Shiny new ideas
The care and feeding of
If you’re a writer, you’ve probably experienced Shiny New Idea Syndrome. It’s what happens when you’ve been working on something for a while and your excitement and motivation has worn thin, but you’re still going because you’ve committed. . . .
And then BAM.
Out of nowhere.
Shiny New Idea.
And it looks like soooo much fun. Way more fun than the one you’re working on. It doesn’t matter that the current project used to be the Shiny New Idea; what matters is that it isn’t anymore and there’s a new Shiny New Idea .
So now you’re faced with a choice: keep going on Current Story or spend time with Shiny New.
I can’t tell you what to do (though if you’re contracted for Current Story, I’d nudge you in that direction), but I can help you with taking care of that Shiny New Idea — and why I generally think it’s good to wait a bit before diving in.
How I get them from exciting but formless blobs into something resembling a story
First, I write down everything I know about the idea. I try to start with the biggest thing, the initial spark. For INCARNATE, I wrote that everyone in the world was perpetually reincarnated, remembering all their previous lifetimes — but one person was new.
That’s, uh, pretty much all I left for myself.
But when I went back to that idea three years later, it was enough. I’d given myself a world, a conflict, and a main character who was tied into the world and conflict. I built the rest from there.
With other stories, I’ve given Future Me a little more to go on, like notes on the worldbuilding, superstitions, political conflicts; I leave ideas for character personalities and how I want relationships to form; if I have ideas for scenes, I write those down, too. I’ve even written short scenes — they don’t have to be pretty, just present.
I make notes on everything I know about the story because frankly, there’s a good chance I won’t remember the details later. The test is actually whether I remember the idea exists at all. More on that in a bit.
I give myself about an hour (maybe two) to indulge in this new idea. I don’t usually need that much time, but putting a limit on it forces me to get everything on the page and prevents me from using it to procrastinate.
Then I put it away until I’m ready to work on something new.
Where to store your story-shaped ideas
It doesn’t matter where you write all this down, by the way. As long as you can find it later.
For a long time, I kept a running “new ideas” document. I also started new documents for individual ideas. When I made the switch to Scrivener in 2008, I started making new Scrivener projects for them. Also, there were the physical notebooks. And the Notes app.
Do better than me, is what I’m saying. It shouldn’t be hard.
Making sure the shiny is more than a trick of the light
Though it can be hard to put aside a massive story crush, I’ve found that letting them sit helps me determine whether I’ll stay excited about them long-term.
Do I keep thinking about it?
When I look at the notes I left myself, do I still have that prickle of excitement?
Do the notes even make sense later?
Writing a whole book is a long process. As you probably know! If you’re aiming for publication, that’s going to be years of your life devoted to a story. With some breaks, yes, but you’ll have to keep coming back to it for edits, more edits, line edits, copyedits, pass pages, and promotion. While you might not love every second of working on the book (that’s okay!), it helps a lot to know that you came back to the idea for a reason.
Because I’m sure I’m not the only writer to feverishly write notes about a dream or idea I had, thinking it was so cool . . . only to look at it later with a big shrug. The shiny was only a trick of the light.
When it’s time to write something new
Sometimes, I already know what I want to work on next. If an idea has been hounding me, building up in the background when I’m supposed to be doing something else, then I work on that. (I usually talk to my agent about what I should work on next and her first question is always What is most exciting to you?)
But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, I’m not sure what I want to work on.
In that situation, I look through my ideas — assuming I can find them — and pull out the ones that seem the most promising. That might be ideas that have the most notes, ideas that could work for the market, or simply ideas that seem the most interesting to me at that moment. A lot get left behind, because they’re never going to be as shiny as they were when I made those notes. Well. Maybe.1
Then I read through everything I wrote about all of those ideas. I throw some back to the depths of my hard drive. And I dig a little more into others to see if they’re ready yet.
Sometimes lightning strikes and two or more of the ideas combine into one.2 Ideas that weren't strong enough individually do work together. Ideas for Characters With Situations merge with World With Conflicts. Or World Idea meets Other World Idea. Or any other combination of story aspects colliding until they suddenly . . . fit right.
That usually decides it for me.
As always, this is what works for me. If you have a different strategy, I’d love to hear about it!
Also, where do you keep your notes? I need to make better choices in the future.
I guess I have to say MAYBE here because in 2006, I’d written a scene — with no context, no real idea for what to do next — about a young woman waking up alone in a tomb. When she emerged, there was a king and a prince and a crowd of people. They expected something from her, but they were afraid of her . . . And if that sounds like that energy went into NIGHTRENDER, well, you’re not wrong. But before that, I really did think Past Me just wrote that scene for funsies.
This is actually THE ORPHAN QUEEN. And BEFORE SHE IGNITES. And NIGHTRENDER. And with a slightly different twist, Spinning Story 2.1.
I use Google Drive just for keeping notes and ideas, and to test the story to see if it has legs. If it does, I give it its own Scrivener document. But using Drive to test it out really helps maintain a low-stakes sandbox environment where I can play and be imperfect while I throw stuff at the wall, so to speak.
Fantastic post! Thank you for the inspiration!
I use the notes app on my phone and whenever I have a new idea I wrote it there. A basic idea of what came to me and then any quick details of what it might cover. As you said you do, like with Incarnate. I make sure to have just enough of the overall idea so I can come back to it later when the mood strikes.