I have this exact problem. I've gotten pretty good at reining in my attention span, but there was a time when I had so many ideas in the air I had to draw up a schedule, assigning time slots for each project. Monday, superhero comic. Tuesday, sci-fi novel. And so on. Try listing out all the ideas you have, and devoted some time to exploring each idea. Sometimes, you might combine notions, or reach the conclusion that an idea isn't worth pursuing. It may even be worth your while to partner with someone who can keep you to a schedule.
Thank you for the advice I really do think discipline is my flaw, for I want to create everything I think of and therefore become over burdened and overwhelmed.
your advice is appreciated scheduling is not an appealing idea to me AT ALL, but perhaps I need try new things haha
Yeah, I've never finished a story in my entire life, stage 3 is something I NEED to get to, want to more than anything. And no, it's not harsh I appreciate the honesty.
As someone that has gotten to 3. In the sense of first drafts I can give some advice. Think of an nice ending. Because then you are working towards that ending. You want to write the ending but you need to write everything else first. As a way to help motivate. Also I keep finding regardless of how much I plan. When I actually write. I discover things, whether it be character aspects or scene ideas or other things that pop up. Like right now. My current story. I off the top of my head created this chrismatic laywer. She is fun but she didn't come from thinking. I needed to pace out a scene with the MC. So I created someone for her to interact with. Those are some of my favorite ideas. In the end though like I said. There is no quick fix. It is just about picking something and staying on it. Determination. You can do it.
I wasn't a fan of the schedule, either, but something rigid and regimented forced me focus on one project at a time. It's hard work, training your brain not to stray, but it's worth it.
Thinking of the ending does help But it's not the good ending that makes me motivated. It's the achingly sad, sacrificial ending that makes me want to finish it, to show the meaning behind all of what's happened. And I agree, I'm not a planner, I love to start randomly writing on impulse and it's then that I come up with the most meaningful material. I'll give you a few examples of my story ideas, just to show they're not fleeting, flimsy ideas: Current: The Forest that completely overruns a planet named Lemuria gives every living organism connection to it. The Forest is everything to them, it educates, gives them special abilities and their entire society is built upon it. But some children are born 'out of the loop' and are therefore useless. They are sent to an institution called the Braeken to live out their lives. One girl named Kyra has trained her entire life to have physical prowess if she can't have mental abilities. But outside their world, an alien race known as the Groudora plan war in order to steal the power of the Forest, for they could shape their own reality if they had it. Even a small amount would let them control certain aspects of Lemuria. Jack of All Trades: A twisted version of a young Jack the Ripper that is experimented upon by his father to be able to master anything, and adapt to any feat he puts his mind to. As a child, he tries to control his actions to only serve a good purpose, and is shown love, but that love is snatched away and he decides to become his father's monster. Mindscape (What caused me to think of Lemuria): A system for Death has been created, it catches you when you die and places you in a coma like state. Your brain is placed in a constant loop, letting you experience a life you've always wanted for a short amount of time before you die. But a young girl named Marva has been living inside her mind for seventeen years, since she died as a baby, and it's the only life she's ever known.
I am glad if any of my advice helped. Like I said. I don't doubt your premises. I picture this like running. As in running for exercise. You can do things that help. Schedule times, or buy a music player. Maybe buy better shoes or a confortable outfit. The point is. At the end of the day, you still have to run. And running takes determination. And determination takes practice. Its sort of beautiful and horrible. Beautiful because the answer is easy. Horrible because while knowing the answer may be easier doesn't make running an easy task. If that makes sense?
It does make sense haha I'm not a jogger though, more of a sprinter Could explain my enthusiastic beginnings and dragging-my butt-middles
What ideas are you harbouring for future pieces? Lately I’ve been dwelling on the subject of inexorability. I’m going to have a look at the part of Dostoyevsky's “The Idiot” which discusses the guillotine and the comparison to Myshkin’s inevitable decline, the helplessness of Meursault to kill and to be killed in Camus' “The Outsider”, and the second act of Behan's “The Quare Fellow”, in which the Fellow’s execution has been set on some terrible rails - I’m especially going to look at the part with the grave-digging. A piece based on this may take me a while to write if I want to pull it off properly, especially as I want to re-read “The Outsider” and “The Quare Fellow” before I do it, and, as I've never actually seen a "The Quare Fellow" performed, I'd like to look around the Internet and watch a video of the play being performed.
All of my unfinished pieces are future pieces. I have one that takes place in post-nuclear Russia, one that takes place somewhere in Scotland (more or less abandoned), and I occasionally work on this war story. Sometimes I will write one or two chapters that's about 200 or 300 words long and then do something else.
Ugh I have so many, some that i thought of for years before I even started writing my current WIP and some that I have thought about after. I really am trying hard to NOT think about any other story idea until I finish my first draft at the very least. I don't want to get excited about something I can't start yet you know?
Besides new titles in my Legends of the 23rd Century series, I have plans for: Stranded Aeliens Need Technical Assistance - A child discovers the true identity of Santa Claus, along with his motivation. Sir Orion: Champion of Murhaven - The sister of a banished prince is taken prisoner, and only one knight is up to the challenge of vanquishing the threat to the kingdom of Murhaven. Hospital on the Allotment - Toy Story, but with vegetables. Actually, a collection of short stories full of ridiculous and unforgivable puns.
I don't typically keep too much planned, as I like to focus in on my current project. I have the project I'm just starting, which is essentially an exploration of multiverse/many-worlds theory--a plot event occurs that triggers a team-up between a demigod and a nerdy cosplayer who have to travel between different universes to collect the plot coupons required to save the cosplayer's love interest. Poking at traditional gender roles by having the nerdy cosplayer be female and the love interest getting "saved" be male. My other project is one I started briefly before taking a lengthy break from writing, which will likely be what I work on after my current project. A real-world story around a father and daughter--the mother died in childbirth, driving the daughter to self-harm out of guilt. Father and daughter have a strained relationship and have to work to restore it. That's all I really have, plot-detail-wise. I'll flesh it out more when I get to it, not before. Don't need extra distractions! I don't typically have any short story projects, but I do always check when a new contest comes up here just in case I want to take a crack at it. I usually don't Haven't written any songs in a while, and I don't really have any inspiration to do so at the moment. Other than that, the only projects I'd like to tackle are good, full-MS edits of my past novels. It's slow-going, but I am getting through one of them. No idea how long it'll take.
I've got a whole list. Some I know have been permanently scratched from the line up simply because new, better ideas, have taken their place. But I've been writing since I was fourteen so that's common practice for me. Some ideas also get absorbed by other stories - like my WIP bares such a close relationship to a novel I wrote in 2004 that I might scrap the planned rewrite on that one. Here's the main ones - September - my homage to Twin Peaks - The Dolls of Veras Crag - a humorous YA fantasy that takes place in the 80s ( mainly so I can revel in nostalgia ) my inspiration is one of my favorite YA books - Secrets of the Shopping Mall by Richard Peck. House of Cadre - a psychological horror The Bird Folk ( novella ) - a dystopian Moonlight, My Advantage ( novella ) - a drama/mystery inspired by my unchaperoned summers with my bff when I was 11. I'm hoping to get my WIP, In the Pit ( psychological dystopian novel ) done by spring so I can get started on one of them.
I have so many. Too many. And I have a notebook for each one, so that when ideas come while I'm working on another piece, I can write them down and save them for later. -A sequel to my current WIP, about a girl who has to destroy the evil Death God who's seeking revenge on the world -An urban fantasy focusing on modernized golems -Another urban fantasy about an Angel of Destiny, working in a dark version of the afterlife to save humanity from an evil threat -A short story, fantasy-esque romance following a girl with a broken heart, who believes her dreams are from another dimension -- another her living happily -- and has such a strong desire to live there, she puts herself in a coma to dream forever -A sequel to above short story about the girl living in the afterlife and having to cope with her suicide -Another short story about a war between nymphs I think that's all so far.... lol
I need an idea for something I would do with a new robot friend for a school narrative. I have been sitting here for over 2 hours trying to think of something.
Do While SchoolinProgress = True the story about the robot that arrived at school, befriended a pupil and helped with the story about the robot that arrived at school and helped with Loop
I'm new to writing, and I have so many ideas running around in my head at the same time. I haven't even finished a tenth of my first story with these characters, but I've got 3 more storylines complete with reasons, details and scenes running through my head. Any advice about how to deal with all of it?
Buy a Moleskine notebook. And a fucking typewriter. Write stuff down in that notebook. I have bits and pieces I wrote nearly a year ago that I still come back eventually because it's good enough to keep.
Write down your other ideas so you can get them down and not lose them, but then go write back to what you're currently writing. The advice I've heard from so many published authors is make sure you finish your first novel, even if you hate it by the end. Even if you convert it to a novella to make it shorter. Even if you never submit it. Practise finishing.
Yep. Write it down. I have - lemme see now - about fifteen ideas for novels/series/novellas written down, and about fourteen other, less detailed concepts for stories/games that're boiled down to just a few sentences. I'm certainly not working on them all at once, but I don't want to lose them, so they're written down. Only about five projects are what I loosely consider 'in development', one of which is in the latter outlining stage and one's in the process of being written - the others are just things I'm worldbuilding and generally chewing on in my spare time until they're ready / I'm ready to get them into heavier development. You don't want to try to juggle thirty things all at once, but you put it on paper for later.
