Me: *Stares at WIP on screen.*
SNI #1: Psst. Dianne.
Me: Go away. I’m busy.
SNI #1: It’s me. Your manuscript, XXXX, that you shelved two
years ago. I was thinking, what if you changed me from YA to MG?
Me: That would be a major change. I’d have to practically
gut the story and start over.
SNI #1: But it would address some of the feedback you got.
All of the feedback, really.
Me: That’s a really interesting idea, but I’m working on
something else right now. *Stares at WIP.
Types a comma. Deletes the comma.*
SNI #1: While you’re stuck, why don’t you make up a
side-by-side outline – my chapters as they are now, and what would have to
change to make the story MG.
Me: I’m not stuck. You’re bothering me.
SNI #1: Okay. I’ll go. But think about it.
Me: *Decides to re-read current chapter so far. Changes
three words.*
SNI #2: Hey, Dianne, weren’t those two articles you read
last night pretty cool? The one about gravitational waves and the other about
turbulence and Van Gogh’s The Starry
Night?
Me: Who are you?
SNI #2: You know who I am. Put the ideas in those two
articles together and you get …
Me: You.
SNI #2: That’s right. Remember those 4 awesome adult science
fiction books you read while you were laid up with a broken foot last month? If you were to write down your
favorite thing about each of them, put that list together with the
gravitational wave/turbulence thing, you’d probably have a really cool plan for
a new story.
Me: But I’m busy with this other project right now.
SNI #2: Really? Doesn’t look like it.
SNI #3: And what about me?
Me: I remember you. I outlined you.
SNI #3: And then you never wrote me.
Me: You were boring. Like every other book idea I've tried to outline. I'm a pantster, and I need to accept that.
SNI #3: Maybe I wouldn’t be so boring if SNI #2 wasn’t
hogging all the good ideas. Put the turbulence in my book! I want the cosmic
turbulence!
Me: Look, I don’t want to write you now. *Points at WIP.* I
like this one. My critique partners like this one. This is what I need to work
on right now.
SNI #3: So why aren’t you typing?
***
Good question! Why aren’t I typing?
Maybe because my mind looks like this inside?
What's keeping you from writing today?
Determination to get that damn story done. I'm a pantser as well. The one story I did a detailed outline on never got written. I lost interest. My mind is just on fire raging all over the place. Shiny new ideas at least have given me a lifetime of books to write. People like us Dianne just need to note them down then focus on what we need to get done right now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by and love the picture. :)
High five!
DeleteNothing kills an idea so thoroughly for me as outlining it!
You have been eavesdropping on my internal communications. If I had a $ for every shiny idea I've entertained while writing my WIP, I'd be able to rebuild my back deck.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's keeping me from writing today? I've got to go to my yoga class.
Those flighty, floozy SNIs!
DeleteTee-hee~ this is incredibly accurate. I'm about 3/4 of the way through my MG draft and am being bombarded by ideas for chapter books. GO AWAY, SNIs! I mean, come back later, but get lost for now :)
ReplyDeleteOne of my SNI is being incredibly persistent. It's been whispering in my ear how much better it is than my current WIP.
Deleteoh ha ha, boy, can I relate! Whenever my heavily plotted fantasy gets too challenging my other WIP, a contemporary story, calls from the drawer. "Come back to me! I'm so sweet and easy and you were just making me up as you went. Forget that epic fantasy stuff!" And I do. I read it again, fall in love and then say "NO! I am finishing this." And then another idea comes to me...ACK!
ReplyDeleteI'm at that difficult 3/4 point, before the climax is really rolling, where my WIP looks like a horrible mess. And my SNI are so SHINY!!
DeleteI feel your SNI attraction - I am at the same spot! We will resist and overcome!
Delete