Writing: Tired Brain

(via Flickr's Free Use group.)

I'm writing this because I am determined to keep in the habit (the habit I re-started just last week) of having writing-related Monday posts. Word count for the novel is moving  s l o w l y ,  but that's okay. Eventually I'll pick up steam, I think. (Or at least, that's how it usually happens for me.)

Because the word count (and also my brain!) is moving so slowly, I don't have a whole lot to say today. This book is interesting. Five characters, five families and family dynamics (you all know how much I love writing families), and lots of dialogue. Writing this book is making me wonder what "too much dialogue" is. I'm sure it's mostly reader preference, but most of the action in my book so far isn't so much action as just... talking.

I think this is probably normal. For me. This is only a first draft and I tend to get better at writing plot-driven, action-y type scenes later, once I get to the editing process. It's just that I've been editing different novels and been away from first-drafting for so long that a part of my brain has forgotten how to do a first draft and it's just flailing about everything now. I'm sort of remembering it as I go, and then also figuring out new things since sidekicks is written differently from other novels I've written.

Stuff You Should Read and Do

Today's a bit of a "general bulletins and news" day here on the blog because there are a couple of things I'm really, really excited to share with you.

1. I didn't talk about it before it went up, but Nova Ren Suma, author of Imaginary Girls and Dani Noir/Fade Out, is having a fantastic blog series on turning points in the lives of writers. She asked me to contribute, which is honestly just beyond amazing, and I'd love for you guys to read my piece over on her blog. I write about being an aspiring writer, trying to improve, and knowing in your gut when things just aren't good enough. I'm excited and more than a little nervous about this because what I decided to write about is a really personal time and experience in my writing life, one I don't often talk about. So read it?

2. Bri from Bri Meets Books has decided that there should be a book blogger tweet chat. She's hosting the first one THIS SUNDAY, 8pm EST. The topic is negative reviews and I hope if you're a book blogger you'll be there, because I'm excited about it and barring some unfortunate, unforeseen occurrence, I'll definitely be there. If you've never participated in a Twitter chat before, tweetchat.com is a great website to use that automatically updates all tweets with a certain hashtag (in the case of this chat it'll be #bookbloggerchat).

Writing: Unlimited POV

(via pinterest.)

Ages ago I used to do a writing-related post every Monday on the blog and I think I'd like to start that again because really I love talking about writing and having a record of what I'm working on/where I'm at can really be helpful sometimes.


Right now I'm (finally) working on another first draft. For now I'm calling the story sidekicks and of course I have no idea what title I'll end up giving it for real. It has five main characters and is told in unlimited third person/past tense and I'm almost (almost!) at 8,000 words. (By the time this post goes up I hopefully will be.)


This story is a little different for me. I'm writing a lot of things I haven't ever written before and third person unlimited is a really difficult POV to be in because I'm so aware of how confusing it can be. But! This is a story, or at least an idea of a story, that I've wanted to write for a while. It's not about one person, but about a group of people, and it's so different writing that type of story. As always, I don't want to say exactly what this story is about until I'm (much) further into it, but if anyone knows of books (especially YA!) that are written in unlimited third person, please let me know. I'd love to see how other writers have managed the POV without it being epically confusing.


I will say (about this story) that there's friendship and love and families and siblings and divorce and adoption. And a plastic safe full of candy.

Writing: New.

(via weheartit.)

Sometime last week (you may know this if you stalk follow me on Twitter) I finished that rewrite I was working on. And all along I'd been thinking that I knew exactly what I'd be writing when I was done.

But then I finished.

And I realized that idea I had, the one I'd been holding up so loftily in my head, didn't exactly have what it needed. It was only part of an idea. A baby idea. I had this vague feeling that I wanted the book to sort of, kind of, be based around this, but I couldn't figure out the rest of it. I mean, I couldn't even figure out if there were three main characters or just one. I thought about going back and revising one of the gazillion (2... maybe 3) novels I have to revise, but I've been wanting to write a first draft for so long.

But when an idea doesn't want to work I kill it by forcing it. This is part of the reason NaNoWriMo never works for me and pretty much the whole reason that novel about the stalker is still just sitting there. (It's not nearly as dark as it sounds, promise.)

ANYWAY.

All of this is to say that I've landed on a different idea, one that has been working as a side project for a while. Of course, bringing it to the forefront means erasing everything I'd written as a side project because everything's changed now, but that's okay. I think this one might work out. Not to jinx it or anything, but right now it really does feel solid.

This in spite of the fact that there are five main characters. And it's in past tense. Third person. And there are elements that, though I don't mean for them to be, are sort of dragged from a previous novel. But these elements are small, things like the fact that my characters sit on rooftops and live in the same neighborhood. Not, I hope, huge things.

I'm excited about this story. I'm excited about these characters. The working title is sidekicks and I cannot stop thinking about how great it all is in my head. IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THIS CRASHES AND BURNS AND I REALIZE THAT IN WORDS IT IS NOT NEARLY AS GOOD AS IN FEELINGS. But that comes later.

Writing: The Quiet Ones

(via tumblr.)

The book I'm working on is so quiet it's like a whisper in the wind. It's the kind of sneaky, calm book that I love reading and love writing, but that scares me to believe in. Because this book is all characters and emotion and journeys of life and even the more exciting scenes are coated with sadness and haze.

This is the type of book it is. And I am so close, have read it and reread and written and rewritten and edited so much that it's hard to tell if this is something really good or something really horrible.

Some days I think that this book is going to be great. That this is the sort of book that people will love and connect with and urge their friends to read. That is, if the book ever gets to be a book. And then other days I think what am I doing? This is a piece of junk. I think that I can't believe I'm wasting my time on this, that my writing is shoddy and the story is sad and I have no idea what I'm doing.

But I do want this to be better than good, better than great. I want it to be amazing. And mostly I think it will be, think that I can hammer it into being the book I imagine it to be. It's just that the getting-there is so difficult and being both my biggest fan and harshest critic - often in the span of a couple of hours - gets confusing.

40 Day Book Challenge - Book That Changed My Life (06)

Day 06 - A book that changed my life
When I was sixteen I wrote an essay about my relationship with my mother. At the time our relationship was difficult to say the least. I wrote this essay to submit to a open call for "personal essays" from teenage girls for a future anthology, all the while thinking that really it would only be me and my best friend who would actually read it. Partly because of this, I was incredibly open and honest and very, very blunt.

If I had known the essay would actually get chosen as part of this anthology - that countless strangers and my mother would actually read it - I would have written on a different subject entirely. But amazingly, my essay was chosen and because of this so much has happened. It was the first piece of writing I got published and because of it I've been able to write on topics I'm passionate about on both the Huffington Post and I Heart Daily. I've met amazing people, including the editor of the anthology and a fellow Red author who is now one of my very best friends. When I look back now at what I wrote I feel like my writing since then has improved so much, but I'm also very proud of the essay. It was very honest and, at the time, the best writing I could do. There are lines that I love just like there are lines that make me cringe.

I don't know how much this essay has to do with the fact that four years after the book's publication, me and my mom have a very good relationship. Some of that, I know, is just the fact that I've grown up and matured, but I do think that some has to do with the fact that writing my essay forced us to have some very honest conversations. It forced us to confront (my) issues. There are definitely times since that I've wished I didn't write the essay - there's no way to know how much my words hurt my mother. But those times aren't often and I am overwhelmingly glad and grateful for that first "break" into published writing and all that it has led to both with my life and my writing.

Writing - Rewrite

In some ways this rewrite is nothing, but in many other ways it is everything and the hardest total rewrite I've done yet. Hard not because of the particular book (it's not the most difficult I've written), but because of other things, things attached to this book that don't have a lot to do with the actual work. Because of pressure and wanting everything to be just right and worrying so much about missing the mark. I have given myself a Nov. 1 deadline and if I write a thousand words a day I can just barely squeak in under the deadline, but it doesn't allow for missed days or much time to reread and re-vamp the book after the last word goes down.

I AM GOING TO DO THIS.
I AM GOING TO DO THIS.
I AM GOING TO DO THIS.

If When I go crazy in the meantime... well, that's just the price I have to pay.

WRITING UPDATE.

I FINISHED THE NOVEL I WAS WORKING ON. I mean, I finished the draft at least. Now what I'm doing is REVISING another novel. SRS REVISION TIMES, guys.

This means that I am even more of a nutcase than normal. The levels of insanity are off the charts. And I sort of feel bad for my parents and sister because they're going to have to put up with me.

thousands of words!

THINKING OF NEW BLOG POSTS HAS BECOME A CONVENIENT EXCUSE FOR NOT WRITING.

*glares at novel*

SO I'LL BE BACK AFTER A COUPLE MORE THOUSANDS OF WORDS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED.

A New Playlist: Fame

In honor of finishing a draft of the sister story and not quite being ready to rewrite/revise either of the two novels I still have going, I'm STARTING A NEW STORY. This one is kind of scary because I haven't had the idea for very long (and usually I have ideas for years before they actually work), but I'm hoping that sheer determination will see me through. That, and this magnifique playlist. The story (it'll probably be known as #famestory on Twitter) is a contemporary YA -- of course -- about a girl who used to be a child star.

AND HERE'S THE PLAYLIST. It really literally took me all day because these playlists for my novels always do.

1. After Hours, by We Are Scientists
2. Trust Your Stomach, by Marching Band (which I can't find on YouTube at all for some reason)
3. Mobile, by Avril Lavigne
4. Fences, by Paramore
5. Footballer's Wife, by Amy MacDonald
6. I Turn My Camera On, by Spoon
7. Price Tag, by Xenia (The Voice performance) (the song doesn't start until 1:07)
8. The Fear, by Lily Allen
9. The Golden Age, by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
10. Drop the Other, by Emika
11. The Moneymaker, by Rilo Kiley
12. I Am Not A Robot, by Marina & the Diamonds
13. One Girl Revolution, by Superchick
14. Paparazzi, by Lady Gaga
15. Crazy Beautiful Life, by Kesha
16. Everybody Loves Me, by One Republic
17. That's Not My Name, by The Ting Tings
18. The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling), by Atomic Kitten
19. Falling Down, by Selena Gomez
20. Piece of Me, by Britney Spears

I always really love making the playlists for my novels; it's easily one of my favorite parts of the whole process.

Confessions of Jealousy

In case anyone out there hasn't read it yet, this post was prompted by this advice column as well as a few blog posts by well-known YA authors. The best post I can point you to is Gayle Forman's spot-on and brilliant thoughts on the issue of writerly jealousy.

I am a jealous person. I have been for as long as I can remember and it's not something I'm proud of. This jealous streak is without a doubt the thing I hate most about myself. It's something I'm constantly fighting against by reminding myself how much others deserve their successes and happiness. Still, even if I know this intellectually, sometimes my stubborn heart has a hard time getting on the same page.

For a person who struggles with jealousy, I am pursuing one of the hardest fields: a creative one. Where there is no straight path to get what you want, but instead many twists, turns, and unexpected setbacks. I'm on Twitter and I read blogs and I review books in the genre I want to be published in. All of this makes it incredibly difficult to avoid knowing when someone gets a book deal or an agent or something that I want so badly it hurts. I've had times when I've had to stay off of Twitter or avoid blogs, times when I couldn't be around another person's happy news.

If this sounds horrible, it's because it is, of course. Many times when a writer I know gets good news there are two distinct parts of me fighting over my emotions. On the one hand I'm gleeful because a lot of these books are ones I want to read, many of these writers are ones I like and am cheering on, and I know that we all work incredibly hard at this writing thing. You have to, in order to make anything at all happen. But then there's the other side of me. The nasty, jealous side. And that side is always, always frustrated. Hurt. Wondering what I'm not doing, what they've done better, why it seems to happen for everybody but me. And I hope -- and think, honestly -- that someday it will happen to me. And I'll be on the other side of the equation. And I'd hate to think of my success making someone else feel the way I often do.

For me, jealousy is not prompted by a sense of entitlement but instead a constant feeling of insecurity; a feeling that others are better, that they know the right things to do or say or write and I'm doing something wrong. That if I were just a little bit better, a little bit more, things would be working out for me like they are for this other person.

I can no longer pretend I'm not a jealous person. I can't just tell myself, as Sugar suggests, to "stop feeling jealous." Burying these feelings only forces them in deeper, causing them to eat away at me. I can't will myself to stop being jealous any more than I can will myself to not be hungry or tired. IT IS A PROBLEM. It's one I'm continually fighting against, trying to solve and combat and change, but one that persists nevertheless. Because as much as I want to be a good person -- be loving and kind and joyful and every other virtuous spirit -- I am constantly fighting my own feelings and inclinations in this one area. Telling me to just "stop being silly" sounds condescending. If it were as easy as flipping a switch, this wouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't have to even think about it.

But I do think about it. And work against it. I fight. And while nothing has changed yet, I have found ways to lessen the jealousy and to -- most importantly -- make sure it doesn't effect others. How I see it is that my jealousy is my own problem and it shouldn't effect anybody else, much less those I consider friends. So, in case there's anyone else out there in my position, who can't just stop the feeling, here are some of the things I do:

• Sometimes I avoid Twitter and blogs. I do this most often when I get a rejection -- because that hurts bad enough without having to needlessly compare myself to others.
• I used to automatically congratulate writers I knew or sort-of knew when they got a deal or an agent; I don't anymore. If I don't mean what I say, it feels like a lie and it feels like I'm being mean to them in some way. Now, I wait until that rush of jealousy -- if it happens -- passes. I deal with the jealousy and get to that point where I can honestly be 100% happy for a person. And then I congratulate them. And when I do that, I mean it from the bottom of my heart.
• I read incredible books by incredible people. And they remind me that as much as I want to be a writer and as much as I might get jealous of others, I still really really love these books and wouldn't want to miss being able to read them and then gush about them to others.
• I keep going. Persevering. Maybe this doesn't help the jealousy, but at least I don't feel like I'm not doing anything with my feelings of insecurity.

That Personal Line Between Reading and Writing and Self

It's easy to look at reviewing, at blogging, as a job. Especially if you have books you feel an obligation to read, especially when you have to sit down and write a review after finishing those books.

But let's not forget why we read.

I read because of lines that hit my heart, that set off something inside of me. I read to find heroes to cheer for, people to relate to, words that are funny or beautiful or true. I read because of Beth March being afraid to die and Jo being afraid to live. I read because of characters like Melanie Wilkes, who are incredible in the face of adversity and strong in spite of their weaknesses. I read because of writers like Sarah Dessen and Sharon Creech, who have inspired me so much with their words, their stories, their characters.

I haven't read much this past week, and it's not because of finals. I have such a personal relationship with books and their stories and the process of writing them. Sometimes it's hard to separate the writer in me from the reader in me and, sometimes, when I'm disappointed in my writing life a book is the last thing I want to see.

Because sometimes a book is like a taunt. Why aren't my stories like this? Why isn't my writing this good? What am I doing wrong that they're doing right? How can I possibly appreciate a story this great in the frustrated state I'm in?


Unlike some writers who for a long time didn't realize writing was a real career choice, didn't really imagine people sitting down and writing the books they so loved, I always did. Somebody wrote Little Women. Somebody wrote Betsy-Tacy, and Tib. Somebody wrote Amelia Bedelia and Curious George. I always wanted to grow up and be that person, but the problem with this is that sometimes it's no good to think about the writer behind the book. Because that writer is a person and I have a bad tendency to compare myself to other people, to use their success to shoot myself down.

It's something I'm working on, this jealousy or insecurity or whatever you want to call it. Because the day I can't enjoy an incredible story because I'm too hung up on my own issues? That's the day reading, writing -- stories themselves -- start to become a chore. And when that becomes a chore, I'm done for. So that's why I haven't been reading much lately: because I can't read if my own inadequate feelings are clouding someone else's story.

But I'm back now and you didn't even know I was gone, probably. Also, guess what? I'm totally enjoying the book I'm reading. 


*Note that: today is supposed to be the introductions day for Armchair BEA, but I have a final this morning and already wrote this post so you get what you get and maybe (maybe) I'll do an intro post a bit later.

Why I Write:

Because I love it.

*Sometimes it is so, so, so important to remember that. Because it is so easy to give up and it is so easy to feel crushed and it is so easy to imagine that nothing will ever be good enough and I will forever be the only one who knows these stories and characters and worlds that exist in my mind.

Visual Inspiration - WIP, Piper

I absolutely love Steph Bowe's Visual Inspiration meme. All of her pictures are so beautiful and this week I decided to join in. The honest "inspiration" I use is always music and very very rarely visual, but I do tend to save a lot of lovely images on both tumblr and weheartit and this week I'm bringing together a few that are representative of my WIP. For those who don't know, my current WIP is a story of two sisters and right now I'm working on the older sister (Piper's) story, so all of these images remind me of her and her story. The images are from tumblr and weheartit, so I have no idea where they originally came from but if anybody knows, feel free to let me know so I can add real credits. In any case, I definitely didn't take them.

Alright, so the sisters in my story (a) are definitely blondes and (b) definitely don't live by the ocean. But the feeling of this picture fits so perfectly.

Honestly I find it incredibly difficult to find pictures that give an idea of my stories (all of them, but this one especially). Many of the pictures I find on tumblr and weheartit are beautiful, no doubt, but they also have a very vintage/hipster/punk vibe which is so not anything like my stories. But I've wanted to take a cue from Steph and do a "visual inspiration" post for ages now. Hopefully soon I'll do an "audio inspiration" post so you can see (hear) some of my real inspiration.

YEAH!

EDITING EDITING YEAH!

EDITING EDITING YEAH!*

*This, of course, must be sung to the tune of Friday. SORRY SO SORRY.

Writing - It's A Process

(via weheartit.)

I'm on draft 3* of the sister story and things are, maybe, starting to come together. I mean, don't get me wrong, for the most part it still feels like a first draft in how totally lost I am and how I feel like I'm walking further and further into a dark tunnel just hoping that there'll be a light at the end but I'm starting to suspect it's not a tunnel at all but instead a dark and scary cave! Full of monsters! This is how it feels sometimes. But other times I think maybe I see a flicker of light and things are going to come together after all.

It's a process. I have to remind myself of this every day, multiple times. It's a process, and even though today I might not have any idea what I'm doing and why is this scene sooo horrible? really this scene is a stepping stool. Every word -- even the horrible ones that I delete the next day -- are part of the process, helping me to focus in on what the story really is and realize what matters v. what doesn't matter.

It's a process has become my writing mantra. I continually have to remind myself that every word is one word closer to something pretty and shiny, a story I'll want an agent for, a story I'd be proud to have on the shelves. A story I desperately want to be on the shelves, that I want people to buy and read and recommend. The story isn't there yet. But it's getting there.

So I ask you, what is your writing mantra/motto? Do you have one?

*Technically draft 4. More technically draft 2 and 2 halves (not 3). It's super-confusing, I know.

What I Write

(via weheartit)

I write contemporary/realistic YA fiction.

Under that umbrella, I write books about girls and and family and secrets and sadness and happiness and love and hope and home and drinking coffee and riding in cars and standing on the outside of a party. I write about things falling apart and things clicking into place. I probably use the word "and" more than I should.

I try to write about spies.

Someday hopefully I'll write about robots. Spaceships.

Mostly I write about small places instead of big ones and I don't know if this is because I know small places better or I'm more comfortable with them of if I just like writing about them. Maybe all three.

And as much as I write about family (which is always a lot), my stories aren't about family, but about one particular relationship in a family. Sisters, cousins, siblings. Writing about an extended family as a whole would be complicated and messy and as much as I'd love to do it I'd want the family to be insanely messy and interesting and complicated and quite possibly crazy. But I can't ever come up with a family that beats my own real-life family in all of those categories and I probably won't ever be able to.

The secrets I write about aren't earth-shattering, but, as with most of my writing, a bit quieter. They're those secrets my characters are keeping from each other or from themselves, the ones that are buried deep not because they'd cause trouble but because they'd hurt the people these characters love and want to protect.

My stories are often sad, but they always end hopeful if not altogether happy.

If you're a writer of some sort -- what do you write? And as a reader, what sort of stories do you enjoy reading?

Writing - Querytime!?

First things first! A huge thanks to Ella Press for the blog's new look (if you're reading in some sort of feed reader you should definitely click over to see it). I'm totally loving the title font.

Next!

(via weheartit)

So it looks like I'm jumping back into Queryland. Prepare yourselves for Querytime. The query letter has gotten good reactions from the few people I've shown it to and I now have a list of agents to query. I'll definitely be talking about this on Twitter, but I'm not exactly going to chronicle the journey of querying on my blog because, quite frankly, that could get depressing. Or boring. OR BOTH!!

But I am excited. It's been a long time since I've queried and I think I'm ready (again) for the waiting and rejections and all that comes along with putting my work out there

Writing: How Do You Pronounce Zooey?

(via weheartit)

I'm doing some rewrites now, for the novel that's told with a dual POV between two sisters. I'm working on one story/perspective at a time and starting with the younger sister's story because hers is the one that really needs the huge overhaul.

I've spent four days working on her story.

I've written and deleted thousands of words.

I have, right now, only 500 words in the new draft. But, I think, they're good words, and that's what's important, right?

Writing is so weird. I have these characters in my head, two sisters just a few years apart. They're imaginary people, but to me they're real and they have all these dreams/fears/desires/problems/stories that they're trying to work through. That I'm trying to write through. One of them is in love and the other is gorgeous. One already feels like she's lost everything and the other isn't sure what there is to lose. One knows exactly who she is and the other has no idea. It's hard to show all of that, to make sure that the people in my mind show up on paper. To make readers, if I ever have any, know these girls as well as I do. I run over things when I'm working on a novel, really working on the big-picture items. Lately I've been thinking a lot about Zooey, this beautiful and insecure character, and trying to make her story click together.

I think about looking in the mirror and not feeling like that person is you. Of not really knowing who you is and kind of, maybe, not wanting it to be who everyone else seems to think it is.

I think about hating a place and loving a place, sometimes at the same time.

I think of growing. Growing too tall for your clothes as a kid, too big for the box that you're put in as you get older. Not fitting the labels you've worn for years. Wanting to bust out of who you used to be or, sometimes, being forced to bust out.

I think about jealousy and envy and hate... all those emotions we like to sweep under the rug. And I think about the insecurity, the wanting something you can't have that lies underneath that.

Like Zooey herself, I'm not quite sure what sort of person she'll be by the end of this. In the last draft she was dealing with a lot of big things that somehow don't fit in the novel now. Her story is narrowing down to a pinpoint, down to just her and who she is and who she wants to be and who she doesn't want to be. Some of these things are easy to know, others are more difficult. 

Rewriting is hard. I have to get rid of all that fun stuff, like the scene where she throws a rock at someone's brand new car and the heirloom glass dish she breaks. That stuff is hard - but necessary - to get rid of, and now I have to replace it. And I'm not quite sure what with. 

I want a crying scene.

A screaming scene.

A fight scene.

And, I can't help it, I want her to throw a rock at someone's car, though at this point there's no real "villain" anymore, which makes things more difficult.

Of course, there are other things I want in her story, too. Quieter scenes, less explosive, because Zooey's not really an explosive person. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

So that's what I'm working on. Character and story and rewriting - all things that take lots of time and thought and I wish I could just hurry up already but I think it's something I should probably take my time on. Quality of words > quantity of words and all that.

Also! How would you pronounce the name Zooey?

Writing: Super-Snazzy New Idea

(via we(heart)it.)

From the results of my oh-so-scientific poll over there on the side, it looks like most of you would be cool with a few writing-related posts here on Ten Cent Notes. So I'm making Mondays my talk-about-writing day, though I might not post on it every week as I really don't want this to turn into a writing blog.

The idea came out of nothing. That's how it happens; I'll be driving (as i was with this one) or eating or talking to someone and then --  boom! Idea. Right there. I keep a list of the ideas in a sticky note on my computer and they range from a thought-out premise to just a few words that shouldn't make any sense at all. Usually I can put the idea up for later. I made it a habit to finish the drafts I start a long time ago, so there's not a lot of leeway to hop around from project to project. Plus, it might sound crazy, but it actually takes a really long time for an idea to sit in my brain long enough to actually be ready to write. Sometimes this is only a week or so and sometimes - usually - it's much longer. Months. Years. 

So I made a little note to myself about this idea and went tralalala over to work on my current WIP (work-in-progress), Apollo.

Except that this idea will not go away. The main character refuses to shut up, the first line is just sitting there and it is so good. I can't stop thinking about it. I've gone looking for visual inspiration on we heart it, I've heard songs playing and thought that completely fits this story! Except, it's not a story. It's only an idea and the logical, rational side of my brain knows this. It is a premise, a first line, an imaginary protagonist that I want to be best friends with. (And yes, I fully realize that all protags are imaginary. But I mean even more imaginary. Like, she doesn't even have a name yet.)

I want to work on Apollo, I really do. But this idea has just swooped in like SUPERMAN TO THE RESCUE!! and will not leave me be. I don't know how to get rid of it. I like it so much I'm starting to hate it for distracting me. And I can't get rid of it which means I don't know what to do. I have to finish this draft of Apollo before I work on anything else. So I'm thinking of making the new idea (which really needs a working title) my new side project. Although making it a side project means that it won't be given the forethought and (most likely) editing that my main projects get. So I have a DECISION TO MAKE.

Anyway. If anyone knows a good way to kill an idea or at better yet, cryogenically freeze it for the future, let me know. Also, fellow writers -- what do you do when hit with a shockingly good idea that just won't leave? Do you abandon your current project? Save it? Write both at the same time? Go insane?