I always joke about having adult ADHD (and for people who have it, it is no joke) but there is a part of me that seems to have a hard time focusing on just one project. I prefer to think of it as, if I’m blocked in one novel I can go to another novel and work on that one instead. So, there is no blockage, just that I needed to switch gears. Sometimes it is easier to work on a part of my memoir and other times I just want to create a story and see where it goes.
With that said, I am working on several books at once and have had a lot of inspiration to get each one moving forward. In one novel, Jim mentioned something, I cannot remember what it was, but I interpreted it in another way and went with that. I am moving forward with that novel and I like the way it is working out. Of course, my memoir is from the difficult time I had when I was in college, leaving my husband, with my father dying all at the same time. Another novel that I’m am currently finishing up is about people I worked with when I was 18 years old, just out of high school. There were so many memorable events that happened around these people that I knew I had to immortalize them and their memories.
Sometimes an idea comes to me on those nights when I just cannot sleep. A thought, an idea, or maybe even the result of hypnagogia. If it seems to be something that I could create a novel from, I jot it down. Fortunately I have a pen with a light and a pad of paper always at my bedside.