WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?

When I finished Star Catching earlier this year, I began work on another novel that had been circulating around my brain for some time, tentatively called Lilies of the Valley. I thought once Star Catching went into the publishing process, my head would be ready to move forward with Lilies. And yet….

I still like this story line, but another one has been calling to me, louder by the day. It has no name. It has a concept and set of characters that have been coming into focus, without ever applying a single letter to paper or opening a new document on my computer.

The disciplined side of me says, “Finish what you started before starting on something new.”

I’ve always been a linear thinker and worker. Job A comes before Job B, and followed by Job C, and so on. Call me rigid, but it shakes up my sense of order to do things differently. I feel scattered. Uncommitted.

“But,” says this voice inside me, “if the new story line literally is writing itself in your head, isn’t that a sign that it is bigger than Lilies?” And some corner of my mind, one I usually try to ignore, screams, “YES! Lilies of the Valley isn’t going away. Your research is there. Your concept is there. But it isn’t writing itself! This new idea—face it—needs an outlet, or Lilies will never get finished.”

I’m committed to Lilies on so many levels. It’s a piece of history. It’s real and gritty. It’s personal in some ways.

But the voice of this other book grows louder in my head by the day.

So the question is, should I remain disciplined, true to my nature? Or should I follow the voice in my head and see where it leads?