I’m so excited about 2018, you guys! This whole #GrowAnAuthor business is going be fun. If you haven’t caught our first two posts of the new year introducing our plan, play a little catch up and read them both here and here.
Today, I’m going to give you all a peek inside my head. Because the first thing I have to do when starting a book is commit to an idea.
I’m very rarely writing more than one story at a time. In fact, I’m so bad at working on two projects simultaneously, that I do my very best to ignore any new story idea that comes knocking while I’m immersed in a manuscript that needs finishing. If an idea won’t leave me alone, I allow myself a few minutes to dictate the idea into an email and then I save it in my ‘Drafts’ folder. Currently, there are sixteen ideas hanging out in my folder, waiting on me.
The simple act of saying or typing the idea out and tucking it away, frees me to focus on whatever it is that I’m supposed to be completing. Because here’s the thing, friends. If we’re going to grow an author, we really do have to finish what we start. Finishing is important.
When the time does come for me to select a new project, my ‘Drafts’ folder is the first place I look. At this point, I’m fairly void of ideas. I’ve emptied myself and all my words into my last project and am needing the energy of a bright, shiny idea to tempt me from my exhaustion.
And the honest truth is this: the answer is rarely in my ‘Drafts’ folder. I can’t speak for every writer out there, but for me, those ideas that set about pestering me when I was working away were there for one reason: to distract me. To keep me from actually finishing what I set out to do. And while some of the ideas have promise, they’ve been hanging out in the back of my head so long they’ve lost their shine.
It’s unfair to them, I’m sure, but I’m not the same writer I was when those ideas initially appealed to me. I’ve written myself into a new place. I’ve grown. And I’m ready for an idea that fits the new me.
In most cases, the idea I commit to comes while I’m taking time away from the keyboard. The idea usually arrives with a vivid image and a WHAT IF question that needs answering.
While the circumstances surrounding a first novel are always a little unique, I committed to my debut, Angel Eyes, only after the image of a halo captured my attention and refused to let go. And then the question: What if we could see the invisible?
And even then, even after I had the image and the question, I can’t say I was completely sold on the idea. At that moment, I would have told you that, “Yes! This is it! This is my golden idea!” But, really, REALLY, one night’s excitement about an idea is not commitment.
Commitment happens only after you’ve hit a few roadblocks and fought your way through. Like any marriage, pushing on despite adversity means you’ve landed on something that might be worth keeping.
I’m currently in this place with a fantastically tempting idea. I’m all in. At least I think I am. I WANT this to be the one. I’ve written a thousand words on it this project and though I’m not at all impressed, I’m not dissuaded. I haven’t ruined the idea for myself. I still have a desire to puzzle my way through this question and I want to know more about the image haunting me.
And so, in a few days time, maybe a few weeks, I’ll know. This idea and I will date. We’ll dance a bit. We’ll argue some too (because in every good marriage there are disagreements) and if, after all that, I am still excited about this idea, I will accept its proposal. I’ll commit. And for as long as it takes me to complete it, I will do my very best to stay all in.
Because there will be hard times. There will be days when I get it wrong. When my characters talk back. When my story world folds in on itself. When my magic system backfires. There will be days when I want to give up and try out that striking new idea flashing across my mind.
That’s why I take my time with an idea up front. I don’t commit right away. I stew and I think and I scribble and when, at last, I know it’s chosen me? That’s the moment I’m all in.