Head Ache of an Epiphany

[Addison]

Have you ever been so close to the finish line with your WIP when a cool idea fire-cracks in your head? It's good and you want to use it but your work is just soooooooo close to done that you don't want to go back and change it? What the heck do you do?

The idea that's drilling a hole in my head sort of resembles the world in "Dark Lord of Derkholm" and "Year of the Griffin" by Dianna Wynn Jones. They're set in the same world but there are several worlds all connected...somehow. In Derkholm a wizard is asked to play the role of the Dark Lord of Derkholm for the visitors from the other worlds. In Year of the Griffin it takes place at a magic institute and focuses on a band of friends, each from different worlds.

My world has been created. It has races, an economy, something of a government and a system of magic. How the worlds live together on one earth has been sorted out but this multiple worlds thing sounds better. More stable I guess. I'm not talking about Minotaurs come from Mars or Saytrs from Saturn. It's like a web of earths, each one an ecosystem for a majority of races, cultures, habits etc. The center earth is ours (both magic and mortal in harmony). I'm thinking each world corresponds with a historical era: medieval, Gilded/Vitorian age, 1830's (the highpoint of cowboy life and flourishing indians) Others would be for the elements, Fire would house dragons and demons, Water would house naiads and sea serpents etc.

Thoughts? Cures against the epiphany woodpecker?

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

If the idea just seems too good then you have to follow it, even at the expense of work already completed.

That's just my opinion but once it's done it's done, never before. If you choose to ignore this you may regret it later. Of course save a copy of what you have as is, just in case you later decide it wasn't really all that cool.

 

[Addison]

......you sound like the little demon and angel perched on my shoulders. But I understand. Do you think if I draw a map it will help?

 

[Zero Angel]

From the sounds of it, it is possible that your worlds are self-contained and that connection between them are the exception, not the rule?

In my book series, Zero Angel's War of the Ages, I have a multiverse and within different Realms of the multiverse there are frequently more than one planet, but travel between planets is difficult and travel between the Realms themselves requires a vast expenditure of power.

This way I can write entire stories on one of the planets in one of the Realms and either not mention any of the other locations and just know that they are in the backstory and available for future use, or barely touch on the other Realms/planets (for instance as a curiosity or idle chatter).

 

[ShortHair]

If you retool your book every time you get a good idea, you'll never finish it. You have to draw the line somewhere (as Mason said to Dixon). Tell yourself the next great idea will go into the sequel/prequel.

Edit: as always, there are exceptions. If your idea is crucial to the reader's understanding of your world, or main character, or plot, then by all means add it. If it plugs an obvious hole, you really should add it. If you think it's totally cool, ask yourself if it's worth the delay.

 

[Addison]

I know. Some new ideas I've gotten for my current WIP have become different books entirely. Others have become sequels or ghost plots. I'm going to try and draw (my drawing's amateur and seventh grade average at best) this world and see how it goes and where it takes me.

 

[JCFarnham]

What I would do is thus:

1) Type up the idea in detail in a word processor.
2) Date it and save it.
3) Forget about it for a while.
4) Come back work on it, if it "matures" as an idea you've got a keeper and feel free to work it in some how
5) If not, don't try to change your current wip for it
6) I now realise this list would have been better in bullet points rather than numbered.
7) It's getting out of hand.

Yeah.

It's not a bad idea in and of itself but having a multiverse like that means you should probably make mention of it in a book, otherwise it's some mythological "thing" you haven't told anyone about... and that's no good. You're a story teller and should be doing just that