I almost cheated on my story yesterday.

For those of you that might not know, I enjoy creative writing as a hobby. Ever since I was in high school, I've enjoyed playing with plot lines and creating characters. (I recently went back and read some of the stuff I wrote back then. Wow, I have even more respect for those authors that publish when they are 17 years old...my stuff from back then was BAAAADDD.)

Well, I've been getting back into it lately. Specifically, there is one story that I started in high school, set aside for some of my college years, and picked up again. I'm proud to say that I have about 130 pages of text written, with about 45 pages of future scenes written out. I hope that this doesn't seem boastful; really, one of the reasons I'm blogging about this is that, hopefully, by committing and telling the blogging community about my "novel," I will pressure myself into finally finishing the thing. My dream is to get it published one day. Unfortunately, (since I started it in high school) I'm probably going to go through and rewrite most of the stuff that I wrote in the beginning, so it's a long road ahead of me. After which will come the editing phase, where I will likely adopt a hermit-esque demeanor. Which will be followed by the ever-infamous quest to publication.

Every November is National Novel Writing Month (affectionately known as NaNo WriMo). It is a challenge to anyone and everyone to sit down and write 50,000 words from Nov. 1 to 31. It's followed by NaNo Ed(itting)Mo in March. Since I only just learned about this challenge last November, I haven't ever tried it. I don't think I could, anyway, because that's just not how I operate. Plus, because work really picks up then, I don't think I have quite enough free time in either of those months. Anyhow, I read about a funny concept when I was looking into NaNo EdMo. Someone in the challenge was encouraging others not to "cheat" on their stories. She said it's so easy to become bogged down with your story when you're done writing. It takes a lot of work to go back, rewrite, edit, etc., and that many authors are tempted to cheat on their stories when a new, attractive and exciting idea floats through their head. (Picture an intriguing plot twist dressed in a mini skirt). So your old story starts to lose your interest and eventually falls by the wayside. This woman encouraged all writers to stick by their "old" stories, commit to editing, and see them through to fruition!

Well, yesterday morning I encountered an urge to cheat on my story. I don't know if it was some random inspiration, something I heard on the radio, or some lingering effect of a dream the night before, but a story drifted into my mind and I couldn't ignore it.

But I've made the decision! I'm not going to cheat on my story! I quickly outlined the new idea and then set it aside. Maybe I'll check back on it after I'm done writing my current one. After all, if it really is a good idea, it'll still be good in a year or so.

I'm committed. Hopefully I'll be able to find some free time this week to sit down and get out a few more pages...maybe after watching my weekly Bachelorette episodes