Sometimes my brain is a bag of cats, and you know if you put cats in a bag (do not do this thing, it’s very cruel, but I’m sure you already know that,) those cats get agitated and start shrieking and clawing and squirming around. It’s all chaos and insanity, and before you know it everything’s scratched up and bleeding and there are headaches. Oh, so many headaches…
And I’m sure you’ve guessed by this point that by bag of cats I’m really talking about ideas, not cats, and at the moment my mind is overflowing. I have too many cats in there with a single ball of yarn, and they’re all clawing and making it really difficult to grab a single thread and just start tugging on it until everything falls into place.
Can’t concentrate… can’t think clearly. Must find a way to go on…
I’m in the middle of finishing an urban fantasy novel that I love to pieces and want to see stuffed between a lovely cover and put upon the shelf, but the other ideas are crowding it out. They’re so loud I can’t hear myself think if I don’t pay attention to the new things.
It’s annoying. I feel scattered, unable to commit to myself, but at the same time I know if I don’t answer the cat that’s screaming the loudest, it will just get louder and louder until I go crazy—er, crazier, than I already am.
I blame the short attention span internet life inspires. Everything is shiny and new and exciting, and I want to touch it all! All of it, all the time, but you can’t touch everything all at once. We only have so many fingers, so I have to find a single cat and start placating it, or the chaos will just continue to grow.
So, my question for you this morning is how do you keep yourself in check? Do you keep yourself in check at all, or do you answer the loudest cat when it screams because you know it’s going to guarantee the best results for a time? What do you focus on when everything is so loud?
I’d love to hear your methods in the comments section below, if you have methods. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you love the chaos, which would be really cool to hear about it!
The Write Stuff 
I don’t have a super hard time keeping myself in check because it’s just my nature to be plodding and boring. I have spreadsheets, and I’m not afraid to use them. 😉
A new idea is always seductive for me, especially when I’m toward the end of the process on something else, because I haven’t screwed the new one up yet. If I let myself run off and chase, I don’t think I’d ever get anything done. I do have a Scrivener file just for ideas, though. If I need to write something down to shut it up (or more likely because I’ll forget it otherwise) I’ll make a folder for it, and give myself an hour or two to write out a few cards, maybe set up a rough outline. At that point it usually starts to feel like work, which makes it easier to set aside until I’m ready for it.
On the other hand if I really really can’t let it go, then I listen to my instinct. The one time I abandoned what I was working on entirely to chase a new idea, the result was my only published book.
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It is good that you can plot and plan. Some people can’t. I am on the middle of the fence, between plotting and planning. I can’t adhere to a rigid plot, or I feel stifled, but I do definitely have an outline I work from.
Sometimes, however, sticking with it when someone else is louder is just too much. I will probably anser the loudest cat. He’s a very nice cat. 🙂
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Great post, Jenny! I usually have one voice in my head that’s driving the bus. That person has an issue or two that they won’t let go of, and it’s easy for me to ignore others until I get that dealt with. And usually the softer voices are secondary characters chiming in on what their role is, in conjunction with the main voice. I get totally lost in whatever I’m writing, for the most part, and pay very little attention to other ideas. I don’t have the tv on or music playing, and I turn off my email notifier, because I want to listen just to that main voice, until he or she is done. (So far, the main voice has been female. I understand women better than men…and don’t get me started on why. Men. Can’t live with ’em, can’t play mind games without ’em. 😀 )
Now that I’m in the revising & editing stage, though, things get trickier. My next book is underway, and switching back and forth between editing A Boy Named Rabbit, and writing Hunter is tricky. Hunter is begging me to pay attention to his woes, and it’s quite disruptive. One minute, I’m in the Blue Ridge Mountains, trying to get Rabbit through a harrowing ordeal, and the next, I’m in Riverbend, Florida, trying to understand the quirky pile of contradictions that makes up Hunter Painter. I have no answers for how to deal with your bag of cats, I’m afraid. If I were entertaining ideas for any other books, my head would explode. 😀
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I know exactly where you’re coming from, especially once you add some deadlines into the mix. I’m trying to edit two different books at the moment, one of which I’d really like to get up on Amazon in time for the post-Christmas rush and one of which is due to to a publisher (under a different pen name) by January 15. But editing isn’t my favorite part of the writing process, so these other story ideas keep popping into my head uninvited…. My solution is to figure out how much editing I need to do each day to reach my deadlines, and if I have any writing energy leftover, then I get to start on a new story. (Editing is eating is my vegetables, writing is dessert.)
But lists like Jen’s really work too, if only for clearing the extra cats out of my head.
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Aimee, I’m always astounded by how much you manage to do. I can’t keep up with ONE name, much less write books under two! And oddly, I actually LIKE editing when I’m not running so far behind. It’s a chance to choose better words, and smooth rough edges, and really polish the story up. Of course, it helps to have someone like Caitlin to work with, too. She’s so good at understanding what I’m trying to do.
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I both love and hate editing. If I’m editing, I can still write. I just divide my day in half, though that’s much harder when I’m working on something that wants to eat all my time. I love those time-devouring ideas, though.
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It sounds like we use the same process – midway between a plotter and a pantser. Perhaps that’s why we have similar cats – er, issues – about ordering our thoughts.
I’ve taken to following the line of least resistance, and I listen to the loudest cat, because I know that way I will produce my best work. Of course that can totally up-skittle deadlines if you have those to work to, and/or make books take longer to produce, but it does have the advantage that if you are producing quality writing, it’s less likely to need heavy editing afterwards.
Or that’s my excuse, anyway 😉
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If I’m working on a deadline, it is so much easier for me to focus. When the deadline is self-imposed, not so much. I do think it’s easier to go with the loudest cat. Sometimes those screeching felines turn out to be the best stories for me.
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Love all these answers. I guess I’m the odd man out. The person yelling the loudest is definitely the main character in whatever I’m writing. I can (mostly) ignore the other voices, until I’m at least in the editing state. Then they begin to vie for my attention. SO glad I don’t have a bunch meowing…um…yelling…at once. As I said, my head would explode! 😀
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I love the cats/ideas comparison, according to which I certainly qualify as the crazy cat lady. I have learned that I can list them all out but at some point I have to choose one to focus on, barf out a rough draft, and then put it aside for a bit so I can go back to edit it. Thankfully I am so much better at editing than drafting. Because I know this about myself, though, I have a hard time sitting down to do that first draft. I’d rather just chase the cats all day. My non-writing full-time job keeps me in check and forces me to use my time slightly better than I would if left to my own devices, and I found that doing National Blog Posting Month really helped because I simply didn’t have time to goof around.
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