I’m going to let you in on the one thing that has ended more author careers than Facebook. It’s more damaging than writer’s block, one-star Amazon reviews, even a chocolate famine.

Ready?

Here it is: SNI.

That’s right. I, too, was shocked when I stumbled onto this fact. I feel a like the guy who saw the first virus under a microscope and realized his medicinal leech business was no longer relevant.

Oh, my apologies. Perhaps some of you have never heard of a SNI. I, of a military background, feel the need to apply nonsensical acronyms to all of my discoveries. Just ask my WAKs (wife and kids). Okay, I’ll spell it out for you:

SNI = Shiny New Idea.

It’s true! All these years I’ve been smacking a keyboard and I had no idea that SNIs lurked, waiting to suck the drive out of my soul. SNIs plague every writer. Because a good writer (that’s you) is constantly finding stories.

So it’s a catch-22. Your nature, as a writer, to find new stories leaves you open to random SNI attacks.

Imagine: you’re sitting at your keyboard, cup of Joe next to you and The Romantics on the headphones. You’re halfway through book 2 of your Amish-Zombie-Romance, and this magnificent SNI hits you out of nowhere.

BAM!

It hurts. SNIs have a high mass to volume ratio. You reach up to wipe the SNI slime off your scalp and freeze.

“Wait,” thinks you, “that’s good SNI.” You stare at your rough draft and realize that no one is going to buy this series. Book 1 is still sitting in some slush pile or with your real-indie editor. You’re wasting your time. Life is getting away!

Oh, glorious SNI!

So you hit the ctrl-all-delete buttons and set about writing the first of your Quaker-Zombie-Romance series.

I know you can relate. SNIs are out there, waiting for their next victim. While new ideas are wonderful and will continue to feed you and your HAKs, we must force those SNIs to the back of the line.

So stand by for Ron’s super-duper SNI Control Formula (SNICF). Ready? Here it is:

Write down the idea and get back to work on the current WIP. Earth-shattering stuff, eh?

Favorite app: Novel Idea. Get it. Use it. Swat those SMIs!

Now GWSB.

~*~

Ron Estrada is a young adult author of the Cherry Hill Series, supernatural stories with a touch of romance. Book 1, Now I Knew You, is now available on Amazon and book 2 will be out this month. You can find out what he’s up to at RonEstradaBooks.com.