Too Many Lovers

My last post talked about the need to have more than one idea for a novel. Unfortunately, there can be a downside to having an overactive imagination - distraction.  It's easy to get so many ideas in your head that you can't focus on just one, and choosing can be challenging.

(Choices...choices...)

I've got this problem right now.  There are currently three ideas running around in my head, but I'm trying very hard to concentrate on only one at a time.  When I completed Homecoming several months ago, I knew I'd be back to flush out the backstory and turn it into its own book someday.  At night, my mind has been turning this part over time and time again.  Although Canidae is done, I've always felt it needed a massive rewrite, and part of me is itching to go back into Seth Gendrickson's world of vampires and fix it.  And of course, I'm in the middle of writing a story tentatively entitled The Onyx Cluster, an idea I've been playing around with for the better part of a decade.  All of this makes my writing life very confusing.

The hardest part is shutting out those other ideas.  They keep calling to me in the night..."Russ...we're waiting for you to write us...it won't take long...we promise..." However, I've never been good at multi-tasking, and doing more than one project just isn't an option - that's how story lines get messed up.

Yes, I'm probably whining about a problem lots of writers would like to have.  "Oh no, I have too many ideas for novels; my wallet is too small to fit my $50 bills; and my diamond shoes are too tight."  Still, such problems are real if they keep me from getting even one of the ideas onto paper.

Yep, this is going to be difficult...