The Beauty of the Back Burner

Photo by didbygraham on Flickr. Creative Commons License.

I love back burner stories. Oh, do I love them! Sometimes when you're sloughing through a difficult part in your WIP, a back burner story is just the thing to revive your muse and get you excited about writing together again. There's just something so delicious and decadent about slipping over and opening a file you're not supposed to, or daydream about characters you're supposed to be keeping in the closet.

It's like having your dessert before dinner.

Now let me get  the story straight: I've learned that for me personally, I need to work on just one project at a time. Have to, have to, have to. Otherwise I get an attack of plot bunnies and nothing ever gets done. (How much gets done when I am working on just one story is neither here nor there.)

A good back burner story is more than just a battery-recharger, though... it can also be GREAT inspiration. Because if you're mega excited about the thing you get to write NEXT, it can be big inspiration to actually get there, too!

So don't feel bad if you cheat on your WIP with your back burner story every once in a while... it may be just the thing you need to keep you motivated! At least, that's my opinion. ;)

Do you have a back burner story? How do you deal with it?

Lisa Asanuma graduated with a Literature degree from the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara. She has worked as a freelance writer and as an editor for Drollerie Press, and she is the co-founder of Type Set, Inc, an editing and formatting service. She’s currently working on a YA fantasy novel, but in the meantime she publishes a new short story for free every other Friday at Tales From the Hollow Tree, a fiction blog she shares with author Isabelle Santiago.

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