SNIS: Sexy New Idea Syndrome

I thought I'd bring to your attention today a very serious disease that often affects writers right when they're in the middle of a WIP.

SNIS!

a.k.a....Sexy New Idea Syndrome.

It's a very serious disease and potentially more fatal than Writer's Block Syndrome (WBS).

Those at risk for contracting SNIS are:

-writers
-writers who are deep in revisions
-writers who recently discovered a majorly unfixable plot hole
-writers whose characters are no longer speaking to them
-writers whose characters are acting out of character
-writers who just tend to get a lot of ideas
-writers who are writing

So you can see, that pretty much EVERYONE is at risk for contracting SNIS.

Unless of course you're one of those freaks of nature who can work on like 5 books at once, I hate you, go home, then it appears you do not carry the gene that predisposes you to this syndrome. Congratulations, you've beat the system, you can ignore the rest of this post. Whatever!

But for the rest of you...keep reading!


What does SNIS do?

Well, as you can guess, SNIS comes right when you're deeply involved with another WIP, married to it actually. Just when you thought that the idea you were working with was the BEST idea you've ever had, and you fell in love and decided to write the book and had a little promise ceremony where you swore the sacred writing vow:

I, (your name) do take you (working title) to be my WIP. I promise to write you and revise you, to rewrite and edit you, through agent rejections and requests, till publication do us part.

And you went on the honeymoon wrote draft 1 and things were pretty good...

But then....sexy new idea comes slinking around the corner...

"Hiya Big Writer." (wink) Bet you never thought of Space Aliens who fell in love across two rival space ships!

And suddenly, you're listening to the Sexy New Idea.

This new idea is bigger! It's better. It's fresher. More Original! And more importantly...you CANNOT see a single plot hole! ZOMG! (eyes bug out).


The next thing you know, you're thinking about the SNI, you're planning sub plots, naming your future characters together, shopping for titles and before you know it....you've completely forgotten about your original WIP! It's just lying there, helpless in a word document, crying and wondering why you didn't open it up that night to edit.

You've succumbed to SNIS!

Luckily, I have a cure!

Treatment of SNIS:

To rid yourself completely of SNIS, I prescribe that you sit down, open a fresh word document and write out EVERY SINGLE THING you can think of about your SNI. Write until you're all written out. And then...save the document and you can come back to it later when you are finished with your WIP.

SNIs like to sneak up on you and can drag you away from your goal. New ideas always seem easier, because they are devoid of problems. I promise you, they're not--you just haven't seen what they look like first thing in the morning when your writing chapter 5. Not pretty.

But usually, once you've written everything out, you'll have gotten the SNIS out of your system and should be cured. You can return to your WIP and someday down the road, return to your SNI which will no longer be your SNI, but your current WIP. Beware other SNIs that may be lurking.

Exceptions:

Ok so maybe...just maybe your SNI actually is better than your WIP...but only you and the gut feeling in your stomach can tell you the truth about that. If you do decide to break your WIP vows and marry your SNI, make sure it's because it IS really better and not because you wanted something fresh and new and free of plot holes.


Please pass this message along to all who are at risk for contracting SNIS. I myself have survived the syndrome 5 times and once....was overcome by a SNI that was actually better than my WIP (that SNI would be my novel STOLEN--that I'm querying soon--best decision ever).

SNIS is out there and trying to keep writers from finishing and achieving their writing goals, but together, we can lock those SNIs in a word document for later.


(This post was inspired by a comment I started on Kelly Lyman's Blog--thanks for the inspiration)

P.S. For some totally crazy reason, my friend Ella and her blog partner Aaron have decided to do a Q & A session at The Blogger Girlz. Anyone who has hung out around here long enough knows that open Q & A can be like unleashing a floodgate....scary! But she's pretty brave and pretty cool, so if you have a chance go over there and do your worst;) Maybe someone ought to revamp the infamous Harry Potter questions...