Backstory: Sent Hooligans to my agent a week ago. Yesterday officially switched back to a manuscript I’m working on collaboratively with a friend (tentatively called Rafa & Rose), which has been set to the side for five months.
My brain woke me up at about 4:30 am this morning with ideas for something I’ve been playing around with since I was twelve. And by “playing around with,” I mean it’s one of the generally plotless 200,000+ word monstrosities that were my first attempts at writing a novel.
No, I did not write that much at twelve, I swear. That came much later. Anyway, years and many, many, many writing lessons later… I got ideas for some new takes on the characters and actual plot last winter, then played around with writing a few scenes to see what happened. Last night I rented just a terrible horror movie that I had to stop watching because it was just…so…bad. Watched several episodes of Intervention to research the effects of meth addiction for Rafa & Rose. Then got a bit bored, so I opened up the scenes I’d written in like January.
4:30 a.m. Brainsplosion of ideas for plot. Like really good ideas, even a potential title. And now I’m torn. What do I work on? What I’ll probably do is work on both simultaneously. When it comes to writing, I tend to follow my brain, mostly because I don’t want to lose that passion. Unless I absolutely have to finish editing something to meet a deadline, of course.
Writer friends, what do you do when inspiration for a new WIP lightning-bolts you? Do you force yourself to finish the current WIP or follow your brain?
Sarah J. Carlson 
Pfft. I follow my brain and get as much out of the “brainsplosion” (LOVE that word!) as I can. It’s happened too many times in the past where I write down just a few things about the new idea and then, after going back to work on a different project, I lose my focus on the new idea and forget what I wanted to do with it. It may take longer for me to write, in general, because of all these brainsplosions, but it’s worth it.
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