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Joined: 4/29/2011
Posts: 26
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Yeah, I totally just made up that name to describe the problem.
I think we've all suffered from it. You're plugging away at your book, and suddenly you get a brilliant idea for a completely different novel. I've read repeatedly from multiple sources to resist this urge. If you stop work on your current project and leap to the shiny new idea, well, you'll eventually end up with a heaping pile of half-finished novels.
So, I know it's not a good idea to abandon the present project for the new one. That's not the question: how do you cope with it?
It's eating me alive. I'm faithfully sticking to my present work, but all I can think about is my other setting. I can't get it out of my head. I tried spending a little time just fleshing out the new idea, and writing a few setting documents in hopes of getting it out of my system, and the impulse to work on it is even stronger.
So, yeah. How do you cope with this? Any solutions?
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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Rachel. As a lifelong procrastinator with no work ethic, I can tell you what 'Greener Pasture Syndrome' (an excellent coinage by the way) means for me. Usually what it means is that I'm bored and frustrated with the first idea and I don't want to do the heavy lifting of breaking through into new territory. Because I can picture it, somewhere down the road, maybe just in the next chapter. Wow, it'll great when I get there. The ground is soft and fresh, not like the hard-baked, rocky, unyielding earth I'm working on over here. Yeah, Greener Pasture Syndrome can occur even within the book that's currently kicking your ass.
So, solutions. Here we get into theory. In theory, there's nothing wrong with taking a break and working on something else. It might be just the ticket. Obviously, if you keep traipsing from unfinished novel to unfinished novel, then that's a problem.
Theoretically, I think I would allow myself to spend half my time working on that shiny new idea, but only if I spend the other half chipping away at the oldster. Above all, generate words. Make your only goal be to get to the end. Finishing a rough draft – even if it's full of holes and keel needs new planks and the sails are torn and the spars are all broken – can be a real source of inspiration.
I guess the same thing would apply if I were stuck in an uninspiring rewrite, though that would worry me a little more. But if I was still convinced about the soundness of my basic idea, then I would keep slogging away, setting little, manageable goals each day.
That's what I would do. In theory. In fact? Who knows. Probably I'd goof around a lot, looking for interesting Book Country discussions to participate in.
Cheers.
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Joined: 4/30/2011
Posts: 662
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I see your problem, except mine is a whole heap of notes for short stories just begging to be written. Right now I'm forcing myself to get these 12 chapters I'm tacking onto my novel so that I can get to the edits needed on the 20 chapters already posted up here on BC. I want to finish my novel so badly, yet I have a finished short that needs to be typed up and revised; a military SF I want to start involving an android; and two contemporary fantasies, one involving fairies that live in a bowling alley, and the other that involves a person with porphyria and a vampire investigating donor bank robberies, both are meant to be comedies. Then there is the fact that I'm still working on the chapters that will become the sequel to my current novel WIP. So yes, I know what you are talking about.
How do I cope? I think of my mother. She always asks me, "When are you going to be done?" Into this I read, "It's taken you 9 years, submit something!" This motivates me enough to get just one thing done before I move on. I'm already so close I can taste the day when I finally can say that I have finished it (to a point where I'm happy with it, of course). I've been getting so much outside pressure to finish from people that my husband tells as well. So, get others to motivate you. That is the only reason why I finish anything.
Then there are moments where my uncle says that he would like to see a short story anthology from me. Considering how well my typewriter friend is doing with his self published anthology, I may just have to try it, but novel first.
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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Well, if you take one look at my profile, you'll see that I'm intimately familiar with the Greener Pastures. For me, the trick is to go back and look at the world you're already working on. Remember the reasons why you wanted to tell this story. It's normally a good enough incentive to get me back to telling it properly.
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 608
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Thumbs-up on the coinage "greener pastures writing syndrome". (Hereafter simply referred to as GPWS, heh!) We all know what you're talking about. However, we all deal with it differently. Whatever works, eh?
As for me, I suspect you're not working on enough projects. Here's what I mean: If I find myself growing restless with a current writing project, I'll stop work on it and move to another. At any one time I may have 4-8 writing projects underway: 2-4 short stories, a couple of novels, a poem, an essay or two. Madness, right?
Not for me. Because invariably, when I've stopped working on one project to turn to another the writing has been hotter and leaner, meaner and more meaningful, over there--where the inspiration is. So I go over there and scratch that itch.
I never work on more than 12 projects at a time, however. There is a limit. But I also allow myself to drop one of the twelve projects if I'm dead in the water on it for an extended length of time.
The drawback to working like this is obvious: It will take you much, much longer to finish anything.
But there is also an upside: I can honestly say that more time, rather than less, has always helped me write a better story. Plot twists, deeper characterization, richer thematic elements and cross-associations, improved writing mechanics: all are stronger and better with more time put into the project. Because here's the thing: as you continue to read, think (consciously and unconsciously) about your work and discuss it with others, the work deepens and becomes more interesting. You'll run across things in your reading that might throw additional light and cross-references on your own project. Inspiration on how to improve the story might strike at any time. Some particularly apt or helpful criticism from an astute reader (Book Country to the rescue!) may help you improve your story.
Again, this way of working will slow you down considerably. If speed and efficiency are your primary goals this is a writing discipline 180-degrees from that. But it is a discipline, nevertheless: a way of turning out the best story you can, after having given the various elements in it sufficient time to bake.
Good luck! And ignore this terrible advice if speed, efficiency and writing on a deadline are what you're after.
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Joined: 4/29/2011
Posts: 26
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These are all excellent points. At the moment my sole project has been Elven Soul. It's the only thing I've been working on for more months than I care to mention here. I already finished the first rough (omfg is it rough) draft, and I've set myself the deadline of finishing all revisions (second draft, third, fourth, etc.) by this summer so that I can finally start querying.
Honestly, the publishing world isn't going anywhere though. It isn't going to mysteriously vanish in a puff of sparkles and mysterious ninja smoke before the end of summer. I'm going to keep plugging away at my novel, but I'm going to try and juggle the second one as well now. I spontaneously get moments of inspiration for one or the other all the time, so it might be best to just whittle away at both to help keep me balanced. Not to mention prevent me from Hulking out in fit of frustration and break my beautiful laptop.
Then, instead of having one novel to shop, I'll have two in different genres. Two is better than one, right?
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Joined: 8/21/2011
Posts: 394
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No, Rachel, the publishing world isn't going anywhere. It's evolving, but publishers are still interested in producing books that people want to read.
For me, it always seems to boil down to a question of time - I have so many free hours a day, so how do I want to spend them? Revising the trilogy that I have been working on for more years than I care to enumerate? Writing what could be the first book in a second trilogy based in the same world and featuring many of the same characters? Writing the urban fantasy novel that would span 25 years and that I have completely mapped out in my head? Writing something else altogether? Working on some of the mosaics I've started? Editing some historical essays for a volunteer project I'm involved with? Planning my next tile project? Cleaning something? Poking around on Book Country and seeing what folks have been up to?
Ultimately, I end up working on something - or multiple somethings. I don't feel guilty for flitting from one project to another or spending time reading posts or other writers' works on this site. And I do (usually) accomplish something - even if it's only revising one chapter.
I guess from my perspective, the important thing is not so much which project I'm working on, but that I'm working on something. That I'm doing something inspiring - either editing, writing, reading, painting, grouting (heck, even cleaning can be uplifting if you're listening to the right music!) - something that nurtures the creative part of my being.
I would tell you to start your other project. Don't abandon your current project, but maybe the one calling to you right now is the one you're meant to be working on.
Just keep writing! 
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Joined: 10/20/2011
Posts: 350
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I am certainly guilty of this as well. I am writing "Through the Mists" and "The Wedding Game" simultaneously. However, I didn't really leave "Through the Mists" for greener pastures. I had hit a wall while writing it. Then I got the idea for "The Wedding Game." I started writing it while I had the idea. Fortunately, I got over the wall and can now write both. So now it seems like a race--which one will get finished first?
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Joined: 12/1/2011
Posts: 35
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I typically focus on one major work at a time. However, I do have other projects on the proverbial back-burner which I plan on getting to eventually. I try to avoid those as a rule while I am focusing on the current work, but occasionally I do spend some time tinkering with the outlines, characters, etc for those other pieces.
I have rules though. It starts with I have a daily goal with my current project. If I find myself struggling with my daily goals over a period of a few days, I look to the other things to help get me writing again. And whatever I use to get my pen/fingers moving, it must be in a different genre from the main work in progress. My focus right now is my epic fantasy Renascense of Pure Magic. My back-burner piece is a real-world tale about reincarnation and what it is to be human. Writing in 2 genres helps to keep me from "poaching" ideas from one story to another, and it gives my mind something fresh to work on. Last rule - I only work on the secondary piece for 1 day. That's it. I do not let myself do any more than that, but even that 1 day I find is enough to clear the blockages.
So I guess my answer to GPWS (I am appropriating your acronym Carl) is this: have something else that can help you make sure you write something meaningful every day, but make sure you keep focus on 1 primary work.
Now if you will excuse me, the kettle on my back-burner is whistling.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 244
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For me, I just jot down whatever first came to me that inspired the new story. I leave it there, nebulous and such, while I work on the other stuff that's in progress. If it's a story I'm supposed to tell, it'll capture that spark again when I get back to it.
If it's not a story that grabs me by the throat? I generally find that just writing down the spark is enough to satisfy that itch.
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Joined: 6/28/2011
Posts: 188
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I spent about five years writing my first "real" novel, which was supposed to be the start of a trilogy. By the time I got done with book one, I had greener pastures syndrome so bad that I had no choice. I bottom-drawered that trilogy and jumped into the new project that had been nagging me for the last quarter or so of the book.
The result of succumbing to the syndrome? I found out the greener pasture really was greener. I spent the next six years immersed in four books that turned out to be far superior to the original trilogy I was planning.
I'm currently about five chapters into a new novel, and greener pastures is hitting me pretty hard. Unfortunately, it's not a true greener pastures urge -- it's more like, "Wow, this pasture feels brown. Surely there's a greener one somewhere."
I guess my opinion is, a writer should consider giving in to greener pastures if the pastures genuinely seem to be greener -- if the idea keeps scaffolding itself in the writer's head despite his or her best efforts. Giving in to greener pastures may be an even better idea if the current pasture is a first novel under revision. First novels can benefit a great deal from sitting in a drawer while earning one's stripes on a second novel. The warts and bumps are more obvious after a separation. Additionally, since a second novel is almost certainly going to be better than the first, it may make a better initial submission (assuming the two are distinct projects rather than parts of a series). With the superior second novel as a foot in the door, the drawer novel may sell itself.
I think it's also important to give the current pasture a MacArthur commitment: "I shall return." I'm going to get back to that first trilogy sooner or later. I've reread the existing book, and it's chock-full of fun stuff, though it needs a good bit of work.
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