The "Oooh, Shiny!" problem

[donutsweeper]

I'm really hoping that I'm not the only one with this problem...

*Bam* An idea for a story hits from out of the blue!  Oooh, it's so shiny and wonderful so you scrabble off and feverishly work on it, but you're only partially through it when... *Bam*  Ooh look, over there, that idea is so shiny too!  So idea number one is put aside while shiny new idea number two takes over.  Halfway through that one... *Bam*  Look!  In the sky, shiny idea number three!!!!

and so on and so on....

Occassionally one of the lovely little shinies actually is the ending to a previous one and, wonder of wonders, you've actually managed to finish something, but more often than not all you've got is seventeen different once shiny half finished stories on your hard drive.

Please tell me I'm not insane and this sort of thing happens to other people!

Comments

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

I often get ideas for later in a fic before I've got to a place where I can use them. What I do at that point is write the scene, and leave it there at the end in case it can be used. That happened about 3 times in the last big fic I wrote (in 36 parts); for instance part of the last chapter was written before I'd got to part 30 and knew how I was going to get there (the bit where Methos and Jack say goodbye, with the 'Love life; don't just live it' comment).

If it's just a one-scene idea or a piece of dialogue then often it's worth drabbling it or doing a ficlet to get it out of your system so you can concentrate on your main fic baby and then return to it when you've the time to spend.

Unfortunately, I think ideas have the same fascination for fanficcers that shiny things do for magpies... so no You Are Not Alone!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

oooh, I've done that too- just written down the scene and hoped to figure out a way to use it later. I'm so glad others are having the problem too!