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| You literally have worlds in your hand. Worlds are heavy. |
Today, I pose a situation, a comment, and a call to action.
A situation: I find myself stricken with Idea Diarrhea (antonym: Writer’s Block). Ideas eagerly await for their chance to shine. They guilt trip me, glaring when I choose one over the other. Writing ideas are jealous creatures; they feel forsaken and betrayed, and punish me by multiplying. Confusion abounds, halting progress: which project to choose?
A comment: Writer’s Block is infamous while Idea Diarrhea is its neglected opposite. And while I would choose Idea Diarrhea over Writer’s Block any day, both extremities require attention.
-The feeling when your head explodes, staining the
carpet with your tsunami of ideas.
carpet with your tsunami of ideas.
-The guilt of choosing one idea over another;
the whispers of jealous, rejected stories.
the whispers of jealous, rejected stories.
-The irony of having too many ideas, yet no clue which to work on.
-Have you run out of coffee for the third time today?
Those are just a few. I will create a poll with your posted suggestions and we shall name this monster. Feel free to also post possible fixes for this issue.
I have this on occasion. My muse is flighty and as such her ideas are flighty as well. She'll be in love with something one minute then "oooh shiny" off on something else. It's a tough decision to follow her or to put my foot down and say "not now." Of course doing the latter risks pissing her off and having her walk away muttering something about me doing it my way ALONE. EEEK. So, I made a compromise for both her and I. I call it the idea book. (Brilliant and unique name, right? Just go with it...) It's a hardcover book I got years ago at one of those dollar stores without a use. I write a genre at the top and the premise and any possible avenues I see at the time that the plot could take. Then it's there that the ideas will sit. They aren't forgotten and I don't piss the muse off completely by ignoring her. They simply are there for later. Occasionally, I'll run with a new idea right then and there despite being married to the current work. This typically happens if the new idea is living and breathing already. If I hear the characters talking to me right then and there. I know at that point that I need to shift gears and run with it. Such is my current state of mind... running alongside the muse hoping she and my character (Ruth) don't leave me high and dry among all this research.
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