Staying Focused While Writing

So, sometimes my thinky thinky parts do a wee bit too much imagining. Having inspiration for your writing is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but it can be hard picking which ideas to work with when so many come popping into your head.

C’mon, Brain! Get. It. TOGETHER.

This overabundance of story ideas has resulted in me being what I affectionately refer to as “a raging plot slut”. Meaning that it is very difficult for me to commit to one story and stay 100% focused on it. Things will be going fine and then an idea will pop into my head, and suddenly I’m onto that story, and then before I even know it I’m suddenly working on another, and so on. I don’t mean to be a raging plot slut. It just sort of . . . happens. (Apparently I keep tripping and falling into other stories.)

Now, I know for some writers that this is done with great success. They can juggle multiple projects and continue to make progress on all of them. You writers are to be applauded. I however, have not yet perfected this seemingly mutant-like ability. Maybe one day I will get there, but today is not that day. That said, I’ve actually been doing really well at staying focused and carving out some real progress on a single project since the end of December. Not a long period of time, sure, but it’s a start. Small victories are still victories. 🙂

So as far as 2017 writing goals go, I’m just going to continue trying to work on this one writing project and see how far I can get with it.

What about you guys? Any writing goals for the new year? Are you the type of writer who can juggle multiple projects or do you commit to one and only one until it is finished?

Wandering Minds

Well, today was a triumph when it came to brainstorming plot points at work. My current job is extremely monotonous so this affords my mind time to wander. I’m frequently called out for daydreaming or zoning out, but hey, I can still get my job done in a timely fashion while my brain is far off exploring a completely fictional world. And when I say “called out” it’s more in a “you must really be in the zone” sort of way rather than a “you’re in trouble” fashion.

This is actually my first attempt at writing a multiple POV story and while it presents some challenges it also is allowing me a lot of new opportunities that I never had in storytelling when the tale was always from the same character’s point of view. It’s keeping things fun and interesting for sure. 🙂

That said, it’s time to eat some ice cream and then write out those plot points I spent all day thinking about without the time to actually jot any of it down.