Careless Whisperers

I have several works-in-progress. Oh, would that other stories would stop insisting on telling me more of their own people and plots and let me finish one at a time!

Do you have that problem?

I will get up a full head of steam, ready to tackle one story  and am determined to finish it when there, while I am doing something else, (housework, paperwork, in the shower), another one of my stories often says, “Listen, you know that part when whatshername finds the thing? It was because when you wrote that the guy said he was going there, she knew he had it.”  Perhaps: “Hey, the girl in the other story can’t have the name you gave her because the meaning we need is…”  Or I see/ hear something and hear: “This is like that part of the story of the man with the talent; if you phrase what he says to his assistant like this,  then…”.Then there’s the, “Hey, the stories you and TJ  put together and figured out about Uncle Whatsits’ the trouble is quite a story.  You could use it to make quite a read. You need to write it…now.”

Episodes like that.

 

I make notes when I can, but while I am otherwise occupied those scenes play out, scenes that have nothing at all to do with the story that needs to be fleshed out, finished, or edited.

Then I get caught up in the plots and dialogues of the other works.

I can work on just one piece. I can be dedicated, totally immersed in one story… when patootie is in chair and fingers are on keyboard.

However, when they aren’t, I have intruders.

 

I hate to shut them out, because they are quite often very inspired additions to the other stories.

But they can be pests.

I wish they’d take turns.

I wish I had a one of these in my head:

 

Do your stories bother you when you aren’t planning on giving them attention?