Writing is like a garden
You slave over your words, trying to make them perfect, hoping to develop something beautiful. The task is difficult and time consuming, especially if you're cursed with the dratted day job syndrome. In the end, a finished manuscript is as satisfying as sitting down to a meal of your own produce or cutting a vase full of flowers from your garden.
However, distractions are as inevitable as they are unwelcome. Even worse when the distraction is of your own making.
That's what I call a plot bunny. In the middle of what you know will be the Next Great American Novel, you're pounding away at the keyboard on the perfect story. Move over, Nora! Maybe you are in the last throes of a deadline or just in the middle of a creative burst of growth. And then a plot bunny bounces through the room.
Hop, hop, hop
Nice bunny. Cute bunny. Insidious little critters, plot bunnies can show up in many ways-an errant comment from your significant other, an overheard line on the television or just a thought generated by your current work. How they show up is neither here nor there.
Plot Bunnnies demand attention
And they should get it! As a writer, you know what I mean. Maybe you call it the "Muse", maybe the "voices in your head" or maybe another term equally strange to non-writers. Whatever the name, you must catch the bunny and keep it safe.
Make notes
On anything handy and savor the opportunity. File it away to be reviewed when you're done with the current project. Writing is hard work but coming up with new plot ideas is sometimes the most difficult part. Don't let the little varmint get away!
And, who knows, maybe that fuzzy little plot bunny is the beginning of the Next Next Great American Novel.
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Visit Shayla Kersten at http://www.shaylakersten.com.
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