WriterX

Some people don't know what to write about. With me it's a different story. I am swimming in ideas. But the only problem is that I can't stop thinking up something new. I get a CD I want *BLAM!* 13 new story ideas. I see an ineresting picture *BLAM!* new story! Although I am happy having a library of ideas I want to finish one story before starting a new one... which is impossible because I get a new idea every one hour (if not faster). Do any of you know what should I do to 1) Start a story 2) Finish it? Do I lack concentration? What do you do to stay concentrated so that you finish what you started?

__________________
"The written word remains. The spoken word takes wing and cannot be recalled."
Anonymous

"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."
Charles Dickens

PamHKyle

Try to concentrate on 1 story and finish it (I know this is harder than it sounds). Those new ideas will push you onward in the story, 'cause you shouldn't allow yourself to start another story before the first one's done.
Don't worry about losing the other ideas. If there good enough, they'll stick around. (If there's a story line which you like immensely and are afrais to forget, write the outline in two or three sentences (this should suffice as a memory help) and then continue on the first story.
(If you happen to forget the new story, and the 2-3 sentences didn't help in bringing it back, it probably wasn't such a good storyline...)

__________________
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters in life begin when you get what you want. (Irving Kristol)

Keep a stiff upper lip, because your lower one is trembling. (William Shatner)

simon woodhouse

I had this problem when I first started writing.

To get around it, I incorporated several of my favourite ideas into one story. This gave me plenty to be enthusiastic about as I was writing, and also made sure the best ideas didn't go to waste. It did take quite a lot of planning though.

Lady_Kristin

This happens to me at times as well. What I do is jot down all those ideas on paper. Eventually you will understand which scenes/characters belong in which story. I do think those ideas come to us for a reason. It's just that some stories need to be told a lot more (or sooner) than others. It's up to us to keep track of those ideas and pay attention though. Just think about how Tolkien came up with The Hobbit!

*****
One day, while grading the exam papers of his students, Tolkien suddenly found himself writing in the margins on one of them, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." His effort to discover just what hobbits were and what they were like led him to write one of the most beloved books ever written, The Hobbit, an introduction to the world of Middle-earth.
*****

__________________

SxThorntonxS

I completely reject the idea of only focusing on one thing. It may work for a some people but not for all. If you are anything like me, youll work on something for a while and then hit a brink wall or just get burnt out on this one project. This is when i work on something else. I say write your ideas down start something and then go on to something else. The problem i have with working on one thing only. what if i get an idea thats much better than the one im working on now? Do I really put that aside and finish the other one that suddenly doesnt excite me as much?

__________________
Are we baiting the right hook to get your attention.
The media needs another blackout.
We’ve been calling.
Flooding hotlines.
We’ve applied mascara to the radio but that’s just a quick fix and we need a little more.
Does it matter to you at all.
Are you listening or have you tuned out.

mammamaia

pam's advice is the best, imo... being a writer requires huge amounts of patience and perseverance... if you don't train yourself to exercise both, you'll never succeed in making writing a career...

__________________
For 100% free writing help/mentoring:
www.saysmom.com

"You must BE the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi

SxThorntonxS

I find it funny you mentioned the buying a cd and getting 13 new ideas. Im the same way. I see a lot in common lol. Something i think ill do eventually, just for fun, is to take a cd i really like and make one cohesive story from the entire albums, almost using the songs as the chapters. Im going to do this with the Weezer Blue Album.

__________________
Are we baiting the right hook to get your attention.
The media needs another blackout.
We’ve been calling.
Flooding hotlines.
We’ve applied mascara to the radio but that’s just a quick fix and we need a little more.
Does it matter to you at all.
Are you listening or have you tuned out.

Oracle

I did what simon did.

I used to have your problem, so I took most of my ideas, spun them together, and wound up with a big epic idea.

__________________
The bubble is round.

Mr Peace

Sometimes I'll go through periods where I have a ton of ideas pouring out at a faster rate than I can imagine. Sometimes I'll go through periods where I don't have a new idea for weeks. Those are the times I just work on the trivial, nitty-gritty parts of something I've been working on, such as formatting, editing, etc.

If you're going through a particularly prolific period, I would recommend carrying a notebook with you at all times. For me, the most frustrating thing in the world is having a great idea and then forgetting it later on. New concepts will hit me out of the blue whether I'm ready for them or not, so I have to hurry up and jot it down or else it's gone forever.

In most situations, I don't have enough time to write down complete sentences. I'll just jot down a keyword or two that will trigger a thought pattern in my head, so I'll be able to complete whatever it is later on in the day. I always thought it would be funny to be the paramedic who has to empty my pockets if I ever spontaneously dropped dead from a heart attack. No one would ever be able to decipher the non sequitur blurbs, catchwords and bits of dialogue I have hurriedly scribbled down on bits of paper.

wordwitch

That's awesome that you have so many ideas! Do you keep an ideas journal? That way you can keep track of things while focusing on one story. Also, you could take some of your ideas and do writing exercises with them. They could turn into full stories later.

__________________
The Word Witch
http://witchywriting.blogspot.com/
Writing advice and community for beginning and advanced writers

WriterX

I will have to do that at some point...

All the ideas I get I will have to write down somewhere, a key word which has to do something with that. I once had a folder full of my unfinished work and I remember that once I had an Idea for a story which I wrote down in four words. I will stick to that method, space saving.

Today when I was cleaning up I by mistake found a story I wrote a few years before (primary school). OMG I did not know how to write during those days... but the idea was good

And I figured out a unique method of completing a story I started... finish it the same day. (works for me, untill I want to write something bigger)

__________________
"The written word remains. The spoken word takes wing and cannot be recalled."
Anonymous

"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."
Charles Dickens

darthwader

I have the same same problem. The story I am working on was meant to be a stand-alone project, the end of the book being the end of the STORY. It did not work out that way though; Little ideas kept springing into my mind here and there, and now I have fully-detailed plans for a 9 book series. Boy will I be crushed if I can't get my book published.

I don't know about you, but I am actually kept up most nights by the ideas that flood my mind (even the ideas I have already perfected) but ultimately I have found that knowing where everything is leading has made my first story much richer.

Tim S.

Too many ideas to get them onto paper, or word doc fast enough? I know that feeling well. I have an incountable number of half-started, un-finished stories that I forgot about, because something new came along.

How did I get through it? I kept on thinking about one story alone, if new ideas came along, I would twist them, contort them, and re-shape them to fit the current story, instead of starting another.

Also, I found that keeping a notebook, and just jotting them down for later reference is good, because then you can give them time, but also keep them for a time when you are ready for them.

Hope this helps.

__________________
"It takes a moment to meet someone;
It takes an hour to know them;
it takees a day to love them;
And it takes a lifetime to forget them."

cellardoor

if you can't write a full story about one thing you can never ever get published

__________________
If I make it as a writer, I'll write for the hobo, not the professor.

bob rulz

I don't know about you, but I don't recall anybody talking about getting published in this thread.