Ideas like brain worms

[Rob_Royale]

There was an episode of Who's Line is it Anyway, that guest starred Joe Walsh from the Eagles. The guy was hilarious. He did this thing about brain worms that had me rolling and now when I get a big idea, I think of Joe's brain worms.

Because that's what I'm dealin wth now. A big brain worm of an idea. I'm not saying it's a great idea, but my brain really likes it and I can't shut it down.

It's so weird how some story ideas are like that. Some are cute and you file it away for possible future stories. And it doesn't bother you a bit.

Other's are like "WRITE ME SEYMOUR!" like some gigantic dentist devouring plant in my brain.

And your brain replies with something completely logical. "You have fifeteen stories already in the works!"

And the idea just won't let up! It intrudes in on your day, and you find yourself thinking, "I really should be concentrating on this brain surgery." You even sometimes dream about it.

So finally you scream, "Alright already!" and you sit down at the keyboard and bang out three thousand words at a shot.

From inside your brain the brain worm sighs, "Thanks mate, I'm good now."

I'm sitting at my desk right now, chagrined. Sigh. Sixteen.

Fucking brain worms.

 

[StillStunned]

That sounds very familiar. I've put off work and stayed up far too late just because there's a single scene that's been shouting "write me, write me!"

My series The Rivals all started because I had this vision of a woman warrior playing with herself to lure a sex demon into attacking a rival adventurer.

 

[vagrantx]

I'm sitting at my desk right now, chagrined. Sigh. Sixteen.

Are those sixteen at least intact? I can't seem to keep myself from writing down an idea, realizing it'll amount to nothing, then like Frankenstein I'll splice it apart and stitch pieces of salvageable dialogue onto another story.

The styles get disconnected forcing me to polish the flow back up, but then this new shiny scene is too good for this drivel and I'll splice, stitch, polish, splice, stitch, polish...

I'm not at sixteen stories, but I have a cutting room floor covered with half filled pages.

 

[lovecraft68]

I may have mentioned this before, but seeing it fits the topic...

Writers are visual people, we need to be to see in our minds what we want the reader to see in our stories. I am visual with pretty much everything including how do I pick my next idea.

I'll lay there before I fall asleep, or just wake up, then the mind is more relaxed and fertile and I envision one of those lazy susan dessert trays in my mind. It spins and shows me one idea I've had knocking around, and if I feel "Yeah, maybe..." I go to the next, "Not bad, but I don't know" and I'll do this until I get that click, and "Yes, that's the one."

On occasions when nothing gives me that feeling I don't bother pushing towards one of the meh ideas, I wait because experience has told me the "Aha!" story idea will arrive soon.

 

[Duleigh]

I've put off work and stayed up far too late just because there's a single scene that's been shouting "write me, write me!"

So many of my works are based on a single scene, what's really scary is a couple years later when reviewing my work I recognize the brain worm scene buried among 30k other words and it whispers, "Let's do it again"

 

[Rob_Royale]

Are those sixteen at least intact? I can't seem to keep myself from writing down an idea, realizing it'll amount to nothing, then like Frankenstein I'll splice it apart and stitch pieces of salvageable dialogue onto another story.

The styles get disconnected forcing me to polish the flow back up, but then this new shiny scene is too good for this drivel and I'll splice, stitch, polish, splice, stitch, polish...

I'm not at sixteen stories, but I have a cutting room floor covered with half filled pages.

No. I don't write like that. If I lose interest in a story it goes in a separate file and I pull it out now and again to see if can wake up that particular brain worm. I don't copy/ paste scenes. That way lies madness.

 

[Duleigh]

I have a cutting room floor covered with half filled pages.

Wise you are young padawan. Ideas we must retain. Turn we shall to Duleigh's Demandments and we find:

8. Thou shalt throw nothing away, ideas are forever useful but oft times forgotten

 

[theWriterInTheNude]

It happens all the time, especially when it comes to contest entries. I have an idea I've been working on for months, and suddenly, I swerve into something else. I always promise I'll get back to the old idea, but once I've written the 30 - 40k new idea, I rarely resurrect the old one.

 

[Priscilla_June]

I think lately I have been working to tame my brain worm (crazy we all have this same experience btw) and use whatever scene it wants me to write for a story I already have in the works. It usually deviates from the initial squirming of the worm, but there is such a satisfaction when I find a way to perfectly fit it into a story I needed to write.

The worm is satiated… for now.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

There was an episode of Who's Line is it Anyway, that guest starred Joe Walsh from the Eagles. The guy was hilarious. He did this thing about brain worms that had me rolling and now when I get a big idea, I think of Joe's brain worms.

Because that's what I'm dealin wth now. A big brain worm of an idea. I'm not saying it's a great idea, but my brain really likes it and I can't shut it down.

It's so weird how some story ideas are like that. Some are cute and you file it away for possible future stories. And it doesn't bother you a bit.

Other's are like "WRITE ME SEYMOUR!" like some gigantic dentist devouring plant in my brain.

And your brain replies with something completely logical. "You have fifeteen stories already in the works!"

And the idea just won't let up! It intrudes in on your day, and you find yourself thinking, "I really should be concentrating on this brain surgery." You even sometimes dream about it.

So finally you scream, "Alright already!" and you sit down at the keyboard and bang out three thousand words at a shot.

From inside your brain the brain worm sighs, "Thanks mate, I'm good now."

I'm sitting at my desk right now, chagrined. Sigh. Sixteen.

Fucking brain worms.

I actually love that. First time it happened to me, I ended up with a 50k+ romance novel.

What I hate though, is my resident brain worm has ADHD. I have probably four dozen works in progress. a few are just random snippets. My BW going, oh, this is a clever idea, wait, no, I gotta go do this thing, I'll see you later...

 

[TheRedChamber]

It's true that some idea percolate away for months and others seem to barge fully formed into your brain before you've even got out of bed in the morning.

In my drafts folder I've currently got 18 small to medium-sized (eg. stories which will probably be something like 3k-20k words) and 4 longer drafts (e.g. heading towards novel-sized). I felt bad about that this time last year and swore to reduce it, but actually, I've come to the realization that it's far better to write down an idea that's bursting to get out than it is to sit there trying to finish something that doesn't want to be finished yet.

The flip side to that, however, is to remind myself that, however great I think my new idea is, I thought the same thing about my old idea X months ago. And a good idea with 4k words already written is better than a good idea with 0 words written.

That seems to have worked in that my small draft file seems to have stablized at around 20 and I go through burst of finishing stuff up before starting new stuff. I just have to get the longer words moving forward reliably as well.

 

[alohadave]

The flip side to that, however, is to remind myself that, however great I think my new idea is, I thought the same thing about my old idea X months ago.

The dopamine rush of something new.

It doesn't what you make or create, it's the same. 40 partially developed stories, or this bright, shiny new one?

the new one is exciting, the old ones are work.

 

[GemmaGemmaGemma]

I feel like each day I come up with something new and spend my morning walk developing it before getting home and opening up a word doc to get some ideas down. Usually character names and ages and a few notes to make sure I don't forget the initial plan I had when I get distracted by the next one. I have stories half written and even more stories that are half baked. I have multi-chapter stories I want to finish, but every day there's something new and exciting and trying to control and balance that is going to be a hell of a challenge!

 

[vagrantx]

That way lies madness.

Oh god, I've come to realize as much I really need to take a course or a class or something. Feels like I'm stumbling through the dark.

 

[Djmac1031]

My brain worms usually attack at night when I'm trying to sleep.

They won't let me, and I find myself having to grab my phone at 2am to at least jot down notes before I can finally drift off.

The upside? Those are usually my best stories.

 

[karina_jayde]

I've been suffering from an erotica brain worm for YEARS.

Specifically the brainworm of wanting to write a POV story from the perspective of the antagonist/one-time lover of my main character from my Duchess of Lust series. A brooding, fierce barbarian king who took part in a gangbang of the MC in the first entry, and sort of had an unusual bond with the MC despite them being on opposing sides.

In fact, that 'worm' of an idea made it hard for me to finish the series, as I struggled to find a way to conclude the series that would still keep him around for potential future installments. Even my other current ideas keep getting derailed by the random ideas that pop into my head for him as a main character.

 

[Rob_Royale]

LOL, I'm now 5k words into this particular brain worm of a story, my first foray into sci-fi, by the way. Big tits and tentacles are the basis for any good story. I'm just about to start a sex scene and realize that I have every scene planned out in my head, but have zero idea how the story ends. Fucking brain worms.

 

[BradSmithson]

I've never felt so seen!

I have this issue in both erotica and mainstream projects. I currently have three fantasy novels in the early stages and I come up with another erotic short every day.

I've learned to write little synopses for everything. I have a file on my desktop currently with about 50 short descriptions for erotic stories to either go into anthologies or to become fully-formed novels.

I don't know whether they'll be long or short until I start writing, then I can usually tell in the first 2K words whether it's going to be a sprint or a marathon.

 

[MyBareTorso]

Brain worms? Mine are like those fucking things in Frank Herbert's Dune!

 

[HordHolm]

There was an episode of Who's Line is it Anyway, that guest starred Joe Walsh from the Eagles. The guy was hilarious. He did this thing about brain worms that had me rolling and now when I get a big idea, I think of Joe's brain worms.

Because that's what I'm dealin wth now. A big brain worm of an idea. I'm not saying it's a great idea, but my brain really likes it and I can't shut it down.

It's so weird how some story ideas are like that. Some are cute and you file it away for possible future stories. And it doesn't bother you a bit.

Other's are like "WRITE ME SEYMOUR!" like some gigantic dentist devouring plant in my brain.

And your brain replies with something completely logical. "You have fifeteen stories already in the works!"

And the idea just won't let up! It intrudes in on your day, and you find yourself thinking, "I really should be concentrating on this brain surgery." You even sometimes dream about it.

So finally you scream, "Alright already!" and you sit down at the keyboard and bang out three thousand words at a shot.

From inside your brain the brain worm sighs, "Thanks mate, I'm good now."

I'm sitting at my desk right now, chagrined. Sigh. Sixteen.

Fucking brain worms.

Just had this over the last week. I am 20k into a Pandaemonium multi-layered story, running along smoothly, and then I hear a throwaway comment a week ago and it's all systems go, nothing else matters, and after seven days of feverish activity I have just submitted a totally different 20k story, a pastiche of Victorian adventure/melodrama. And not only that, I already have most of the plans necessary for a sequel. *Sigh* But with any luck, I may just get back to what I was doing before...

 

[AchtungNight]

Brain worms? Mine are like those fucking things in Frank Herbert's Dune!

Mine too. I have a hot redhead who will have my love as long as I breathe shepherding them without fear.