What do you hate about writing?

[FlyontheWall99]

I hate having a brilliant idea for a new story when I'm half way through writing another. I can't put the current story down because I know I won't pick it up later, and if I keep thinking about the new idea it ends up infecting the current story getting me off track .....

In the end I scribble the new idea down in my ideas book, which must have about a thousand ideas in it that haven't been committed to writing, and then I hope that when I finish my current writing that the idea will still be interesting enough to write about, not a given for me because I have probably come across another half a dozen good ideas .....

Back to writing ...

Fly ...

 

[oggbashan]

I agree with Fly ...

I don't use a notebook. I open a new Word document, jot down the idea, name and save the new document and get back to the original story, but with a distracted mind.

When I run out of steam on the original story, I save the draft as far as it has got and try to find the idea. I've usually forgotten what I named the file so I open lots of idea documents and get thoroughly confused.

I might find the idea a week later. Then it doesn't seem as good as it did at the time so I look through all the other "idea" documents. Do I delete the unused ideas? No. So I have more files to confuse me.

Eventually I collate a few dozen "idea" documents into one file. Now I have a few collated files. If I want to go back to an idea I still have to search because I can't remember whether the idea is in April or May or ...

When I have used an idea in a story, do I delete it from the ideas files? That would be too sensible. So now I have to remember where the idea is and whether I've used it. If I can remember that I don't need to actually find the idea because I have usually remembered the idea as well as its location.

Why don't I use a notebook?

I'd lose it.

Og

 

[Just_John1]

Have you been studying my modus operandi?

Seems like you took a page right from my book... Now where did I put that damned book? Files? I have millions of files... If I have to write down the idea it usually isn't very good. I do it anyway, but never go back to them.

JJ1

 

[oggbashan]

The worst ideas are the ones that come in the middle of the night.

At the time they are brilliant. I scribble them down by the light of a torch.

If I can read them next morning I shouldn't have bothered. They are crap.

Og

 

[FlyontheWall99]

The worst ideas are the ones that come in the middle of the night.

At the time they are brilliant. I scribble them down by the light of a torch.

If I can read them next morning I shouldn't have bothered. They are crap.

Og

That is so true!!! I've noticed that as well, when I get a brain surge in the middle of the night and scribble it on my note pad. Then when I am more lucid and contemplating doing a bit of writing I'll look in there and discover this great thought I had is about enough to write a hundred words about, not a masterpiece ....

Back to writing ....

Fly ...