. If I do end up writing this book, there will be this odd scenario where the reader will know more than the main character (assuming they've read the first book). I picture this book taking place about two years after the first one, but the MC has absolutely no clue about the things that happened to her brother two years before. I'm thinking I'll probably hint at it, possibly even have him confess to her, since the whole book involves their entire family dealing with their demons. It would also be the second book where I use a character and still not write from his perspective.
I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure if I'm even going to write it. It just keeps buzzing around my head.
I throw new ideas in a Word file titled "Cool Things to Use Sometime." Brandon Sanderson mentioned the idea in one of his taped lectures (or perhaps it was on Writing Excuses).
ReplyDeleteI totally understand. Actually, when one of those starts buzzing inside my head, I pull up a word document, type everything I've got into it, then stick it in my "One Day" folder. That's really the only way I can get them to shut up.
ReplyDeleteI have that feeling often. It is like a fly. lol
ReplyDeleteI heard an interview with Sophie Kinsella where she said that she liked sequels and series because it meant that she didn't have to say goodbye to the characters yet. So sequels are cool because, like you said, they give you a chance to explore the characters' lives more.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I like notebooks! I have one of these'flies' buzzing around my head at the moment.
ReplyDeleteLike others said, capture that fly in amber if you can. You can always come back to it later. My first novel came from a trunked idea I'd had 15 years prior.
ReplyDeleteThey sure are! I have this problem all the time. Nearly every time I dream I get a new story idea. I keep a list of story ideas, and I write down the plot for new ideas I get so I can come back to them in the future. But sometimes I write the beginning because they keep nagging at me. I write until I get stuck and then go back to my other WIP.
ReplyDeleteI have a running list of speech-to-text files on my phone in an app called Writer. I'll now think of it as a jar full of buzzing little flies. :)
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