A Plague of Ideas

Funny thing is, that would make a better title for a book than a blog entry.  But I'm using it here, because the last thing I need right now is yet another story idea.

Fortunately, this entry will not consist of only a very long scream.  However, it won't be about my love of a new Abraxas plot either.  After a brief discussion with Rena, who made a very good point about why working another Abraxas book might not be the best idea, I put that plot aside and have been working on other things.  Quite a few other things.

There's this concept among authors, and I've seen it best identified is the 'shiny new idea'.  It's the idea that seems so utterly amazing when you first have it that you have to work on it NOW NOW NOW or the world will surely end.  It's the utter certainty that this will be your next book and it will be amazing.  What I've been working on felt like that, and yet as I worked, it seemed to be holding up.

Then I started working on the story's antagonist, and found that person so much more interesting than either group of protagonists, so I figured I'd start plotting her story instead.  Go figure.

It's going well so far, but it's hardly the only thing.  In the eleven days since my last entry, I've come up with more new stuff than I usually deal with in several months.  There's this weird feeling of unfulfilled potential about all of it, and while some of it I know I'm not ready to write yet, other stories, well...  I might as well just give each one a number and roll a die to figure out what the next project would be.  If that wasn't, y'know, a really bad idea.

It would be far too easy to consider all of this a moot point.  I start editing The Accidental Warlock on Saturday, and that's going to consume most of my writing time and spare brain cycles until it's done.  At least, that's the theory.  I want to keep working on the other plots when I'm not editing, so I can figure out what book is next.  Maybe I'll even be able to write it before the year's over.  Three books in a year would be a new record for me.  Even if the first one wasn't worth reading.

As always, I'll have to just keep going and see what happens.  But the plot for this current book...  It's been odd.  All day yesterday and today, I've been working on it in bits and pieces, adding a few lines here, a few paragraphs there, making a few small changes.  It's a bit like putting a puzzle together, and I really want to know what it's going to look like when it's done.

Because I think this one's going to surprise me.  I just have to realize what the story's really supposed to be.