Sunday, May 2, 2010

Unwelcome Ideas

Yesterday I caught myself putting together ideas for an urban fantasy. This is cool, except that I'm 35,000 words into Adventures in Zoology, or about a third of the way through, and it really needs all my attention. I don't need any new project ideas!

I was actually asked the classic "where do you get your ideas?" question the other day, and I sort of flubbed around trying to answer it without sounding insane. How do you explain that ideas are generated most often when the brain is working flat-out on a similar project, that when you immerse yourself in books and reading and writing and more books, ideas bubble up all the damn time?

I've got the rest of 2010 booked solid for writing projects. (If I can write two full-length novels this year, I'm absolving myself of my new year's resolution to write six short stories.) I intend to finish Adventures in Zoology by mid-summer, and after a short break and some time for research, I guess I'll be writing that urban fantasy I just had the idea for. If I have time after that, I intend to go back to the untitled romance novel and finish it. Three books in a year! Of course, by the time fall rolls around, I'll have had 10 million even better ideas and the urban fantasy will feel boring.

10 comments:

Cate Gardner said...

We need longer days (or perhaps nights).

K.C. Shaw said...

Definitely. I tried to lengthen yesterday and ended up going to bed after midnight. Now I'm grouchy, so it didn't exactly work (although I did finish writing a difficult scene).

Jamie Eyberg said...

Isn't it weird how a writer having too many ideas is just as bad (or worse) as having too few?

K.C. Shaw said...

Yeah, all mine are ideas for books but I have no short story ideas. I'd swap in a second. I have enough book ideas to last me my whole life at this point.

Aaron Polson said...

Once we turn on the idea faucet, it doesn't want to stop. Three books in a year would be awesome. Best to you making it happen.

Fox Lee said...

I'm capping myself off at three book, then I have to edit SOUL JERKY. Our other ideas must think we're such cock teases.

K.C. Shaw said...

Aaron--I'm not all that convinced I can finish three books before the end of the year, but at least I'm actively writing on one. It's a start.

Natalie--You write a lot faster than I do. No, wait, you're just a lot more disciplined than I am about writing every day. :)

Danielle Birch said...

I've been asked where I get my ideas from and when I give the answer that sometimes they just come to me, people look at me like I'm some kind of an axe murderer.

K.C. Shaw said...

Yeah, it's like people expect writers to have to sit down and think very, very hard to get an idea. It's impossible to explain that the process is mostly subconscious.

Aaron Polson said...

That is definately a win-win.

Enjoy, either way.