Last night before I went to bed, I came up with another idea for a short story. It didn’t involve black dog spirits, but it did strike me as an interesting idea, so I got out a sticky note, wrote it down, and tacked it to the tackboard above my desk. The idea was someone who had an unusual addiction (I’m not going to say what this addiction is, for obvious reasons) and what happened to him when he tried to get clean (again, I’m not going to say what happens to him, just to be mysterious). I considered saving it for my creative writing class next semester, where the teacher has a bigger emphasis on literary fiction than my previous teacher, but I felt this story would be better written with some dark, supernatural elements, and besides, I wouldn’t know how to make the conflict interesting if it was just getting over his addiction (there’s enough stories out there, real and otherwise, that are like that).
This makes fourteen stories if you include the black dog idea that’s still forming in the mess that is my head. And yet with my school and work schedules and trying to write Snake in a timely manner (I started Chapter 68 last night), it’s difficult to find time to write them. I probably won’t even consider starting one of these stories until after I finish the first draft of Snake. So until then, I’ll just have to keep them on the tackboard till then.
But after Snake is finished? Well maybe I’ll do some short story writing. It’ll be fun and good practice for me. And who knows? I could get some of them published in magazines, or I could create a short story collection and put it online as an e-book for $1.99. I really won’t know until I start writing.
Until then, I’ll keep collecting ideas as they come to me. When Snake is done, I’ll have plenty of work to keep me occupied until Reborn City is published and I’m ready to tackle its sequel and editing Snake. And keeping busy is a good thing in my book.
Rami Ungar The Writer 
Oi, don’t I know what you mean! It’s okay, just jot them down and if they’re worth anything to ya, you can always come back to them.
That’s the plan. Thanks Matt!
Ideas stick around forever, especially if you like them enough and write them down. You could always try and write them paragraph by paragraph in your spare seconds 😉
nah, i prefer to just write them down when i have time to focus on them, but thanks for the advice. and thanks for commenting as well.
I find they only stick around if you write them down. You are doing that. I often do the same thing. Often the idea tells me when it is ready.
I like that: “the idea tells me when it is ready.” gives the idea a form of life, which is something we want to give a story in the reader’s mind.