Does this happen to anyone else?

[temporus]

I'm somewhere deep in the novel, around 60K words.  Now, as I'm trying to focus, so I can turn the corner and start moving toward my ending, I am being hijacked daily with new story ideas.  Sometimes more than one a day.

Really, this is getting a bit tedious, because they aren't just ideas, but now I'm getting specific thoughts and ideas milling around my head that might actually be useful towards stories for some themed anthologies.

I was considering breaking down my writing time into discrete chunks.  One time to work on the novel and keep that moving with my self mandated daily word goals.  Then a second time to work on various other writing projects.  I've never tried it before, and not sure if it would work, or crash and burn badly.*  

Anyone else out there have a strategy for simultaneously working on multiple writing projects?  Do you think it's a good idea?  Do you think it's better to just focus everything on reaching the end of the novel, then trying to go back and work on the shorts?  Do you have other suggestions?

Comments

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem. I think it's partly due to the creative, sub-conscious part of the brain working to a different set of instructions to the conscious one.

We're asking for creative ideas for our current WIP, but the sub-conscious just hears 'Send me creative ideas'.

I also think that writing a novel is a bit like a marathon, at least as far as hitting a wall goes.

That's the bit where I find myself tempted to do something else. I had that exact situation earlier in the year when I was getting a little stuck on the rewrites for Waking up Jack Thunder, and allowed myself to set it aside and work on some short stories.

Sad to say, it's been a hard slog getting back into the novel since then, though that doesn't mean you'd have the same problem :)

Hope that helps.

[mepurfield.livejournal.com]

Gots that here too. Started a new novel and now I have ideas for the next one growing. The best I can do is write them down for later and keep on trucking. :-/

Kill them all, God will know his own!

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Ignore them - what matters is your idea to generate cool ideas, not the ideas themselves.

Alternatively, create a huge mind map and add them as they come.

[bonniers.livejournal.com]

I can't work on more than one thing at a time, but sometimes I switch projects. Especially when the major project has reached a point where it needs research, pondering, or other forms of non-writing work.

I liken it to cooking Thanksgiving dinner: while the rolls are rising and the turkey is in the oven, there's plenty of time to make fruit salad.

[l-clausewitz.livejournal.com]

I used to do that while I was working on some of the novel drafts--600 or 800 words per day (or whatever the goal was) on the novel, and then when I've made that goal I'd switch and let myself develop or write the other ideas. It worked well enough at least once.