Writing Procrastination via New Writing Projects

[bcomet]

When I stall out or need more germination time on a current project, I find that all these other writing projects just pour out of me trying to get my attention!
While procrastinating or resting a project, I can complete an amazing amount of writing.
Does this happen to you?
I would love to hear about your various experiences.

[notw]

I find that for me it happens all the time. :-P What I tend to do is write down whatever came to mind so I won’t forget and after that I try to get back to my original project.

[charlotte49ers]

Heck yes!!

It helps me to write the first chapter of each new idea that comes and then I can go back to the original kind of refreshed.

[poptart]

I'm starting to wonder if this is the natural way of things. We're not meant to be fixated on one thing for long - a lot of story development is unconscious and doesn't work to our timetables. I've often gone back to a discarded project and had new insights about it, not to mention waking up with a brilliant idea for something when I wasn't even thinking about it. Sometimes the conscious mind needs to be distracted so the unconscious can work on it.

[r louis scott]

I suppose that it isn't so much procrastination as it is a desire not to waste what limited writing time I have. I'm no good at using 15 minutes here or fifteen minutes there to write or edit. I need that first 15 minutes just to figure out where I left off, so I am NOT going to waste my hour or two by playing solitaire.

If I have my wip open and just can't get moving, I do one of two things:

*Play in The Sandbox. For each of my novel length projects I have the chapters neatly arranged in a folder. Down at the very bottom of the list is a document called The Sandbox. I play with ideas or conversations between characters here. Sometimes they evolve into something that will find its way into the book but most times not, but it is a nice way to get to know your characters better. One night I found out that my protagonist knew how to build a ballista. I had no idea that he possessed such knowledge.

*Open another project and see if I have things to add. It's funny how reading something again eight months later suddenly causes synapses to click. I had a short story languish for months because I wasn't sure how to end it, but one night it all came to me and it has become a favorite among my readers.

[J. T. SHEA]

I work on more than one novel at a time. I'm a slow writer and have enough projects for several lifetimes!