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A Quagmire of Ideas

Jorunn

Dreamer
Too many ideas, not enough time (or so it feels). Since leaving college I've had a serious inability to stay focused on one story long enough to make any real progress, let alone finish a draft. I will be writing along for several weeks and then my train of creative thought gets derailed by a surge of inspiration for a different story on my WIP list. So I'll pause my current project to attend to the idea and when I come back to what I was working on before I find I can't get back into the groove of the original story.

Does anyone else run into this problem? How have you dealt with it?
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
For years. Screenwriting, oddly enough, fixed this for me. No idea why. I still get piled on with ideas, but I can retain focus now while still tinkering on the side.
 
Yes, I used to do this all the time when it came to trying to write novels. With short stories, I don't typically have the problem, since they're short enough I can finish them before getting sidetracked. Exceptions being for short stories that just didn't pan out anyway.

For novel writing, when I can't get back into the groove on my main project (my intended debut novel), it has invariably been because what I wrote last was wrong. So I delete what I wrote last and write something else. The question is, how far back to go with the rewriting? It's usually the last scene. I don't think it's ever been more than that.

I'll sometimes copy what I wrote for the last scene and save it to a separate area, if I'm not sure it's the problem. Then I delete the scene from the story folder in Scrivener, reread the previous scene or two to refresh my memory on the state of the story, and start writing the deleted scene again, without referencing the original text of the deleted scene. So far, this technique has not failed me. I'm still writing on my main project, and have reached 80K words out of an expected 120K, in what is now a third version of the story. Look, I wasn't happy with the first two, okay. :) This is to be my debut novel. I've been learning as I go, and what I learned in those first two attempts, especially from beta reader feedback, was that I still had more to learn. I think the third time will be the charm. But I digress...

It also helps if you can resist the temptation of other story ideas, to avoid being sidetracked in the first place. I know, it's not always possible. But that is as much a part of my solution for this problem as the technique of rewriting the last scene from scratch. You have to want it. If you truly want it, you'll find a solution that works for you. What's the alternative?
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Yes, I think many of us have experienced this. Here's how I dealt with it.

One, I finished something. That something was a novelette, somewhere under 40,000 words. And by finished here I mean I got it all the way to done, made a cover, and uploaded to Amazon. I never promoted it because I knew I was going to get better and I knew I had another story waiting to be told. The point of the project was to get to where I understood what "done" meant.

Two, I stopped focusing on story ideas and started to focus on characters. Now, I still start with a story idea, but I move quickly to creating one or more characters with that story and my focus goes immediately to them. I develop them before I ever start writing the story. And if the characters don't engage me, then the story gets shelved. I have plenty of other story ideas to develop.

Three, I learned to stop hearing them scream. Those other story ideas. Each one, when it comes storming into my study, gets a quick hearing--enough to sketch out the idea. Then it goes into my Ideas project in Scrivener and there it stays. Along with its mates, it screams and yells and rattles the bars, but I've learned to ignore it. Hardly ever hear it any more. And I think that's because I have in the meanwhile written other things, finished them, then looked up and said ok, who's next? That is, those ideas are coming to understand they'll get their turn. Every one of them gets to audition again. And you know what? When I'm in that in-between phase, I get to take them out and turn them over and I get excited again and make some notes and it's all rather like going through one's old toybox. But then I pick one and put the other toys away.

It's weird but that sort of contract with oneself--if I do X then I get to do Y--really does work. Humans are strange.
 
This feels like where I am currently. Distracted from my WIP by all kinds of other ideas that I can't get organized into stories.

I don't think I have a solution, but I can say I relate.
 

Aurora

Sage
Good grief. You're not alone. One thing I'm having a hard time deciding is which story to stick to. I have 2 books started up to chapter 3 but I can't decide the one I want to focus on. Writing one at a time is the only way my brain works. It's painful. I so sympathize.
 
Good grief. You're not alone. One thing I'm having a hard time deciding is which story to stick to. I have 2 books started up to chapter 3 but I can't decide the one I want to focus on. Writing one at a time is the only way my brain works. It's painful. I so sympathize.

Chapter 3 is kind of a boundary line for me. Most ideas that fizzle, fizzle when i'm trying to start 4.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
The trouble I have is that I decide a dozen times a week that the idea has fizzled, that I can't write, that the plot is stupid, the characters are flat, that it will never work. Then I decide a dozen plus one times that I should just try again, keep going, not worry about this part, whatever but just write. The prospect of giving up on a story terrifies me.
 

K.S. Crooks

Maester
I had the same trouble when I started writing. Now the same energy is focused on finishing a story before starting another. A way to try to remedy your situation is to write something small. Perhaps a short story of 10 000 words and once that is done write something bigger. You could also work at stories one chapter at a time and rotate between two or three.
 

Aurora

Sage
Chapter 3 is kind of a boundary line for me. Most ideas that fizzle, fizzle when i'm trying to start 4.

I'm not fizzled. It's more the case that I can't decide which one to write because both stories are blooming in my head and want to be written this very moment.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Aurora, it's not fizzled because you've not started writing (if I read your post correctly). The only way I know of to tell if a story works or fizzles is to start writing. And since we can write only one story at a time, just dive in. There's no reason why you can't write Story A on Monday, work on story B on Tuesday, then back to A on Wednesday. Or just switch as you see fit. I've written four shorter works while I was working (for too long!) on my novel, so it can be done.

Then you can decide about fizzling, after you've lit the fuse.
 

Jorunn

Dreamer
There's no reason why you can't write Story A on Monday, work on story B on Tuesday, then back to A on Wednesday. Or just switch as you see fit. I've written four shorter works while I was working (for too long!) on my novel, so it can be done.

I may give that a shot, actually. If I plan to work on A for a week and then B for a week it might help keep things a little more organized up here!
 

Aurora

Sage
Aurora, it's not fizzled because you've not started writing (if I read your post correctly). The only way I know of to tell if a story works or fizzles is to start writing. And since we can write only one story at a time, just dive in. There's no reason why you can't write Story A on Monday, work on story B on Tuesday, then back to A on Wednesday. Or just switch as you see fit. I've written four shorter works while I was working (for too long!) on my novel, so it can be done.

Then you can decide about fizzling, after you've lit the fuse.
This sounds interesting. Not sure if I could make it work though. My brain can only focus on one to go the distance. Think I've finally settled on one though. How'd you find this worked for your immersion in the story?
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I don't have a method. What happens is this. I have a novel I'm working on, but ideas come to me now and again. When they do, I have an Ideas file where I stash them. Sometimes the process of stashing takes a few hours or even a few days. It also happens that I come back to the idea and make a few more notes. IOW, I'm not 100% on the novel, I'm more like 95% or so. Sometimes it's burnout, sometimes it's a new idea, but sometimes I just need a break.

A few times over the past five years, the idea comes and refuses to stay stashed. When this happens, I take a more serious look at it and decide if it feels like a short story or a full novel. If it's a full novel, I tell it in a kind but firm voice to crawl back into the Ideas file and hush. But I've had four shorter ideas appear. When that happens, I let the other idea take center stage and I push the novel into the background. I give it cookies and tell it I love it and I'll be back for it.

Then I write that short story all the way to done, which means I actually send it off to magazines to be published. Or I finished the novelette all the way through getting the cover art, the front matter, formatted for self-pub. IOW, I don't just write a draft or even a final draft. I get the thing *done*. Off my plate and out of my brain. Then I go back to the novel.

The novel has been five years in the writing. I'm self-pubbing it this winter. IOW, the interruptions do come with a cost. At the same time, those interruptions have taught me a great deal about writing all the way to done.

I don't think I could go back and forth between two works-in-progress. Some authors do, as I have heard.
 

Simpson17866

Minstrel
Too many ideas, not enough time (or so it feels). Since leaving college I've had a serious inability to stay focused on one story long enough to make any real progress, let alone finish a draft. I will be writing along for several weeks and then my train of creative thought gets derailed by a surge of inspiration for a different story on my WIP list. So I'll pause my current project to attend to the idea and when I come back to what I was working on before I find I can't get back into the groove of the original story.

Does anyone else run into this problem? How have you dealt with it?
1) I ask myself what I care most about in writing a story, and I see which story ideas fit my goals in writing and which story ideas do not.

What kind of person are you? What do you care about? What do you want your writing to accomplish?

2) When I decide not to use an idea, I hold on to it in case I figure out something to do with it later :)
 
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