First Drafting Basics - Time

People talk about the importance of time away from your draft once you've completed it, but not enough is said about taking time away from your initial idea.

At first, it doesn't make sense. Why jot down that idea and just leave it? Why not jump on it while you're bursting at the seams to start writing?

Well, first off, you're probably already in the middle of your current WIP, right? You've set a goal to get it drafted or edited or whatever. And working on this new idea means you've got to put the original plan on hold.

Secondly, I've found that the initial excitement doesn't last long. Do you know how many books I've started and never made it past the first chapter? Some never even got a page in. Yes, some made it halfway and a few even got finished, but generally writing after getting that spark ends in failure.

If I let the idea sit while I finish my current WIP, I'll often come back and find that I'm less passionate about it. The spark died and never got past the one-sentence idea. I might still like the "this or that happens" idea, but I still don't have characters, story world, scenes, anything else to add to the original thought.

However, sometimes I put that little idea down in a notebook. I let it sit for a while. Then a character idea comes, and I add that. A scene pops into my head. I'm still focusing on my current WIP, but in my down time (maybe driving to work, or fixing fence lines) I'm mulling over that idea. A few weeks, a month, 2 months, however long later, I've only gotten more excited about the idea and have characters, a plot, even scenes figured out. The idea has grown into a full story, and I haven't technically started working on it yet.

For the past couple books I've written, I got the ideas back a long time before I even started my synopsis (more on that next week). By the time I finished the WIPs ahead of them, I already knew I was passionate about the ideas because they had grown instead of died.

When I finally reach my goals with my current WIPs and am ready to work on a new story, I have a few ideas that have been sitting around.

One has characters, a bit of a story world, the main plot, and even a few scenes already jotted down. It even has a Pinterest board with a few pins I tossed in while looking for things for different WIPs.

Another idea has less additions, but is slowly growing.

There's another idea that is still the same two sentences (plus a title, which is cool). It hasn't grown at all. I'd still like to write it someday, but still have nothing beyond a vague plot. Maybe in few years it'll have grown to where I feel ready to write it, but not now.

So please, do yourselves a favor: save the idea for later. Finish your current WIP. Tackle this new idea once it's had time to sit and simmer and grow.

Note: If I have a scene already figured out, I do take the time to jot it down, whether it's two paragraphs or two pages. I don't want to forget anything about this new idea, even if I'm not going to begin writing it instantly.