Too many writing ideas, not enough focus

I'm finding that I'm full of ideas for short stories, non-fiction kids' books, and children's stories. But I can't seem to focus on any one idea. I love that I'm full of creativity, but the downside is that I can't see to get any one thing done. On top of this, so many of my topics require research. I'm busy researching and reading and writing, doing 5 or 6 topics at once, yet I'm not finishing anything. Is there anyone else out there like this?

I usually write longer things, but maybe my experiences will still help you.

When I first started writing (as a teen) I'd start working on every story idea that came to me. Eventually I had started over a hundred stories, and had finished only maybe a score of the shortest ones.

So I said to myself, "STOP THAT!" :)

Now I try to stick to a story and keep at it until it's done. Although, I allow myself one story in each medium I work in, so I'm actually in the middle of three stories -- having more than one active story is fine if you can work that way. But allowing yourself an infinite number of active stories is asking for trouble -- give yourself a limit. How many stories can you actually keep moving forward at a reasonable speed at once?

I still get more new ideas of course. That never goes away. But I thumb my nose at all the people who tell me that a writer MUST try and capture all those flittering ideas before they evaporate (like that would hurt me any!), and just ignore any additional story ideas for as long as I can.

When a story idea proves so stubborn and appealing that I finally give up on ignoring it, I add it to a "to-write" list. That way the ideas knocking about in my head have a specific "I am going work on x next" type order.

I'm allowed to reorder the list whenever I feel like it, but just having the list gives me framework that keeps me focused. I know what stories are coming up, I concentrate on researching/worldbuilding for *those* stories, and I keep doing my best to tell everything else that it has to wait its turn. (You might want to put a limit on that, too. I can't seem to. I can direct my research, but worldbuilding often happens when I'm not expecting it. Things just pop out of the ether and say "I am a part of world x". And if I wasn't supposed to be working on world x, there's nothing I can do about it but refuse to write whatever-it-is down.)

Good luck on this!

I think a lot of artists, writers or otherwise, struggle with unfinished ideas.

Maybe a structured schedule would help. Write everyday. And set time aside every week to edit things you have already written.

Maybe you should work on one short project at a time and one long project at a time. For instance, maybe you want to write one poem and start a novel. That way you can finish your poems while you are working a novel (which may take a month, or may take many years)

Or maybe you'll work on one article/blog at a time and work on a nonfiction book. That way you are writing and editing articles while you are working on your longer work.

Giving yourself deadlines... and maybe imposing repercussions for not reaching the deadlines will help you finish your work.

Granted, I struggle in that area myself...

But, I hope it helps!

Quite a few years ago, I realized that most of the writers I knew had the habit (and it is a habit) of starting things and never finishing them. As soon as a new idea came along, they quickly leapt to it and abandoned anything they had been so crazy about just a day or so before.

I decided I didn't want to go that way. It looked like a waste of time and a waste of great story ideas. So I made a rule for myself: I must finish everything I start, and I must do it within a year of starting it. (This means the draft I'm working on, not start to submission. I think it's important to let things sit before I edit them into a second draft and prepare them for submission.)

The idea even looked crazy to me at the time, but I like to try experiments and I thought I would give this one a try. More than a decade later, it is still in place. It isn't that I don't get ideas all the time, but now I'm very careful about which ones I start. I let them play around in my head for awhile, and the ones that keep growing get their chances. Sometimes I outline and sometimes I don't (more often I do these days, because my life is complicated, and it helps to keep the ideas going). Sometimes the stories work very well and I sail through them. Other times, not matter how much pre-writing work I do, they still develop a problem.

And those problem stories are the ones that have taught me more about writing than the easy ones. I often see writers hitting a problem spot and dropping their story rather than working out the problem, rewriting and fixing it. It becomes a habit. There's always going to be a new story idea, after all.

There are times when a new idea is so powerful that I can't wait to start writing it. Generally, I have at least one other project that needs completed, though. I let the new story become a treat -- if I write or edit X amount on the story I'm already working on, then I get to play with the new one. This works very well for me.

We all find our own paths. Mine is an odd one, but it works.

I think the most important aspect of all this is that you have to want to write a story -- not just parts of a story and a few chapters or scenes here and there, but a full, start to finish story. Once you make that decision, you'll start learning how to do it.

That's really very helpful Zette, thanks for sharing.