I’m hard at work on my latest Legend Hunter book (entitled Treasure Me due in stores in 2011) and things are going fairly well for the rough draft. This is a blessing considering the last book was one of those pull-teeth-for-every-word kind of books. I’m really enjoying the characters and the change of setting, this book takes place largely in Scotland, a different pace from my normal London setting. And like I said I’m making good progress. I’m about 3/4 of the way done with this first draft. But I’m having a difficult time focusing.

Now this lack of focus is due, in part, to the fact that The Professor and I are building a house, a house we will close on this month! So I’m super excited and mentally decorating and trying to remember what it is that I already own that’s been in storage for nearly ten months. But that’s not the only distraction. You see I’ve been hearing voices. Now for most people that’s a sure sign to call a doctor, but for writers this is a perfectly normal occurrence. Characters talk to us. Which is great when you’re writing a book. Especially a book on deadline…

Except when those character voices are for book ideas you have no business thinking about. Here I am diligently working on this book and yet I keep hearing these two characters from a new idea, and they’re having the most intriguing conversations. Now I know for a fact that that book, nor any other, will be any easier to write than the one I’m currently working on. But despite the fact that I know this, I’m able to delude myself. As if my muse is a siren seducing me with tempting morsels of a new and wonderful and shiny idea. It’s like chocolate chip cookies baking, that delicious aroma filling my senses and making my mouth water. That’s what this new idea is doing. I’m dying to write the proposal, dying to brainstorm the whole concept with my writing buds. But I try to keep it aside and focus on the task at hand.

Somedays this is harder to do than others. Like last weekend, I woke up Saturday morning obnoxiously early because these damn characters were having a conversation. I tried to go back to sleep. I rolled over. I tossed, then turned, but they wouldn’t shut up. Finally I got up and opened a new file and wrote the prologue. Now it’s saved with the rest of the notes and tidbits of dialogue I’ve overheard and it is waiting, not so patiently in the wings while I do the job I’m currently paid to do.

In the meantime I’ll keep working on Treasure Me and if those pesky characters keep talking, then I’ll jot down their words and hope someday when I can share their story with you as well.

So how about you? What are your temptations? How do you keep focused when your attention is being divided?