I’m stuck between two equally appealing choices. Do I stick with the first draft I’m working on that has finally, after 18 tricky chapters, begun to gather speed and a life of it’s own, or do I set that aside for two or three months and go back to begin rewriting a completed first draft, which I’ve rashly announced will be available to the public by the end of September?
This is not normally a problem for me as I don’t usually work on two books at once. But this year I’ve had more time for writing and things have got a bit out of hand. I remember years ago, a writer who wrote two distinctly different series under different names (who was that woman?) used to have two desks, one for each author/series. She would ‘become’ the appropriate writer, according to which desk she sat down at. She used the different physical spaces to inform her creative ability. So does this mean I need a second desk? I don’t know if I’m the right sort of writer to do that. I mean, it might work for some of the time, those days when I woke up and I just knew who I was. But most of the time it just wouldn’t work for me. If I had two desks, I absolutely know I would end up writing somewhere else completely, because I hate making decisions, i often find it paralysingly difficult to make a decision between two choices. Maybe it’s because as a Libran I can see both sides of the argument, I’m a pros and cons kind of gal. The problem with seeing two sides to things is that you never actually get anything done. Like a rabbit caught in the headlights, you are trapped between two choices. What I need is for someone to tell me, this is what you’ve got to do. But then, sometimes, that little rebel in me says to itself, “well, I’m not going to!”
In the end, what happens is that my inner editor pounds the desk (any desk) in frustration and shouts, “just pick one, dammit!” and so I do, and I get on with it, all the time glancing back over my shoulder and wondering if the other story is greener. I haven’t got to that stage with this current dilemma yet. Still got another couple of days of paper shuffling and doubt before that happens.