Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Too Many Ideas

I had a question regarding my last post, Coming up with your Story (which I also realized had a typo in the title uhg!). The question was from @liannebrooks on Twitter and may have been in jest, but thought I would answer it anyway, if for nothing else than a fun post.

What do you do when you have TOO many story ideas? The very first thing you need to do is drop to your knees and thank God you have this problem. More than once I've heard that people have "only so many stories" in them. So if you have an abundance, be grateful.

Second thing, write them down, all of them. Even those that seem silly or not even a full story idea but just a scene or a character, you'll forget them if you only keep the idea in your head and not on paper or on file.

And if you're really struggling with this overflowing river of ideas, pass them on to someone else. Yup, you heard me, if you don't want to write them down or use them yourself, help one of those struggling writers who used up all their story ideas already. But really, I doubt it if you'll ever have to use this step. And if you do, keep me in mine, I can always use a good idea. ;)

2 comments:

Liana Brooks said...

Anyone who wants a spare story idea, stop by! I have literally hundreds of files stored on my computer where I've typed out the basic sketch of an idea. Sometimes full outlines with characters and world-building detailed. Some are just a few phrases that popped into my head but won't work for the book I'm working on.

The worst problem is when a plot attacks me overnight and completely derails me from my WIP. Writing and editing screech to a halt while I try to get the new idea down. And getting back to my WIP can be hard.

Shannon said...

I'll for sure keep you in mind Liana if I get through my several dozen ideas for stories, and don't come up with any new ones to add to the list.

It's always fun to start on a new idea and I too find it difficult to just write the main theme of the new story down and then leave it and go back to my WIP. I think its just one of those things we have to learn to do as a writer, to be able to flip from your WIP to an editing project, to an idea your building and then back to your WIP.