When Characters Collide!

Not literally, of course. Rather, in my head. So I was having coffee the other night with the Baroness, and as our conversations tend to do this one wandered into the realm of writing. Currently I have three major projects in the works, and for a long while none of them were calling to me. Then one poked its head up and said, "Hey... I could use a little work, but I don't really know where you want me to go." Trouble was, I knew WHERE, just not HOW to get there. I was stuck on maneuvering the main character and a few secondary characters into the right place effectively and none to blatantly. That's me, bloody ineffective tank commander. Right, so I just kept saying, "Well... when you figure it out, let me know and I'll do the same for you." Just as I was starting to get the story moving... another character poked her head up and said, "Hey! You should come back to me! I still love you." And then the third main character said, "If you go back to her, you HAVE to come back to me! I'm infinitely more interesting! I'm in SPACE!"

I had to sigh. Really. Three characters in my head, all vying for my attention. One whose story really needs a COMPLETE rework because of the 10,000 (give or take) words I have written, I don't know how much of it will actually make it INTO her story. One whose story requires a bit more in-depth research on post WWI Berlin. And one whose story is in the forefront of my head. The one I'm most excited about, have the most notes about, and have actually scouted locations and contemplated road and camping trips. But sadly, the one who is speaking the softest. I'm not sure why that is, but it saddens me somewhat.

I don't know what to do, really. I don't want to silence the more vocal characters, even if they're only screaming for my attention with no real improvements or suggestions, nothing new to add or tell in their stories, but I can't divert my attention to them either. Especially if they don't have any improvements, suggestions, or new tidbits to add. And yet the softest one, the one that has been in the forefront of my mind for months, the one I know where it needs to go... I can't get her to turn up the volume.

Le sigh.