short story. As you work you suddenly get an inspiration for

Block and outline it in a writer's diary or even in a new word-processor document, so you have the idea to come back to once you've reached a good stopping point with your existing novel.

It's not a bad thing to be inspired to do something new. The danger, in writing at least, is that if you follow your inspirations you could end up never finishing anything, being forever pulled off-task by yet another new idea and eventually losing track of or motivation to finish your original work. This is the reasoning behind the creative diary; anything you're not actively working on or that doesn't fit in your current story can be set down in a scratch-pad format to come back to when you need new ideas.

Another point; your publisher, if/when you get that far, is unlikely to want to initiate the editing/publishing/distribution process on more than one book at a time, and you're not going to want to try to promote two books at once unless there's some sort of overarching glue like a story arch or a storytelling series (and even then you'll want to get one title out there being read before you follow up so you establish a progression for reading them).

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: What is the story structure called when someone doesn't know they have the solution to their problem in hand? Perhaps the "classic" example is Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Early in her journey

: Re: How practical and feasible is it to work on more than one novel / story at one time? Lets say you are working on one novel / short story. As you work you suddenly get an inspiration for

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: For questions about commonly-used storytelling devices, such as character stereotypes, plot devices and other tricks of the trade.

: How to write a character's progression In my story, the character has to learn a certain skill, with a mentor guiding him. I wrote the introduction and explained some principles regarding the

: How do publishers expect authors to use social media to promote their books? I am new to the world of writing, and was initially surprised to read on some publishing advice website (eek) that

: What is the story structure called when someone doesn't know they have the solution to their problem in hand? Perhaps the "classic" example is Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Early in her journey

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