Too Many Ideas.

Doesn't matter how many ideas you have, you only need to use one. I have a million ideas, but I only use the ones that belong in a given story.I don't even really write off ideas. I just tell a story.

I never have understood how having a lot of ideas is a problem? No one makes you use more than one of them.

I'm with you on this problem. I'm not sure exactly how it is for you, but for me it's the fact that I have a million IDEAS, but none of them are fleshed out.

I'm having this problem right now, actually. I'm currently querying a novel, so I need another WiP to throw my effort into. I have a notebook full of ideas, characters, and concepts, but they're all just that -- concepts.

One thing I've tried is to start a short story or a scene featuring one of the ideas. If it takes off, that might be my new WiP. If I'm struggling with it, it might need to percolate in the back of my brain a while longer. I'll admit - I'm not much of a pantser. This method produces only questionable results for me.

Characters are what ultimately get my brain juices pumping for a new WiP, so what I'm doing right now is working on some character outlines for a few ideas. I'll just move from one character to the next until one leaps off the page and their voice gets stuck in my head. Fortunately, I think this JUST happened for me today, so I may have a new novel to plot this weekend!

And yeah, just like Jamesaritchie said, only certain ideas belong in a story. For me, I HAVE to write them down in a notebook or in my "ideas" file on my computer so they'll leave me alone. That way I know the idea isn't GONE, it's just shelved until I'm ready for it.

All that ranting to say -- yep. I feel ya. Good luck!

I always feel stupid complaining about this, but the struggle is real. I get writer's block like a traffic jam. For instance, I have two drafts I need to edit and start querying, but the next novel is already eager to be written.

There's all these stories need telling, and so little time. And then on top of that you get two different ideas for the same story, and either one of them could be the right move. It's a problem, but I'm glad to have it.

If it's a Major Problem, it might be worth tossing the notebook and going with either one or two that have the most potential to turn into fully-fleshed out stories with a beginning, middle and end. Maybe try a query letter first to see where it goes.

The most important thing is to Finish Something. For some people, 'ideas' are clutter. The really good ones you'll probably remember anyway and the more they stick in your head the more likely you may be to follow through. I used to keep a list of them over the years - in more than one spot - and whenever I look at them now, half the time I can't remember what I was thinking at the time that made that single line grab me.

Getting swept away by new ideas can be addictive. Its a high, just like falling in love. Its hard not to go after every new idea, especially when you've been with another idea for a while and things are starting to feel stale. Thats where discipline comes in. You have to put aside that short term thrill for long term satisfaction--the satisfaction of finishing that current project. Jot the new idea down for safe keeping and just forget about it. Dont be like a dog that chases every moving thing it sees. Youll never get anything done.

snafu1056 said:

Jot the new idea down for safe keeping and just forget about it. Dont be like a dog that chases every moving thing it sees. Youll never get anything done.

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Great advice. I've also experienced multiple ideas at once, so I just try to write a brief synopsis of whatever idea pops into my head and then go back to the primary story.

There's a reason all those new ideas look so much more tempting than the one you're working on. It's just your brain giving itself excuses because you don't want to write. It's another form of procrastination, essentially. Focus on one project and set a word count goal per day. Understand that your own feelings of doubt aren't as important as finishing what you set out to do.

Great advice, snafu1056. I wasn't the OP, but I've been watching this thread to get help with my own "too many ideas" problem. I'm gonna write that down somewhere!

snafu1056 said:

Getting swept away by new ideas can be addictive. Its a high, just like falling in love. Its hard not to go after every new idea, especially when you've been with another idea for a while and things are starting to feel stale. Thats where discipline comes in. You have to put aside that short term thrill for long term satisfaction--the satisfaction of finishing that current project. Jot the new idea down for safe keeping and just forget about it. Dont be like a dog that chases every moving thing it sees. Youll never get anything done.

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Brilliant piece of advice

Royale.Revolution said:

Just need different ways to suppress the distractions I guess. Sorry if I coming off as confusing.

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I have 2 major ways of getting rid of distracting ideas. The first and usually best is to jot it down. If I do it right away, I don't usually lose too much writing time on it.

The second is to play 'what if'. I give myself a certain amount of time each day to let my story wander away from the established cannon, not writing it down but just thinking it out in my head. This way, all the new ideas I generate are things that might actually become relevant to what I'm writing. The best time to do it is while I exercise or shower, or sometimes when I'm driving. Any time I can't be in front of a computer.

JoshSpaceCole said:

I always feel stupid complaining about this, but the struggle is real. I get writer's block like a traffic jam. For instance, I have two drafts I need to edit and start querying, but the next novel is already eager to be written.

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Sometimes you do need to move on from your manuscript for a while before you can come back and see how to really fix it. This is especially true if you're not at the point where you can share the MS with anyone else. If you're not ready as a writer to dig into those edits, that might be what's really stopping you.

Lironah said:

Sometimes you do need to move on from your manuscript for a while before you can come back and see how to really fix it. This is especially true if you're not at the point where you can share the MS with anyone else. If you're not ready as a writer to dig into those edits, that might be what's really stopping you.

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Totally 100% true. In the case of the manuscript I'm editing now, it's been long enough (and had enough opinions) that I feel I can be almost cruelly objective. The fact is if I only edited when I didn't want to write something else, I'd never finish anything!

I think first drafts are mostly fun, but edits are mostly work. Like snafu said, it's not always exciting, but you gotta have discipline.

Ideas come as easily as leaves to the trees. Satisfaction as a writer, comes by planting your idea and watching a tree take root and grow. Satisfaction as a writer, comes through execution, by writing a good sentence, a good paragraph, a good chapter... a good story.

When I was young, I used to get what I thought was a hot idea, crank out 50 pages, lose interest, throw it in a file folder and move onto the next idea. I did that for years. All I have to show for it is a filing cabinet filled with half completed stories that I have no desire to finish.

As I've gotten older, I've learned to focus in on one idea that I feel passionate about. Consider your idea like a boyfriend or a girlfriend. It better be an idea you're willing to spend more than a weekend with. If you're working on a novel, you'd better feel strongly enough about your idea to commit to spending several years together.

Sure, it's fun to come up with a lot of fresh ideas, but it's a thousand times more satisfying to take just one idea and see it through to completion.

I have about 22 folders on my writing thumb drive for stories that need to be written and they all came about when I was writing my current WIP. I'm sure I'll come up with more once I start the next one too. Whenever I'm writing I just jot down all the ideas that are flooding me. Some I use, some I know I could use somewhere else, and some were products of too many late nights and too much coffee.

Royale.Revolution said:

I am thinking that I should trash as a result or maybe transfer some of them onto my laptop.

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Unless you think they're just terrible ideas, I wouldn't trash any of them. You never know when you might find the perfect spot down the road where they just fit in.

I suffer from this problem all the time. It's so difficult to commit to one thing and carry it all the way through. There are a million things to distract me and more ideas are one of the many. I'm also wondering if my idea is going to get past the first ten pages or not, and I end up writing short stories pretty much exclusively because I can't stick with one idea long enough. Also, tons of unfinished work.

Theokles said:

As I've gotten older, I've learned to focus in on one idea that I feel passionate about. Consider your idea like a boyfriend or a girlfriend. It better be an idea you're willing to spend more than a weekend with. If you're working on a novel, you'd better feel strongly enough about your idea to commit to spending several years together.

Sure, it's fun to come up with a lot of fresh ideas, but it's a thousand times more satisfying to take just one idea and see it through to completion.

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This is advice I agree wholeheartedly with. The question is whether you're at that stage to commit to one project for an extended period of time. A lot of famous authors wrote tons and tons of short stories before they wrote any novels.

One thing you could try is exploring all the ideas at once and seeing how many you can merge together, I think that the ones which have the most potential could come naturally to the surface.

Lots of great advice here so I shall not detail my own struggles with Idea Overload.

I will throw out one suggestion because I recently learned this the hard way: if you get an idea and you jot it down for later, take very thorough notes about the idea, why you thought it, other things that popped into your head. Often to jog my memory, i'll even include other things, like where I was when I had the idea. Really helpful if you do want to pick it up somewhat seamlessly.

I like StaryKitten's idea. I also have a lot of ideas myself, some I'd really like to tackle and make stories out of, but I usually choose the ones that's closest to me and have, in my opinion, the easiest ones for me to use. Remember, if one idea doesn't work out immediately, you can always set it down and go to another one to help yourself recharge or refresh yourself. Sometimes you might come up with another idea for one story, that you might find works better for the original story you were writing.

Royale.Revolution said:

I am not sure if this is the proper section this should be posted in, if not then a moderator is more than welcome to move to the correct section.

I am sure every writer here has gone through this at one point or another but how do you all handle the dreaded "too many ideas syndrome?"

It seems like I've come through that stumbling block once again. When I was making music, I would change the direction I wanted to go in so many times. I would still jot down my ideas down in a notebook while making music and keeping the current direction.

Now that I'm gonna write a novel, it's happening to me again. This time I'm even more indecisive than ever. I keep writing down my ideas in my idea notebook but I feel like it's just simply not enough. I was wondering how do you all handle this? Should I be juggling two projects at once with one of them being a secondary project to keep my ideas afloat.

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This sounds to me like a classic case of Resistance. Yours materializes in the form of thinking another idea is better than the one you're currently working on. But the grass is always greener, man. Give up chasing the ghosts. Pick one and write it till it's done and stop listening to that nagging Inner Editor. You can do it!

OP, it's been a few days since you've posted this, but I had to chime in. You've been given some wonderful advice in here and I hope it's helped. You've just given yourself away as a VERY imaginative person. Congrats!

Lironah said:

Sometimes you do need to move on from your manuscript for a while before you can come back and see how to really fix it. This is especially true if you're not at the point where you can share the MS with anyone else. If you're not ready as a writer to dig into those edits, that might be what's really stopping you.

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I'll second this bit. As an artist by profession, one trick I use every single day with any piece I'm working on is to just take a step back. How does the composition look from afar? The lighting? The same can be applied to a manuscript, figuratively of course. Take a step back. Go make dinner. Take a weekend vacay. Go downtown or go hiking. When you come back, how does your manuscript read?

nprimak said:

One thing you could try is exploring all the ideas at once and seeing how many you can merge together, I think that the ones which have the most potential could come naturally to the surface.

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I'll second this part as well. I suffer from the same, and often have SO MANY ideas that I can't focus on one. Recently, I've just been toying around with merging ideas together. Example: I have a sci-fi that I'm working on but I also have an idea for a web comic that I'd like to start. I know I'll never finish either if I try to commit to both separately, so I've merged the two ideas and am well on my way to planning an awesome sci-fi/steampunk webcomic that features griffins, dragons, space, etc.

Try merging some of your ideas. See how that helps.

Best of luck, fellow dreamer.