Staying Focused on Your WIP
We’ve all had (or we will have) moments where a new story idea hits us in the face when we feel like we should be focusing on our main WIPs—I know I’ve had those moments.
How can you stay focused on your main WIP when there are so many ideas inspiring you that are totally unrelated? Should you ignore them? Put that main WIP on the backburner so you can work on the new story idea?
I have a simple, 3 step technique I use to deal with these random moments of inspiration.
Step 1: Write down the idea. Take out your notebook or start a new document, then write down whatever it is you just thought of, whether it’s a character, world idea, plot concept/twist, or random piece of dialogue or narrative.
Step 2: Set it aside. Save it somewhere. Don’t throw it away! You never know when those random ideas will help you create a beautiful book later or help you out of a sticky case of writer’s block.
Step 3: Return to work on your WIP. Now that you’ve written down your idea, it’s okay to forget about it. You know it’s safely set aside for future use. Now you just have to remember why this WIP is your main one and get back to work on it. (This is probably the hardest step, so don’t feel bad if it takes a little longer than you’d like.)
That’s all for this post. I hope it helps! And remember: you’ve got this! Happy writing :)