Hey everybody,
A thought popped into my head, and it is also something that I am encountering. Maybe you are and maybe you aren't experiencing it as well.
In the process of writing my novel, I have experienced other story ideas just pop into my head. It does become a bit overwhelming, well at least for me it does sometimes. I've come to find that if I write down the idea of the stories, and make a list...then I can start with one and work my way down the list....organization! IS A BIG KEY. It is a good idea to have a story aside your big project like a novel to work on, when you become silent in your novel. You will have another story to revert to and work on for awhile, while you wait for the next details of your novel to form in your mind. I find this very helpful. Besides working on my Christian Fantasy Novel, I take up in writing poetry, and short stories. Right now I am working on a children's story that is about a bird who broke her wing, the Lord finds her and a miraculous thing happens! Also illustrations are involved. The story started out being a dream that I had, then it went from a dream to a poem called "The Healing" which then has turned into the book "Cassie's Miracle".
So short stories I find are a "relief" when you need a break from your "Big project".

So with that being said,
1. Organize
2. Be disciplined
3. Be creative
4. Have Fun
5. Don't be overwhelmed!

Hope this helps
Love and Blessings,
Heather

Moved to Writing Discussion.

I do have a lot of story ideas - sometimes they form from a "Wouldn't that be a great cliffhanger?" or "What if this happened?".

As of right now, I have about 120 (Yes, I counted) separate 'writing works' on the drawing board - a few are a collection of shorter stories, though, and about 20 or so, I would say, are fanfictions, so...

I mean, a few months ago, I did try to combine a few of them together, since a lot of them are just certain ideas or themes that I could, theoretically, have pursued within another story, but that didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.

I understand what you said about having a second, smaller story/project to work on when stuck on the 'bigger one', but I never really liked the idea of doing that - I did try it once, when I was stuck in the middle of one of my stories, but that was just a really short, 500-some word flash fiction, and I didn't go back and forth between them - I just started and finished the flash fiction, and then went back to my other story.

Anyway, I hope all that made sense.

Several "writing theory" books I've read, especially Writing to Sell by Scott Meredith, have made the point that (for many people, at least) one's subconscious often comes up with excuses---any reason that might do---not to work on whatever one is supposed to be working on, which for a writer is one's current WIP (as homework is for the student). (One writer, I think the writer of the introduction to Writing to Sell but I'm not sure, had "an imaginary monkey that cried piteously if not loved every hour on the hour".) And one common excuse is a new idea that looks (at the time) like a better idea. It may be, it may not be, but once you get as far into it a you are into your current WIP, Meredith said (though I paraphrase freely), your mind will produce yet another "better idea," so write that idea down (so you don't lose it) and keep working on your current story. And if you're really blocked, switch to something else that you're supposed to be doing (which, for the authors Meredith was writing to, three decades ago or so, was largely finding markets for your last story), so that your current story becomes the excuse your mind will give you for avoiding it.

Currently, I got ideas for roughly eight or nine series, but I'm a guy who likes to do one thing at a time so as to not get swamped. So aside from the sequel to my book that I'm writing, I'm only working on a short fanfic story which serves as "my time off" from the main event. As for the ideas for all my series, I just make sure I jot them down on a DOC so I can flesh them out fully later.

I don't find it possible to work on another novel whilst writing a novel, but I do think writing short stories along side it also helps improve your style.

I knew my mind was evil and was trying to torture me!!!

I've run into this problem a lot. I get an idea and work on it a little, then come up with another and go work on that, then come up with another...etc. I did solve some of this problem-especially where two separate stories utilized races that were eerily similar-by combining most of my stories into several main universes. That, of course, then brought on my series writing problems, but oh well.

I guess that if you haven't written anything else, instead of marketing, one can switch between two main stories.

Mmm ... I think that, if Scott Meredith is right, something like laundry, tidying one's desk, catching up on email, etc., would be better than a second story---on the theory that "inspiration" is a finite resource (though not, as other anecdotes from Writing to Sell make clear, so finite as writers tend to think), when you don't "feel like" writing, do something that you need to do sometime that you "feel like" doing even less .

*laughs* Good point. Again. Doing homework would certainly do it...

Who knows, I might even get housework done in the process!

I understand about not getting swamped. But here is what I meant....Lets say you are an artist, and you are working on this BIG painting. Well you get tired of painting on that painting. You do something else, like do clay sculpting, or rock painting, or pen and ink, or something. Something that you don't have to "think" as hard. ....yes you are still doing art, but you are doing something else to give yourself a break and rejuvenate from the hard work you are doing.



I apologize for not being clear.