Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Keeping to the plan

I'm terrible at staying on target. A few days ago, in an attempt to keep myself focused on what I need to be doing, I wrote my plan of action for this week. I was going to dive headlong into my rewrite of A9. For two days, I stuck to that. I rewrote the opening, expanded on the second NOW section and I think made it better. But....

Then a story came to me. A new Beach House story. An important part of the series. And I had to write it. So yesterday was very productive. I wrote 2600 + words. But not on A9.

I thought I could probably knock out at least half the A9 rewrite this week, but with my Beach House kids haunting me, I can't do it. I have to follow this story until it's finished (which it nearly is).

Why is it that whenever I try to knuckle down to one project, something else decides it has a desperate need to be written? When I was writing the first draft of P & P, The Kite came to me and I had to take a day off working on the novel to nail that story before I lost it. I have to follow these whims too. Often my best stories come at these inopportune moments, while when I'm searching for one, I come up blank.

Ah. Inspiration. It's a quirky beast. But I figure you have to grab it while it's there because tomorrow it may have flitted elsewhere, leaving you with nothing.

No comments:

Post a Comment