One of the most dangerous things about being a writer is dealing with ideas that strike like lightning. You’re focused on one project, and all of a sudden all you can think of is the shiny new plot that has forced itself to the forefront of your mind.

I had a bit of idea lightning hit me last night while watching television and doing some copyediting. It’s funny how something completely innocuous can trigger the weird plotting thought process, but before I knew it I had a text file with over 500 words of plot outline in it.

It would be fun to work on right now, even though my current writing plan involves focusing on my YA novel–a project that, quite frankly, I am having trouble with. The more I write, the more the key themes and ideas mirror those in a popular, already-published book (even though I started working on the idea long before that book came out, all that matters is that it came out first), and the twist is giving me fits. I really need to strip it back to basics and rework it so it no longer bears resemblance to another (fantastic) book, which fills me with dread but needs to happen before I can really take this thing to the finish line.

It is tempting to focus on this new, shiny idea and just let myself write. I need a project that isn’t so complex, that I can finish and feel good about, that is fun and easy to write. A writer friend of mine has a short story idea that she doesn’t even want to write down because she has so many other projects to work on. What do you do when a shiny new idea distracts you from your current project ? Do you shelve it, forget it, or do you let it carry you away, at least for a little while?