As many of you are aware, I started a new manuscript a while back.  And, as you probably are equally aware, I was having difficulty making time to write.  Well, I’ve recently run up against another deadly foe of writers…changing stories.

You see, one of the biggest problems I had previously was that I’d never finish a manuscript.  I’d come up with a really good idea, start working on it like gang-busters (whatever that means), and then. . .   

And then I’d get distracted by another “great” idea. 

I bet I have a couple hundred stories half started on my various computers.

It’s a major problem with most writers.  We’re really good at coming up with characters and storylines and so forth.  Unfortunately, sometimes we distract ourselves away from what we should be writing.

Up until this week, I was working on a story called “Academia.”  It was going to be a fictionalized version of my life in higher education.  I thought it would be funny.  Kind of a satire about academics.

Anyway, I wrote four chapters before I began to get distracted.  I kept thinking about a character (Abby) from my second book, Betrayal in the Highlands, and wondering if she could hold an entire book just by herself.   Sub-plots came to mind.  Supporting characters.  The initial scenes….

And then I found that I was writing about her.  I actually wrote twelve pages today, which is pretty darn good for the first sitting.  And it isn't too bad, if I don’t say so myself!

But I feel really guilty about leaving the other manuscript high and dry.  Unfortunately, I can’t work on two manuscripts at the same time. I’d confuse the voice of the characters.

At any rate, hopefully I can keep with this second manuscript.  Abby and Becky would be fun to write about.  I just have to keep focused!

FOCUSED!  STAY FOCUSED!!

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