98: What to Do When Another Book Idea Shows Up Mid-Draft
A writing update on the two books I'm playing with right now, the door metaphor I teach my students, and why I paused one manuscript to follow a nudge toward another.
If you've ever been mid-draft on one project and had another idea knock — loud, insistent, inconvenient — this episode is for you.
Two weeks into writing The Medicine Pages — the working title of the book I've been sharing behind the scenes on my paid Substack — I got a date on the calendar. My son, newly 18, is heading back up north for another hockey season, living with a billet family again. And something in me knew before I did: the medicine book needed to pause.
In this episode, I talk about:
The door metaphor I use with students when they're stuck choosing between writing projects — and why walking fully through one door (even not the "best" one) is how you find out if it's the best one … for you
Why I'm setting the medicine book down for now, and trusting that the detour will make it stronger
The new book I didn't see coming — a very specific, time-bound book about billeting, written for moms preparing to send a teenager to live with another family for their sport
How I'm using AI in this process (organizing, not writing) to turn a folder of old text messages and essays into a working table of contents
Why I think it's okay to have more than one writing project pulling at you at once — and how to know which one gets your YES right now
You don't have to pick the "right" project. There's only the one that's most aligned for right now.
Links mentioned:
The Medicine Pages (paid Substack, $5/month)
Past essays on billeting & hockey life:
Got a writing project pulling at you? Email me at hi@jacquelinefish.com and tell me how it's going — I'd love to hear.
