Steampunk, Mythology and Romance?

Source

Hello All, 

I'm in the midst of finalizing my two March book releases which will include Midnight Truce, the third installment of my Golden Pack Alphas serial and Executive Control. And of course even though my list of projects for this year have already been organized and set up in a production schedule (yes a production schedule) my muse is being all sorts of childish right now. As of next week I need to start writing the beginning of a new series (more on this later) and all my muse wants to do is talk about Vikings. Yes, Vikings!

A few weeks ago I caught the first few episodes of the History channel's show ,Vikings and became...intrigued. The show is violent and gritty, which I love. However coupled with my current leisure reading of Fantasy and Steampunk romances, my muse has gone haywire. Story ideas have come flooding combining Viking lore with Steampunk and I'm itching to play around with them. HOWEVER, I have a schedule and promises to keep, so no bueno.

In an effort to satisfy my nagging muse and relieve my fear of missing out on telling a great story, I spent this morning outlining a pretty great fantasy novel. I just finished the outline and pressed save. I'm happy knowing that the story will keep for a little while longer and that all of the ideas floating around for it have been neatly organized and stowed away for when I have an opportunity to pick it up and start writing.

Yes this is a type of delayed satisfaction, but one thing I learned on my current journey in writing is that you can't be a slave to your muse. If you allow it to control your schedule NOTHING will ever get completed. I find it easier to take some time to jot down a few notes and either create a skeleton or a full fledged outline of these types of interruptions then get back to my current project(s). That way, I know I haven't missed out on a potentially brilliant story, and I still get to finish my current works in progress without that annoying feeling that I'd rather be writing something else.

So here's a question for everyone, writers and readers. What do YOU do to combat mental distractions when you have deadlines or things that just have to be done?

Talk to you soon, 
Laurel