The problem with having an active imagination like mine is that if you don’t employ some discipline, it is so very easy to come up with hundreds of story ideas. The time it will take you to note these ideas and plot them basically dissolves any actual writing time. To avoid this kind of problem, I make a brief note of the idea, then let it go. One character or another starts formulating in my head and says that they want to be in such and such a story. Sometimes I also review fragments of ideas and character profiles from the past, and they make sense in the context of the new story idea.

The main thing is that I let the stories develop themselves. My mind will only be occupied with one story idea at a time, but it won’t necessarily be the one I was working on yesterday. Because of this, I must have several ideas on the run, and I’ll work on whichever one is in my head at the moment. This is not a great way to work if you have a deadline for a single novel. However, it does avoid the problem of “second novel syndrome”.

My idealogy is borne out of necessity. Since I cannot work on one project continuously from start to completion, I figure that if I finish three or four novels before I ever sell one, I will have a two or three novel headstart, when one does sell, on finishing the second novel. There’s not as much pressure as if I didn’t have another novel or three ready to go. Someone said it best about novels, or maybe albums. You spend your entire life getting the first one ready, but you only have a year or two to get the next one done. This is not so in my case. I have my entire life to write the first three or four, which gives me ample time to edit books two and onward before they have to be published. This in turn gives me time to plot out several more books for later years.

I find that this method works very well for me. I use the same technique for writing articles, reviews, software and technical documents. However, when the need arises, I can focus on a single project to meet a deadline. But because I hate hard deadlines (although I’m more productive because of them), I like to have a substantial amount of each project on the go. I don’t like to leave things to the last minute (other than physical things like laundry and cleaning the place :) .

- Feb 15/2003

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