New Ideas and Old Characters

I saw a cartoon on Facebook recently that perfectly captures some of the frustrations of the writing process. It starts with a shiny new idea (or ideas), which connects to starting a new project but not actually finishing it. (I don't remember what the last part of the comic was, but it probably led to another new idea.) I have so many projects that I want to work on, not just writing-related, but also crocheting and sewing projects. Hopefully after the comic-con on Saturday the sewing/crocheting projects will feel like less of a priority. (I still need to make the Santa Jawa costume in time for the holiday parade in late November.) I think I need to list all the various projects I want to work on so I can prioritize them.

One of my priorities for this is is finishing the first draft of Dryads to Discover. While I'm made slow but steady progress on it, the characters don't grab my imagination the way old, familiar characters do. I'm itching to tell more stories about the Season Avatars (particularly Gwen and Jenna), and Paul and his friends from Twinned Universes. It's hard to pants new stories when old characters are still occupying your head. I do want to continue with both series, and I do have a sense of where they would finally end, even if I don't know the entire path that leads there.

Do you ever feel that writing past or writing future interferes with your writing present? If so, how do you manage to focus on your current work? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.