Sexy Other Book Syndrome

You’ve been at your manuscript for months, maybe even years. Every day when you open the document a new blank page stares back at you, petulant and demanding attention. After all you've done for it, this manuscript won’t cut you the least bit of slack and write some of itself! Your book is needy and you are tired of it. But you are not without ideas.  You are inspired, but in all the wrong ways: you have fallen for another book.

If this describes your situation, you may be suffering from a debilitating and absolutely 100% real condition known as “Sexy Other Book Syndrome.”

Pictured: a journal for every project I've
started since 2005. And some good books.

You may be feeling guilty. You may doubt your ability to finish anything worthwhile. So what can you do when the daydreams that fog up your mind and cause you to tread on the heels of fellow pedestrians have nothing to do with your work-in-progress? Should you:

a)  Abandon your WIP because, let’s face it, it’s dumb and this new idea is much better.

or

b)  Uninstall your word processor and wait out the slow, withering demise of your creative impulses. After all, if you don’t care, you won’t worry.

Give up? Neither! You are a capricious creature, addicted to beginnings. Your “grass is greener” view of new endeavors borders on chronic, and logic dictates that at some nascent stage every book you’ve ever started has seemed as sexy as this one does now. As for the second option… come on. You will never stop thinking about stories; surrender would be futile.

Instead, consider some of these patented strategies to help you keep Sexy Other Book Syndrome in check and finish what you start. (Disclaimer: the following tips target a specific set of symptoms. If you are suffering from similarly named but unrelated conditions like Sexy Other Job Syndrome or Sexy Other Person Syndrome, seek actual help.)

Write new ideas down for later

Say you don't want to delay your new story for the indefinite length of time it takes to finish your WIP. I personally find writing more enjoyable if I commit ideas to text within the day, or moment, that they occur to me. Why put a project off when half the fun is in losing yourself to spontaneous inspiration?

Simply put, saving your ideas for the right time is an act of discipline. If you find yourself completely taken by new ideas, write them down for later. Keep a list in a journal or Word doc. While you're at it, add a little flesh to the bones of your new ideas through freewriting, the act of continuous, stream-of-consciousness writing with no regard for grammar or form. Freewriting is a good way to explore  whether ideas have any legs to stand on. What you write doesn't have to be good, and it likely won't make sense, but you'll probably find some gems amid the rubble a few weeks or months down the road. This approach can be a particular boon to outliners, who like to know what they're getting into before they start a draft. With any luck, you'll be able to hit the ground running when you've completed your WIP and are free to embark on that Sexy Other Book.

Don't devote too much time to this, of course, as it will quickly eat into the time your WIP deserves. Consider enforcing a strict policy that every one hour or X-thousand words you add to your WIP earns you an hour of freewriting time. 

Indulge in some short fiction

Maybe you can sense a seed of a story budding in your brain, but you suspect it won't develop into a novel-length work. Since short works are easy to initially churn out in a couple of days, perhaps it's best to just write it! Commit yourself to finishing it quickly so your WIP doesn't lose too much momentum (or begin to feel jealous, neglected, vengeful, etc.). The precise art of crafting short fiction may even hone your writing and benefit your WIP.

Besides. You're probably knee-deep in a manuscript that aims to reach 50,000+ words. What's a 2,000-word detour in the grand scheme of things?

Look at the big picture

When you're really desperate, you can probably think of half a dozen reasons to just chuck your WIP out the window: it's not turning out like you'd hoped; the premise is lame; the writing is terrible; it's a veritable spaghetti junction of incomplete plot threads and mismatched character motivations that even you can't keep track of. 

Resist the urge to quit! Published authors often talk about their early books, which they've confined to a chest under the bed, never to see the light of day. Not once have I heard them call these books mistakes. Everyone has written crap at some point, but only tenacious writers get to stamp "THE END" in big bold letters at the end of their failed attempts. If you're anything like me, "finishing" may be an achievement sorely missing from your repertoire. Your WIP is worth committing to, if solely because you owe it to yourself to finish something. Do whatever it takes. Plug yourself in to Write or Die during your lunch break. Write on your phone while you're waiting in queues. Recruit loved ones to hold you to your promise of completion; guilt is equally powerful when used for good instead of self-harmy evil.

If you've ever wanted to abandon ship, or found yourself completely out of love with a project you once raved about, you're not alone. Other writers have addressed this urge to jump between projects in one way or another. There's a brilliant article over at Writer's Digest on what to do with too many ideas (Too Many Ideas Syndrome). Here's Joe Bunting's take on making writing fun again, over at The Write Practice. There's more than enough encouragement out there for all of us. 

Something about your book must have inspired you once, or else you wouldn't have started it. It falls to you to find that "something" again.

I hope you've found this thinly-veiled cathartic rant helpful. From one writer to another, good luck and don't give up!