Literary Unfaithfulness

It's an old story.  Just as you're getting comfortable with the idea that the love of your life is indeed your soul mate -- your constant companion 'til death do you part -- someone else catches your eye.  Someone fresh and new and exciting enters your life and begins to draw you away from your forever love.

You tell yourself it's innocent... it's just a friendship.  But this other person is so refreshing, and so much fun to be with, that soon you're smitten.  And suddenly, you're in love with someone you're not married to -- the "other woman," or the "other man."

Neither relationship is going to last, of course.  Your marriage won't survive the new person, and you and the new person will most likely get bored with each another once the new wears off.

This, my friends, is exactly what it feels like when, in the midst of writing a novel, a brand new idea presents itself.  The new idea is so exciting, you feel you have to pursue it right away.  Before you know it, you've spent several days researching your new project -- days which should've been devoted to writing your current novel.

This phenomenon almost always happens to me when I'm deeply involved in a project.  A great deal of the pre-writing "heavy lifting" is done, the writing is going really well, chapters seem to be flying by... and another project suddenly emerges from its hiding place in my mind.

David Mamet says that working on two plays at the same time is like dating two women at once -- neither will receive the attention they deserve, and both relationships will end in disaster.  On the other hand, Ray Bradbury believed the secret to producing as much literature as possible was to work on several projects at once.  Stephen King seems to work this way as well.

I'm going to stay on schedule with my novel -- that's what this blog is all about.

But there is this other exciting project... one that showed up in my imagination just a couple of days ago... a project that seems to be taking up all of my spare time...

I'm still enjoying writing the novel... but I'm really enjoying this new project...

Why am I like this?  Not just with writing projects, but seemingly with everything?

Perhaps Maimonides, the old rabbi, was right:  "He... who begins with Metaphysics, will not only become confused in matters of religion, but will fall into complete infidelity."