Hijacked NaNo

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

Anyone ever had this happen? I had a perfectly viable plot and we had the notes for it. We had written over 3000 words of it and I even posted my first excerpt here.

Something else came along and we wrote over 11K words on it in ONE DAY. Furthermore, the something which triggered the writing jag shows no signs of drying up. While we're really attached to what we were doing, we're wondering if we shouldn't allow the thing to derail and follow the hijacked novel wherever it leads. It's not even the same genre, world, setting, or characters.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Caffeine?

Comments

[kallaneboi.livejournal.com]

Just roll with it. If it's working, great! Don't worry about it. Sometimes those spur of the moment ideas are the ones with the most force, even though you've got something else you've worked on for months.

[litlebanana.livejournal.com]

Who's "we"?

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm half of a writing team. Our stuff is typically 100K words because we follow the strict rules of NaNo. It's a shared thing and we pass the writing back and forth over Google Documents or IM until it's done.

[arwensouth.livejournal.com]

My advice: You've begun to refer to yourself in the plural. Get help. :)

Seriousl:? It sounds like you're far more passionate about this new idea. Follow your passion.

Besides ... If you can write 11K on this new project in the next four days, you'll be over 50K. Then you can switch back to the other one and win with it, too.

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention, it's an actual 'we'. A friend and I dream up a mutual idea and follow it, each writing 50K words, to get the project done. We switch back and forth in IM or through Google Documents so we have continuity and can see each other's work.

But I probably do need help when the husband comes in to help me to bed and I'm stirring the remains of my coffee with a pen and staring into space while muttering, "No plot? No problem!"

[arwensouth.livejournal.com]

Okay, that makes much more sense now. I won't worry about you *quite* as much. ;)

I still say follow your passion, and it sounds like you are more passionate about the new story. At the rate you're going, you'll still finish in plenty of time...

[jaeliyah.livejournal.com]

I think Meg Cabot talked about it in her pep talk last year.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3138144

But obv, it's your decision.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Follow the madness. It's nano, after all. :-)

[syrensix.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the new thing might be the thing that works.
You can always come back to the old thing later, after Nano, and hit it to win it then. ;)

[hendrikboom.livejournal.com]

What happened to you is what writers are always hoping will happen. Follow it. See where the muse leads you. Ignore your plans. Ignore your outline. Outlines are crutches to hold you up when the muse isn't around.