New Idea’s Disease

Posted on | August 5, 2009 | No Comments

“I can’t possibly work on my novel today; I’ve just had a great new idea for a book!”

My name is Andrew and I suffer from New Idea Disease (NID). My life has become unmanageable.

I am not alone.

Most writers suffer from this to one degree or another but among the seething mass formed by unpublished writers it’s practically an epidemic. It’s so easy to just put down what you’re doing and start something new, and hey, what you’re starting may well be a better idea than your current project.

Don’t do it. Until you (and by “you”…I mean “me too”) get over this you will never, ever, finish anything.

I have a drawer full of half started projects that fell apart as soon as I hit the BSM (Big Swampy Middle*). Some of them were okay ideas too; but not one of them could compete with the new idea I had floating around in my head. Of course as soon as I started that idea a new shiny idea popped into my head.

Even now that I have a completed rough draft I’m still suffering. Rather than do the necessary edits to make a full first draft, I desperately want to start a new story.

Fortunately there’s a cure**. A spiral bound notebook. Get a new idea? Write it down. You can come back to it later. This helps with the anxiety that an unused idea will be somehow lost forever.

When you revisit these ideas later, some of them will have lost their allure. When the lightning bolt strikes, there will be nothing anyone can say that will convince you that your idea for a story about a SWAT team composed entirely of badgers is anything but 100% gold***. It may well be, but your enthusiasm could be getting the better of you. Once those honeymoon chemicals have stopped sloshing around in your brain have another look at your notebook. Now you can take the pick of the ideas and start work on that…once you’ve finished the project you’re on now.

I hope that helps. I certainly wish someone had told me that a year ago.

* I stole the idea of the Big Swampy Middle from Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files.

** There are actually two cures. The other involves a huge guy holding a pickle and a hammer. Don’t ask.

*** I stole the idea for a SWAT team of badgers too. In this case it was from a friend of mine that helps edit my stuff. I’m a horrible person.