What To Do When You Have Too Many Ideas

Photo by Marquise de Photographie on Unsplash

This past weekend, I found myself in a Läderach chocolate shop very similar to the one in the above image. I hadn’t had Läderach chocolates since my last trip through Zurich in 2018, and let me tell you, they are divine. I recently learned they opened a shop in Boston, and it was all I could do to restrain myself from heading there the next day, work obligations be damned.

Once there, I spent a loooooong time perusing the selection, nibbling samples, and trying not to drool over the merchandise. Dark chocolate truffles? Praline assortment? FrischSchoggi? Or…?

“Can I help you?” asked a saleswoman.

“I want it all!” I moaned.

I mean, obviously, that was out of the question. This stuff ain’t cheap, and it’s also best eaten fairly fresh, so no point in lugging ten pounds of it home. But in the moment, I was paralyzed: too many choices lay in front of me, and they all seemed equally delectable.

What does this have to do with writing, you ask? Well, maybe you’re like me and you need a little treat to keep you going as you work on a difficult scene… No?

Well then, last week’s blog post brought up an interesting question from some readers, who pointed out that sometimes not knowing what to write next stems from simply having too many ideas. Options abound. Before you can figure out whether you need a scene or a transition, you need to know what direction the story is taking in the first place. It’s easy to get like me in the Läderach shop, dazzled by choice, wanting to try them all.

This can be a particular problem for the “pantser” writer who is literally making it up as they go along, but it can also haunt the more “plotter” writer who thinks they have it all figured out, when WHAM. Awesome New Idea jumps in, waving its arms: “Pick me! Pick me!”

Either way, it can lead to confusion. If I’m a pantser and just follow every “great new idea,” soon I will have a convoluted mess on my hands. If I’m a plotter, I’ll panic if Awesome New Idea means I have to carefully unravel all my previously constructed plot points and figure it all out again.  

“Analysis paralysis” can happen in any area of our lives, including writing. It can stop us in our tracks, leading to days, weeks, even months of procrastination while we try to figure it out. I’m currently stuck on a mystery I was writing because of this. I got partway through, and then started rethinking pretty much every aspect of it, including the tone and the subgenre. I still haven’t figured it out, and I’m not concerned right at this moment since I’m working on a Middle Grade novel. But eventually I’ll have to go back to it, and I hope I’ll have some clarity.  

The thing is, writing is a creative pursuit. Analyzing the problem to death is unlikely to lead to a solution. I’ll have to let myself play with it for a while, try writing chapters in several voices, see which feels right.  

This is a key part of getting unstuck. Sometimes it’s just FOMO – missing out on all the possibilities inherent in all the cool ideas by following just one.  

It can also be fear of going down the wrong path and wasting lots of time only to arrive at a dead end.  

Breathe. Don’t worry about finding the perfect solution. Pick an idea and outline or scribble-draft a scene with that option. Does it flourish? Grow? Or trail off into a dead end? Are you excited to continue, or feel in your gut that it’s taking you away from the heart of your story?  

Often you just have to flow with it for a while, see if it turns into anything or opens up new possibilities. This can be hard to do, for those of us who like things neat and orderly, or who fear getting lost in a morass of confusion. You might want to commit to something small – 5 pages, no more – to see if it’s got legs.   

You can also go back to your story’s Premise. What is it about? What is your point (I.e., what are you trying to say about the world/humanity through telling this story? What is the arc of change for your main character? Does your idea deviate from these, or compliment them? 

Does the New Idea follow a cause-and-effect trajectory established by previous scenes? If not, how will it affect those scenes? What will you need to do to weave it in? How will it affect the story going forward? 

Honestly, in rough draft stage it can be good to let the story wander – you don’t want to cut off interesting possibilities too soon. The imagination works in mysterious ways. Don’t stress too much about making it perfect. There will be plenty of time to tackle the pruning and shaping of revision after you let the story sit for a while. Enjoy the messy process of creation! And if you need it, the messy process of eating chocolate while creating.

What are your favorite tricks for dealing with the Too Many Ideas problem? Let us know in the comments!