catharsis (and a song)

It is SO hard to make Super Shiny Idea go away when it comes around. This monster battles stories in progress for a writer's sparkly attention, and all the attempted ignoring can get to be kind of tedious. And when I say "kind of" I mean "super-extra-holy-kjajkncku."

What do YOU do when an idea catches your attention? Do you stop your current project "just for now" and move on to that freaking idea that JUST WON'T GO AWAY? Or do you keep writing the first story until it comes to its victorious end, knowing there WILL come a time when you can *edit* all of that distracted rubbish you just wrote?

Okay, now I feel better.

And just so this post wasn't completely useless, here's an Inspiration Song, complete with VH1 pop-ups:



You're welcome. Especially for that delightful screen-cap you get before pushing play. So hit play and MAKE IT GO AWAY.

mid-manuscript crisis

I've been tripping over agent submission guidelines and Twitter-Agent discussions lately that say "No more mythology" or "Mythology is WAY PAST done."

This makes me go: :O

Mythology is the basis of my WIP. I haven't read anything YA mirroring my exact premise (or even comprising characters with the same Creature Affiliations), but still. Agents may have. That's worrying. But it's also a great push. I can just go at my word document and my outlines and FINISH the story! The sooner it's finished, the sooner I can make it shiny.

I'm thinking as long as the story grabs the reader, it doesn't matter so much if it's a "trend" topic. But that opens up a whole new set of questions. Which I won't go into, because of that "oh my gosh kafjkblnfjlzx ralxdnjda" face.

Does anyone else have trouble with trends? Do you write what your brain feels the need to write even if the market is saturated with efforts on similar topics? Or do you scrap it or set it aside and write something that you haven't yet heard of? Like, I don't know, Centaur Nymph Ninja Princesses who skip off to save the Loch Ness Satyr Prince from, um. . . Has that been written? Has everything been written? What hasn't been written??

Yep. Did I mention I'm having a mid-manuscript crisis? :)