I've caught myself slipping away a little from my novel I'm currently working on and found myself thinking. I was lying on my bed a few minutes ago and inspiration after inspiration began pouring down on me like a bunch of chilling cold water! I had to grab my notebook and write everything down! I've come to figure out that the novel I'm currently working on is book 1 of a fantasy series I'm starting. I've brainstormed so much within a 30 minutes that I now have book 4's plot idea and title. I hated overwhelming myself with three more books but I just couldn't help myself! Ideas just hit me like crazy, I couldn't ignore them. Though, I forced myself to stop after writing the ideas for book 4, because I didn't want to overwhelm myself too much. Besides, I'm still on ch. 2 or 3 of book 1! [Request for offsite reviews removed] Anyway, didn't mean to get distracted, but back to what I was saying. The main question is, do any of you feel like you have this kind of moment, where you will overwhelm yourself with more ideas for your story, or series?
Don't panic - write some short stories and squirrel away the ideas you may find when you write you don't have a series at all. I have found books I thought were trilogies become one book other books I thought were standalone have become series. Had a couple of short stories become novellas.
Yes, completely. These creative spurts can occur at any time for me. And all I can do from keeping myself from going mad is to type or write as fast as I can. I love it when this happens. It feels so -- progressive. *like*
^Just keep asking yourself questions That'll get your brain started. Ask any and every thought that comes into your mind and soon you'll be writing out answers.
Yeah, I get it the same way. Special when I'm tried to get to sleep but I can't because all my brain is think up all different stories. I have to write them down on a notepad or I will forget them by morning. Or if I wake up from a dream, think that a good idea, I quickly write it down.
^Ditto! Don't be lazy guys, just get out of the bed and find your pad. You'll forget that great idea you just came up with by morning. I've suffered many a times. . . .*sniffle*
I know the feeling very well. At this very moment, I have four and a half pages of handwritten text for my first novel that I haven't rejected, but I have just under 80 pages in Microsoft Word dedicated solely to my thoughts on the characters and future chapters in the series. I have a total of thirteen novels with the basic framework laid out, several ideas for short stories, two fictional civilizations fleshed in full detail from their homelands to their cultures, and a boatload of background information that may never see the light of day yet shapes the stories just the same. It was hard to resist getting sucked into this maelstrom of planning, and for about a year, I failed to swim back out of it. But I consider it an essential part of the process, because I can now shape each of these stories in such a way that they all fit together flawlessly, with as few plot holes and contradictions as possible. I'm satisfied with that thought. If I could go back in time and advise myself to forget the backstory and focus just on the writing, I wouldn't. Sure, I'd end up getting more done, but I'd lose so much more. Still, after all the planning and plotting that I've done, I've just about run out of things to add to my database. Unless I want to start planning a spinoff series, which I could totally do, no problem.
Being riddled with ADD and unable to focus, I have to force myself to work on a singular project with a combination of music and willpower and so forth. However I have the blessing of once I get an idea, it does not go away and continues to flesh itself out in my head while I work on another. But as I empty my head, new ideas come it to take its place...GRR! All you can do, and I have learned this from experience, is work on one project at a time, two at most! Trust me when I say I understand as the queue in my head currently looks like this: Main Project (Trilogy) work in progress. Seconday project (Trilogy) to follow Trinary project (four books) after that Novel Another Novel Short story Yet Another Novel. No I don't sleep well at night, why do you ask? >.>
I did, yes, thank you. This is the one that fit my issue... "Offsite links should be kept to a minimum. If used, they should be relevant to the discussion, non-trivial, and should be accompanied by sufficient explanation that a reader can choose not to follow the link. You are responsible for ensuring that the linked content is safe and complies with this site's content rules. Offsite links may be removed without notice, as may posts with no content other than a link." I read it through and as far as I was concerned, I had followed this rule. My link did consist of the subject I was speaking of. Also, I mentioned that if the audience wanted to...then they could. I did not force them to do so. The only reason I posted an offsite link is because I didn't find posting my story on this forum fit. Thank you and I apologize for the misunderstanding.
