What's the big idea?

Barely a day after writing about the perils of multitasking, I've come up with a whole new way to keep my brain busy.
While promoting one book, preparing another for publication in a few months and continuing the writing of a third – that third book having nudged its way onto the keyboard ahead of a completely different work in progress – what would any sensible writer do?
Of course! Come up with another idea so exciting, so – if you'll excuse the pun – novel it suddenly takes up every remaining corner of my brain space!
That's precisely what's happened today. The idea came out of nowhere during a chat with my wife, Beth (you'll find Beth namechecked in the dedication at the start of 'How Soon Is Now?' and, when February 14 comes, in 'End of a Century', too).
It was an idea that made me laugh as soon as it arrived, then laugh even more as my imagination started piling more detail onto a ridiculous way to wreak mischief and havoc on a familiar genre.
'Surely this has been done before, though?' I asked myself. 'I must've stolen this from somewhere.'
Apparently not. If it's been done, I can't find any trace of it, so it's all mine now.
I wish I could tell you what the idea is, because it's still making me grin every time I think of the fun I can have putting it together. In fact, as soon as I had the idea, I sat down and wrote a quick-and-dirty synopsis of the potential plot, and it all works.
This is precisely how 'End of a Century' came together – the idea arrived in a flash, and I wrote a synopsis which stayed pretty firm throughout the writing of the whole book (although there were quite a few drafts to shore up the character motivations etc, and one character dropped out of the sky and demanded to be given a bigger role – but you'll meet Roy in February, so I won't go on about him too much here).
Anyway, the point is this: The beauty of being a self-employed (and self-published) author is that, when an idea like this presents itself, I'm free to follow it wherever it takes me, even if it means hitting 'pause' on a few other ideas in the meantime. Don't worry – those ones will appear, in time, and will almost certainly be all the better for the extra time resting and improving at the back of my subconscious.
At least the way I work, there are two kinds of ideas: The ones that arrive suddenly, unannounced and fully formed, and the ones that stroll at their own pace from somewhere deep in the bits of the brain that whirr away while all the other work's getting done. Those ones are like bread dough in a dark, warm cupboard.
Once the real business of writing gets going, both kinds contribute more or less equally.
There's going to be a lot of work – and lots of new ideas, big and small, between now and the time I can finally reveal everything about this new book idea, but that's okay. In fact, it's a relief. After pouring so much into 'How Soon Is Now?' and 'End of a Century', there was a period when I wondered how both of them had ever happened, where all those ideas came from and if I'd ever have any new ideas again.
At least that's one worry I can put aside – at least until the next three books are finished.
Comments