Overload: Too Many Ideas

So, I've got the following writing projects planned for the future:

• WIP: Urban Fantasy Trilogy, BOUND
• YA Distopian
• YA SciFi
• YA Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
• YA Paranormal

And yes, all the ideas are festering in my brain, begging and pleading to be born. Ugh! Like last Wednesday, the idea for my YA Distopian bloomed from a basic premise to the major conflict that will push the story forward. With all my soul, I'm eager to start writing it.

But, first things first... FÉLICITÉ FOUND and BOUND (No relation--both are separate ideas.  FF is a stand-alone).

I can push the thoughts away, but when a huge breakthrough for a book surfaces, as happened last week, I want to place my current projects on the back burner to enjoy the creation of a new world. Stuffing the desire away, I drive my focus back to the important project--the current one. Because if I don't get it perfected, then I will never progress to becoming an established author.

I look forward to the future when I can write full-time. Then, I'll have more time to dedicate to a current project so eventually I can dig in deep to future projects.

The trick is to keep your eye on the present--that beautiful creature you are/have developed. Otherwise, you'll never finish it. On your shelf will rest half written stories. So, as the saying states: keep your eye on the ball . . .

Or, umm, story in our case.

So, I pose the question, do you fight against ideas that desperately want to be written? Do you have only one idea to write at a time? Do they make you go crazy because of their tempting power to type them into reality? How do you suppress them into the recesses of your mind?

Writing. Jewels.

Insomniac Writer Counting Sheep

Every so often, I won't be able to sleep--insomnia, the evil foe. Grrr. Ok, I don't have insomnia (thank the heavens), but my mind will start reeling right as my head hits the pillow. Don't get me wrong, loads of my writing/blog ideas surface during these sleepless moments. I would rather enjoy the rest, but when ideas come, you take em when you get em.

I'll write down one of the distracting thoughts to get it out of my mind just as another takes its place. The maddening cycle will continue for a while until my brain decides its tired enough to stop grinding its wheels at top speed. All thanks to the sheep creeping in the room for me to count briefly until I'm purring peacefully, blissfully in my dreams depths. 

*Bah Bah Bah* ---> Sheep sounds.

I've heard some people get there ideas while in the shower. Some while driving. Others while eating their bowl of cereal in the morning.

When do your writing ideas arrive, distracting you from getting sleep, massaging shampoo into your hair, swerving off the road, or totally missing your mouth while shoveling in another tasty spoonful of Lucky Charms?

Writing. Jewels.

PS: Don't forget to enter my Flash Fiction Friday contest. You could win a $25 Amazon.com gift card by writing your own flash fiction. For more information, follow this link. I'm going to extend the entry date to Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 5:00PM MST. Shout this out to the world. I want more people to enter. Wahoo!

Light Bulb

Get this: I sluggishly entered my bedroom. Flicking off the light, my feet felt their way to bed, then I flopped down on the mattress. I snuggled up into my chilled blankets, hoping they'd warm up super fast. Finding a comfortable position, my mind started its usual jumping from one thing to the next. Then...

*BAM* *POW* *POOF*

One word popped into my head. I'm not gonna tell you which one, though. Yeah, yeah. I'm mean. But a writer has to be secretive. Anyway, this one single word sparked an idea for a book that made my mind start exploring all of the different ways I could develop a story upon it. One vein of thought led to the next until I was writing down what was spewing rapidly from my mind. 

Afterward, my heart raced fast and my brain felt like it wanted to pop right out of my skull to figure where this book could take its journey. With such intensity filling my chest to all four of my limbs, I got up to write a post about my experience. 

This leads me to share some wisdom which I found incredibly important during this whole creative process. 

That being: Write out your thoughts the moment (yes, the very second) you have an idea. Yes, even if it's only ONE word that triggers something you get so excited about you could run a marathon. Ok, that's taking it a little too far. But, you know what I mean.

Writing out your thoughts may help you develop that simple word into something miraculous. Of course, the next step is to actually draft out a plot, world, and characters to fill up the lines of the page. But folks, the brilliant IDEA is alive.

Gah! This has been such an exhilarating and creative opportunity I just couldn't pass up writing a post about. I hope my meager advice is helpful.

Now, what is your advice to find ideas to build a story upon?


Writing. Jewels.

Ideas for Stories

I attended a writing conference today at a university near my home. Dan Wells was the keynote speaker; author of I Am Not a Serial Killer; Mr. Monster; I Don't Want To Kill You; and to-be-released in 2012, Partials. 

He spoke about how authors get their ideas. Dan said, "It's not about ideas, it's about turning ideas into stories."

I'm going to let you in on his secret to getting ideas—all the time! You need to Pay Attention! 

Simple, right? Right! Anything, even the ring on your finger or a piece of peppermint candy can inspire you. Look everywhere for your ideas, if it be on the History channel, a dog barking outside, or the bowl of soup I'm eating even though it's getting too cold. 

Dan taught us to take something normal and combine it with something strange to develop it into an idea for a story. 

For example: a pocket watch and a crazed chicken.

Here's what I came up with:

A teenage farm boy finds an old pocket watch in pristine condition under his bedroom floor boards. When he picks it up, he hears it ticking; no, clucking loudly. He stuffs it in his pocket thinking its cool. As he works on the farm the next day, the chickens appear to be going crazy, practically biting each others heads off. And they are growing bigger at an alarming rate. He takes his family to hide, fearing they will be killed. Over the next months, the world is taken over by these huge chickens. No longer is chicken the poultry of choice, but humans are. It's not until the boy realizes the pocket watch was the catalyst for the chickens dominating the world that he destroys the watch. The chickens die instantly, leaving the world free from their reign of terror.  

Now, it's your turn to practice. Comment with an idea using the example above. Let's see what awesome ideas spring to mind.   

Dreams to Ideas

As a prelude to this post, an explanation must be given. I have seriously twisted, vibrant dreams. They sometimes stick with me for days; sometimes I wish they wouldn’t. Occasionally my dreams make me exhausted all day. Sometimes, they are all about me being a character in “24” (yeah Jack) or “Stargate SG1” (yeah Jack). Wow, both those TV shows have a Jack as the lead character. Tangent, anyway…
Having expounded upon that, my novel was inspired by a dream I had back in December 2009. I couldn't get the dream out of my head for weeks. I told my parents and sister the dream’s content, saying I would like to write a novel about it. I didn’t think I actually would start writing it. One night, I was trying to sleep, but my body would not succumb to the rest I desperately desired. The dream popped back into my head as it had numerous times over the past couple of weeks. I gave up on sleep to start formulating the plot. That sleepless night, I had the end of the novel completely outlined in my mind. The following day, I turned on my bright green Dell laptop and began the eager process of typing away the idea that had plagued me for some weeks. The idea still plagues me—the gift of being an author. I wrote the end first, then the beginning, and then filled in the rest as I wrote. It took me five months, some writer’s block, and long evenings and weekends to complete the rough draft. Now I’m working on the technical process of editing.
I tell the background of how my novel became a reality in order to offer you a way to come up with writing ideas. Pull from your dreams. Really. Sometimes the oddity of dreams can become great ideas for writing material. I have another book idea that derived from a bunch of my reoccurring dreams. Just last night I had a dream that I have toyed around with today for another book. Keep a notebook by your bed just in case you wake up from a dream that is brilliant, so you can jot it down. You don’t want to forget it.
I hope that this will give you a way to get ideas for writing. Welcome to the world of an author—in that world you just need an idea you can run with. Make sure you run with it, otherwise, you’ll never know that 300 pages later you’ll have a novel. Of course, a novel that needs lots of tweaking and editing, but hopefully in the end, you’ll have a finished product. I am eager for that day to come very soon!