Too many ideas

[sheablue]

How do you prioritize? Or juggle?

I have too many half started writing projects and just now got a really great idea for yet another story/novel that could be a series. I'm not good at organizing on a good day. What do you do when you have too many ideas? Do you buckle down and finish one at a time? Or do you go back and forth depending on the mood you're in and how one project is progressing vs another?

 

[theslutbunny]

Tell me about it. I have four or five abandoned writing projects (three of them are around 40-, 50,000 words in). It comes in spurts for me where I'm incredibly prodigious, then weeks go by without me doing anything.

There might be something in sticking with one project until the better end, but it's probably better for your sanity to flip between them; you might hit a dead-end in one, but find yourself full of ideas for another.

 

[PennLady]

I'd just write it down so you don't forget. You may come across it later and have some inspiration.

 

[sr71plt]

I keep a "to do" list of ideas/stories/e-books, which includes working title and a prompt of what it's about and the pen name it's to be written under and the publisher it's to be written for. I include the slug "write/review/edit/clean/publish" after that identifier and bold whatever stage it's in. If the next phase of development is in the publisher's hands (edit or publish), I include the publisher in parenthesis behind this. Thus, I can see at a glance what the status of everything is and whether it's on my plate or the publisher's. I update the list constantly If the idea never gets developed, it eventually gets dropped from the list.

For stories I then have another list that records what published anthologies I've put it in and what web sites I've published it to--or, in both case, where it will go in the future. Since at any given time I might have several anthologies building with unpublished stories and loose written stories not yet published--between 30 and 40 stories--this list keeps track of what I have that hasn't been published anywhere yet.

For e-books, I have another listing, by year, that gives the title/pen name/publisher/published month on it. I'm finding that helpful because I'm now pulling three-year-old e-books from one publisher, recasting/expanding/reviewing them and republishing them with another publisher.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I have the same problem. BUT I cant do more than I can do. The best ideas will pester you relentlessly. That's how I sort them out.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've been lucky to have pretty good focus(that and I'm stubborn)

I rarely start something and then move to something else.

All of my stuff has been started and worked on to completion except for some really long projects that I write one "part" then do something quick and easy and then come back.

Sometimes I get in the mood to write a random scene. These go in to a folder called "remnants" and I dig them out and paste them into other stories.

 

[Saxon_Hart]

My desk top is covered with post its containing ideas. Usually if I am writing one thing and a killer idea starts gnawing at me, I'll write the first few paragraphs then finish the current project.

 

[oggbashan]

I have two solutions:

1. I write a set of 15 x 50-word stories. That uses 15 simple plots.

2. I put any stalled stories in a folder marked "Pending". If they really want to be written they will jump out at me when I review the contents of the Pending folder. If they don't, they stay there. Unfortunately I now have folders called "Pending" from 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009... The smallest of the set of Pending folders has only 45 part-completed stories in.

But those 2 solutions produce more problems.

1. If I write 15 x 50-word stories I think of ideas that are too complex for a fifty-word treatment. Those longer ideas get added to the current "Pending" folder.

2. When I review the Pending folder(s) the stalled ideas/stories often set my mind off on a tangent - If not that plot, what about a variation of it? That produces yet more stories in the Pending folder.

 

[TxRad]

I have two solutions:

1. I write a set of 15 x 50-word stories. That uses 15 simple plots.

2. I put any stalled stories in a folder marked "Pending". If they really want to be written they will jump out at me when I review the contents of the Pending folder. If they don't, they stay there. Unfortunately I now have folders called "Pending" from 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009... The smallest of the set of Pending folders has only 45 part-completed stories in.

But those 2 solutions produce more problems.

1. If I write 15 x 50-word stories I think of ideas that are too complex for a fifty-word treatment. Those longer ideas get added to the current "Pending" folder.

2. When I review the Pending folder(s) the stalled ideas/stories often set my mind off on a tangent - If not that plot, what about a variation of it? That produces yet more stories in the Pending folder.

I've quite counting the pending stories and have filed them away like you.

One day when I retire.... Yeah, right.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I keep a file with story ideas. Some are just a sentence or two, while others might be several paragraphs to a few pages. I don't start a story until I think I have it entirely worked out in my head. Still, I sometimes get stuck. When that happens I put the story away for a few hours or days. If I remain stuck, I'll move on to something else. I don't like to have more than two open projects at a time, although I currently have three. I will finish at least one of them before starting another.

 

[PennLady]

I just got an idea today in fact...

 

[sheablue]

That's exciting, PennLady! I love getting new ideas! Like the one I got today, so fun.

 

[PennLady]

That's exciting, PennLady! I love getting new ideas! Like the one I got today, so fun.

The ideas are great. It's the finding time to develop them that's problematic.

 

[sheablue]

The ideas are great. It's the finding time to develop them that's problematic.

Oh, exactly, you are speaking my language. If only Kidlets and PennKids could raise themselves into the wonderful people we expect them to become ...

 

[TE999]

I have a number of stories that I have begun anywhere from a few paragraphs to several pages of same that languish on a flash drive until I'm interested in them again.

Sometimes, ideas will spring forth, sound good and after a few hundred or thousand words will fall flat and be abandoned. I always mean to purge my files of these remnants, but never seem to get down to it.

When you can stay focused on a plot line, it means you're interested in it and the readers will be as well.

 

[slyc_willie]

How do you prioritize? Or juggle?

I have too many half started writing projects and just now got a really great idea for yet another story/novel that could be a series. I'm not good at organizing on a good day. What do you do when you have too many ideas? Do you buckle down and finish one at a time? Or do you go back and forth depending on the mood you're in and how one project is progressing vs another?

My own personal version of OCD usually keeps me on one work at a time, unless something else suddenly pops up that I figure I can get done in a few days. Usually, however, I try to stick to one story at a time, even if another -- like one is doing right now -- is nagging at my brain.

That said, I've had two stories which I have more or less abandoned. One was a half-assed love story, the first part of which I posted to Lit after writing about 5k words in a single night and submitting without proofing, and the other is a six-part series, each chapter of which is nearly novella sized, that I just recently took down. I removed the first because, to be honest, I thought it was a stupid premise. I took down the second after I was unable to access all the background material I'd saved to a now-fried old hard drive. I just couldn't let it sit there, unfinished. I would either have to finish it -- a pretty large task right now -- or remove it.

So, to answer your questions, I would say . . . yes. But I am more focused now on seeing one story through to the end. It takes some effort, but it seems to me that the insistence of the other one is helping me to finish the current project, if only to free up my time.

 

[sheablue]

This morning, in the shower of course, I got such inspiration for my nude day story! I'm excited to write it. I had to jump out, dry my hands and stand in the bathroom dripping water everywhere as I typed my notes into Evernote on my phone. Didn't want to forget!

Do I guess that one takes priority. Better get cracking.

 

[oggbashan]

I've quit counting the pending stories and have filed them away like you.

One day when I retire.... Yeah, right.

I've retired. It doesn't solve the problem of too many ideas.

 

[TxRad]

I've retired. It doesn't solve the problem of too many ideas.

Yeah but it does give me more time to write.

 

[MrPezman]

Do you even write, bro?

I've got more stories barely begun, or half-done, than submitted stories on Lit! Usually, when I get stuck on a story I'm working on, I'll switch over to something else and keep doing that until I catch a thread and start spinning. but, when I get an idea, if I don't write it down, I'll forget it, so I say do the same. Write it down, and, when you come back to it, if you still think it's a good idea, then you'd better jump into it. If not, then leave it alone.

 

[2981notrohrm]

The problem I have is this - in addition to having little time to write, I find myself getting partway into a story, deciding I don't like where it's headed, and scrapping it because I either lose interest or it would take too much revision.

And then I get this problem - having a great idea but thinking it's virtually impossible to pull off.

 

[MrPezman]

The problem I have is this - in addition to having little time to write, I find myself getting partway into a story, deciding I don't like where it's headed, and scrapping it because I either lose interest or it would take too much revision.

And then I get this problem - having a great idea but thinking it's virtually impossible to pull off.

I've got stories like that, too, but I never scrap them. Even if I can't run with a particular idea, I can still borrow characters, certain dialogues, or anything else in there of value. And I keep the stories I get stuck on, as well, because sometimes I think about it offhand, and I stumble across a way to make that shit work.

 

[2981notrohrm]

I've got stories like that, too, but I never scrap them. Even if I can't run with a particular idea, I can still borrow characters, certain dialogues, or anything else in there of value. And I keep the stories I get stuck on, as well, because sometimes I think about it offhand, and I stumble across a way to make that shit work.

I don't scrap the idea, just the way I've hashed it out to that point. I had a partially-written story about a man who meets an enchanting high roller on a roulette table, but I didn't like how I wrote the lady and deiced to start over. If I ever get some time to write, it will be reborn, in between Raven chapter 4 and a lesbian story I'm working on.