To be honest, I’d been stuck with my manuscript for months already. Recently, I wrote how I planned to practically start over from scratch. At the end, I decided to take a similar approach, go over it but not with editing eyes (I’ve edited those sentences so many times that I didn’t know if I was actually improving them or making them worse) but read it critically, plotwise, characterwise. I felt that my biggest weakness was character development, I felt them flat. That is why I choose a very good advice from my blog friend Glynis in “Productive or Busy” (who also took it from her friend Shari) about writing separately several character pages (not necessarily related to the plot but their life story in general) to get a feeling of the characters. I loved the idea and started doing this on my current manuscript.
As soon as I started just writing, I got those chills you have when inspiration hits you and you just start typing endlessly, feeling the flow of the words. I love this state. I know I don’t do my best writing from the grammatical/structure point of view, the writing is rather awful, but I get to release all the feelings and everything I feel should be put to paper.
After this cool experience, I had to go for a fanfiction story. I know being a geek has led me to write fanfiction stories before. This is a weird path for writing since fanfiction involves writing about characters that have already been created, but it is still writing and I had to do it. It felt so liberating that I thought that I was finally rediscovering my writing spirit again. The fan fiction story only awoke my inner writing muse. This was a one time short story and it is already finished, and I don’t plan to revisit the world of fanfiction for a while, however this process has stirred the desire that I’ve been having for some time to start a new story, for leaving my manuscript resting for a while, and just start telling this new story that has been doing circles in my head.
I realized that I might not be the first one. I’m pretty sure several writers have jumped to a different work and left others to rest for a while. So I’ve started writing a new manuscript for a week already. I’ve been doing it daily (which wasn’t happening with my other writing) and I feel excited about it, ideas are flowing to my mind and I feel happy. I still plan to revisit my previous manuscript’s character pages since that aside process was been going well, but I feel like this new writing has strengthened and invigorated my new writing spirit.
And you, has it ever happened to you that you started writing other projects without finishing others? Do you think it is a good idea?
The diaries of the happy writer 
It has happened to me on several occasions! Even now as I trudge along on my novel, I have the urge to write a story that has recently come to mind. Is it a good idea to leave one project and start another–another which you may or may not complete?
Ultimately I think it is–a good idea, albeit, a risky one. Two positives: One, I think it’s a good idea to get a first draft written of a story idea…at least it’s on paper. And Two, it’s not always a bad thing to leave another manuscript in the drawer for a while…just to get that necessary distance we sometimes need. The risk is the possibility that you won’t get back to the first work. But I think that risk is minimal.
So, I say, good for you. Do what you feel is best for your writing spirit. 🙂
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Yeah, I also have that fear of not coming to the first manuscript, but I’m hoping that this second manuscript will also give me more experience and the needed tools to come back to the first one with a more critical eye. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
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Thank you for the mention. Greatly appreciated. I am sure Shari will like it too.
It is great to know that this way of writing is working so well for you. Keep on trudging along.
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Thanks Glynis!
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