No such thing as an idle mind

I’m a glutton for punishment.  I must be.  What’s wrong with me?  It’s definitely ADD, then, if nothing else. 

I find I am most productive when I have a ton of projects working in the background of my mind.  I think it’s the comfort factor of being able to switch gears from one project and spend a moment on a different one for a little while.  After working on something else for a while, going back to the first project is easier–and I feel more fresh and ready to concentrate than before.  That’s the way I’ve always been, really since I was eleven and began planning this massive epic that I’ve been writing since I was eleven.  If I ever hit a block on a project I was currently working on, I’d just switch over to my epic planning for a bit and when I got tired of that, I’d go back to the first project, and I was good. 

I’ve never had trouble until recently–because (quite frankly) that massive epic has finally reached the end of the planning stage.  (Those of you who have been reading it will know how major that is.)  I’m at the point where I can’t add any more depth to the story itself or any more intricate connections or plot developments. 

So I had hit a block the other day on Destiny and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.  Then I thought, I’ll give myself a break and do some more planning on AROL (the previously mentioned massive epic that will likely never see print because it makes the Lord of the Rings look like a children’s picture book).  And I realized something shocking–everything was planned.  All the story parts were condensed.  The plots were outlined.  The characters I needed in each one ready to go when it was time to start working on the next chapter.  It’s all there.  And it freaked me out.  I didn’t have anything to plan on this silly epic series for the first time in upwards of fifteen years! (of course, I may never get them all written, but the idea is there)

So I started wondering, what do I do?  I need another massive-impossibly-intricate-and-complicated-likely-never-to-see-print project to work on when the intense sci-fi-ness of Destiny fries my brain cells.

So what do I do?  Glutton for punishment.  I created another epic storyline, this one actually intending to be epic (since AROL was just an outgrowth of my increasingly weird brain patterns).  Before I knew it, on my fifteen minute break at work, I had three sheets of paper full of ideas–and then later I did some research and filled up a whole bunch of files full of idea material too–and on my break at work this morning I sketched out basic ideas of characters to go with it.  And something pretty amazing happened.  It’s the same thing that happened with AROL, except on a different level.  When I got done working with AROL originally (after I first began planning it) a lot of my plans and outlines had something in common–numbers.  The same numbers kept cropping up.  Nines and eights, mostly.   It freaked me out.

Well, guess what happened with this idea?  Same deal.  But different numbers.  Three.  Twelve.  And Seven.  Over and over and over again.  Seven.  Seven.  Seven.  Granted, I started out examining the Seven Wonders of the world, but I totally didn’t intend to sketch out seven main characters.  It kind of just happened.  And there were other things like that too. So–I thought it was cool.

Now, you fan-club member types, don’t get excited.  I’m still working on AROL (Shadow of a Fallen Angel is maybe a third of the way done), and this storyline (which I’m calling THE NEW EPIC at the moment) isn’t anywhere near the point where I could even consider writing anything on it.  I’ve got to do something with Destiny first. =)

But this just tickled me.  So I thought I’d share.

And if any of you are reading this and you have no idea what I’m talking about, just know I’m in a very peachy mood today and that writing makes me happy.  =)

(PS: Sean looked at me really funny last night when I told him that I was watching both Season 5 and Season 7 of 24 at the same time [ACK!  Another seven reference!] . . . And Ethan just told him that nobody really knew what was rattling around up in my head . . . . . It’s very true.)