Switching Horses in the middle of the stream

Time to switch horses - - I'm talking about writing.
Every once in a while, the tale I'm working on
gets stale. The Gothic has gotten stale.

Some call it writer's block. For me, it means the
outline I'm writing from isn't working at the moment.
I need to step back and review, think about the
characters and what they'd do next. With the Gothic
I realized my story people were acting out of
character. Hence the "switching horses".

What I do in cases like this is go to something else.
I have a western romance that needs a rewrite. I
like the story, but there are a lot of grammatical
errors - - too many 'and's', and POV switches I need to
check. So, I'm off to the races with the western.

I've finished four chapters and I'm pleased with
the changes. I'll finish this and then go back to
the Gothic. By that time the characters will know
what to do.

But, how do I switch from one to another? Easy! I
have binders for each story idea I'm developing. Until
the book is sold I keep the binders. Character charts,
synopses, calendars of events, descriptions, in one
instance a dictionary of foreign words. I can
pick up a binder and quickly adjust to that story.
I studied the binder for the western. I remembered
the characters, the synopsis, the research, so now
I'm ready to revise. More on revision later.
On with the western.

Allison
"Simon's Brides" available May '06
from Wings-Press,Inc.