March of Ideas

Everyone occasionally has that thought where something pops into their head and they think, “Hey that would make a good movie/tv show/advert/book etc.” Most people then file that idea in a big box marked Imagination’s Home and forget all about it, moving on with their lives or promising that one day they’ll finally write the story/screenplay they always wanted to.

I typed "Gothic Chest" into Google. That was my first mistake. I wish very much that there are things I could un-see.

I’m not sure if the same is for all writers, but for me, I don’t get that luxury of filing things away for future use. I get to think about the idea, to ponder and shape it until it becomes something I can work with. For the most part I love this part of my brain—it’s what allows me to shape my words and worlds into something I can almost feel.

And then there’s the other times.

At the moment, apart from editing CAM, I’ve been writing the second book in the series. Unfortunately my imagination doesn’t seem to care about this at all, because a few weeks ago I got an idea for a story. It was only a glimmer at the time—a tiny fragment of something I thought was quite cool. Over the past two weeks, the idea has tried to muscle its way into my thoughts at every conceivable moment. This includes when I’m working on actually finishing the book I’m meant to be writing.

It happens quite often with me, I’ll be in the middle of one thing and my imagination wants me to do something else. My imagination, you see, is a small puppy that needs constant attention less it start driving me bloody insane. The last time I gave in, it resulted in pages and pages of notes about a second series of books staring someone just coming into their abilities. And the time before that it was a fantasy story.

You trying saying no to this face!

My imagination won’t let it go, so for the passed two weeks I’ve tried to give it the time it clearly craves. And I think the end results will be quite good. It’s certainly not something I ever thought I was going to write, although it will require a lot of research. There’s only one problem; it’s in the same series as CAM, but much further down the line, which means I’ll have my brain telling me to hurry up and write it for the next few years.

The weird thing is, no matter how much I wish my imagination would let me finish what I’m trying to do, I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I love that it forces me to think about ideas outside of what I’m currently involved in. I love that it challenges me. But still, sometimes it’d be nice to have a switch so that I could only concentrate on what I need to get finished. Only sometimes though.

On another matter, I got to see the first draft of the cover for Crimes Against Magic. I was considering showing everyone, but I think I’d rather wait until it’s finished before unveiling it. But it’ll be soon. Very soon. And it’ll be totally worth the wait.