Ready to do a new story...

Hey there,

Congratulations on your word count! That's awesome! The new idea thing hapens to me all the time. I can't tell you how many unfinished short stories I have accumulated over the years because some new idea got in the way. You must be a 'big idea' person who gets lots of energy and excitement out of starting new things and adventures!

The good news? You'll have next year's NaNo idea in your back pocket! The not-so good news? It can be tough to stay focused on the current project. Here's my method for dealing with those sneaky little ideas: do your NaNo writing and then reward yourself with 15 minutes of extra writing time on the new idea.

Also, I once had a professor ask me: what would you rather have -- one finished work that's circulating for publication or 100 unfinished works in various stages of editing and decay and development? Hmmmm....

Good luck and let us know how we can help keep your eyes on the 2009 NaNo prize!

A. Purcell
www.amypurcell.com/blog

Last night with my insomnia, I managed to come out with a better game plan for the overall story and set goals for each segment so I can plot stuff out. It's exciting and I feel so much better. The other idea is just "story about assassin in fantasy world" which is stemming from this awesome book series I'm reading.

Am behind on word count, but I'll catch up tomorrow. I've been up for 26 hours GAH!

At least you changed directions early! I'll bet you wrote some interesting stuff in your sleep-deprived state of mind. ;-)

Shannon

I don't know about an entirely new story, but I can tell you that the story I started writing is not the story I'm currently writing! The nice thing is that whatever story this is, it appears to be burning up my keyboard! I'm almost 1/3 of the way there already.
I don't know what it is about Nano--it seems to pull entire novels out of my subconscious that I had no idea were even there. That's a good thing, I think....LOL...

Good luck to everyone!

Christin
http://christinkeck.webs.com

CK or as they say in Spain, "Yes, What?"
http://www.christinkeck.webs.com

GAAAAAH!!! Whatever you do, don't scrap what you've already written! Last year for the one week pep talk, I mentioned three really great ways to shift over to your new storyline without losing any word count. Unfortunately I can only remember two, ha, but I've found myself having to use one already.

1- It was all a dream. Have your new main character wake up and say something like "Wow, that was a crazy dream" or "What a nightmare!" then get on with your new plot.

2- "That's all I had written when..." Your new main character is a writer! The first storyline you wrote has now become their story that they're writing (or reading, even) and now they've stepped away from it to get on with the rest of your new plot!

It's going to drive me crazy that I can't think of that third way, but you can still use what you wrote before you changed over. You worked hard on it for the brief amount of time you worked on it (hardly). Don't just scrap it. Make yourself a transition and have a cup of tea!

NaNo 2007- Lucy in the Rough- Fail
NaNo 2008- Thirty Days of Ollie- WIN!
NaNo 2009- The Domestic