Writing Ideas – You Don’t Have to Pick Just One

I’ve always wanted to write, but I have so many ideas I can’t decide which one to write.

I hear this excuse daily. On writing forums, mailing lists, in person, on social media and in my email. They want to know how to start writing. How to choose the idea.

The answer is all of them.

If your goal is to write then you have to write. It’s not about writing once and not every writing again. Oh yes NaNoWriMo is about just that for a lot of people. And that’s fine. This is not for you.

Take all of your ideas and write them down. Stick them in separate folders.

Pick one up and write. Finish. Repeat.

You need to have a lot of ideas in order to keep writing. One idea isn’t going to get you anywhere. In fact, if you only have one idea and refuse to quit until it is executed perfectly according to your dream, then you will fail. You fall into the trap of contamination and you end up gibbering in the woods somewhere with your only companion a puppet with a KFC bucket on its head.

If too many ideas are keeping you from writing, ask yourself, do I really want to write? Really? Maybe you don’t want to be a writer after all.

This is how life works; you will make time for anything that’s important to you. And all those things you wish you had time for? Not important at all.