i have an idea bank document where i write down every idea i get, sorted by fandom. that way even if i don't start working on them right away they're saved and not bothering me constantly
Sometimes it works for me to make detailed outlines. It gets some of the wiggles out and helps me realize that I’m not ready to start writing it anyway. Organizing all of my chaotic notes is probably a good place to start
That’s what I do, except mines an unsorted mess. Usually, as im writing one fic, I’ll get ideas for some of the ones I’ve written down, and whichever one is most developed by the time I finish one fic is the one I go to next.
I have a document with a list of almost ideas.
When one matures enough that it has a ship or characters or any actual details I create a new doc just for that one. Label it with said information and then leave it until I get to it.
I have a lot I haven't touched in years but at least there's record of them.
Basic ideas that prob won’t see the light of day I’ll jot down a few sentences.
Some others I’ll flesh out with names and places and ideas.
Others I’ve written the first chapter or two of and there they sit.
I used to interrupt long fics to write *other* long fics. Now, I’m much more disclipined. I won’t stop writing a long fic in the middle to start another. I have written a few under 10k fics, but they only take me a week max and don’t interrupt the flow (much).
Darn, something else you can do for a story is limit its scope. All my WIP are long, and I feared that I would never finish one, so I started one to tell a limited story, eliminating all the typical cannon stuff so I didn't have to address it. I was able to finish it and it made me feel real good.
The problem with saying "too many" is it implies there should be a line you can't cross.
I handle having a lot of ideas by writing them down in notes and I go with the ones I'm really inspired by
I used to follow a writer who juggles like five stories at any given time. They update whichever fic appeals to them. They have commenters vote on which of several story ideas they start next. It's bedlam!
It's all Omegaverse and fairly similar, they just come up with different senerios / time periods. It's pretty fun. I don't read that much Omegaverse though. The only one I'm still following is faux-Omegaverse where a group of people isolate themselves from the world and believe in Alphas/Betas/Omegas and occasionally kidnap and outsider and attempt to brainwash them. It's fantastically demented.
I lay awake at night and a tear escapes me for every idea that is still only in my head instead on paper. I totally get you, I have many vivid dreams that are like movies and GOOD movies and I just don't have the capacity to give them life. It's killing me. I keep revisiting my ideas and try to think about what I could do with them.
My tip is to try and create different things. Maybe just write the one short scene or write a poem about it. If you have that many ideas, try to see if you can combine some, or give each a short time. Like sit down, set a timer for 20-30 minutes and start writing. If you are excited about the idea and actually write a lot instead of just staring at the screen - that's the one! If you feel like that about every idea - oh, well ...
Start by writing all the ideas down. Then work thru them, starting with whichever one feels easiest for me to do at that moment. Get stuck? Switch to the next one I feel I can work on. Bounce around or hyperfocus until one of them is finished, then rinse and repeat. And also learn to accept that not all of them will see the light of day, no matter how much I love the concept.
I have multiple documents to track ideas, sorted by fandom and, if necessary, fanfic series (sometimes I get ideas for different AU continuities, so they each get their own document). Every time an idea comes up for something but I'm not in a position to start writing it, I jot it down in one of those documents. Even if I *am* ready to start writing, I'll still jot it down first so that if I have to set the writing aside, I can keep track of what I had in mind, because otherwise I *will* forget and it will bother me.
When I am ready to write, I pull out all the notes I wrote for the story idea I plan to tackle, organize it into an outline or summary of sorts, and then get cracking.
And many of my ideas start creeping up into novel-length territory or higher, yes, but I'll sit and evaluate if the idea *really* needs to be a multi-chapter work, or if I could condense it down to a short story/novelette/novella for better flow and efficient storytelling. There is value in learning how to trim down a story, and many creative writing courses will cover that at least in part. One thing that can help is looking at a story idea with a critical eye to try to see how far the concept as written can really go. I've definitely read more than a few stories (and had more than a few ideas of my own) that were longer than they needed to be, and could've benefitted from a trim-down.
As for how to focus on writing just 2 or 3 fics, start by writing down *all* the ideas bouncing around in your head. Get them on paper (digital paper is fine) as short summaries or bullet lists of the details that came to mind. Make sure to label each one so you can identify them quickly later. Once you've done that, look over your list and see which one or ones are calling out to you most, and consider tackling those as your next stories to write. Which ones do you most want to turn into real, tangible stories at the moment? Start there. Limit yourself to whatever small number you find to be doable. Consider focusing first on some of the ideas that can be short fiction, because you can also clear out more ideas faster that way. As you finish a story, go ahead and start on a new idea to keep yourself rotating through 2-3 active projects.
Jot those down somewhere! Just write whatever's on your mind in pointers; be as descriptive as you want to be but try not to spend more than 15 minutes on it. Once it's done, you are free to complete your pending work without the worry of loosing your new ideas.
I too, like others here, have a google docs where I write all the ideas floating in my head.
I started saving my random ideas in Word. Each one gets its own doc so that I don't lose the idea. Please don't ask how many I have as that's none of your business. 😂
I have this problem, but each idea is a separate longfic, and then I get four other ideas to toss into each one.
Idk how to deal with it still, I have like six fics that I wana finish or at least get halfway through before I post, but I have like two chapters.
Right now I'm working on a Skyrim series that I want to finish before moving on to another fandom, so any ideas that fall outside that umbrella get noted down for later.
Brain dump document where I have all ideas in different stages
As soon as one idea becomes "big enough"/gets.some serious work, it's removed into a seperate doc
I write every idea down in Chat and write atleast one chapter. Then it's saved. Later, I wake up in the middle of the night, or have a vision while going through social media, or something like that, and I pop it back open and get typing.
As for the slow writer problem, use ChatGPT, describing every Chapter in detail. Chat will do the chap for you, and you can make small corrections. Eventually you will be so aligned, you can breeze past a dozen chapters before Chat misses. I can write 15 chapters in an hour, ez
From an ethical standpoint: generative AI works by taking other people's works, chewing them up, and regurgitating the mixed-up remains without crediting the original authors that provided the foundation. It literally cannot exist without the unpaid, uncredited exploitation of the labor of real artists. It's art theft.
From a creative standpoint: ideas are cheap. Art is in the *execution:* style, pacing, word choice, narrative voice; those are what make the work *yours.* You're letting a robot do the actual "art" part of the writing process for you. Why should I care what soulless, pattern-recognition, lowest-common-denominator prose a computer spits out?
If all you actually want to do is write an outline, then fine, write a bulletpoint fic and tag it as such! But don't feed an outline into AI and then call the results your own story, because it isn't.
1. Excuse me?
2. I would, if every of my ideas did not balloon into 80K+ words every time I try to write. I'm 15, I just finished my exams, I'm in 10, and I won't get enough time for writing otherwise.
Doesn't hurt me any. I notice you say that like you know exactly what the problem is, though, so like I said, I hope you're honest and tag appropriately.
i have an idea bank document where i write down every idea i get, sorted by fandom. that way even if i don't start working on them right away they're saved and not bothering me constantly
Sometimes it works for me to make detailed outlines. It gets some of the wiggles out and helps me realize that I’m not ready to start writing it anyway. Organizing all of my chaotic notes is probably a good place to start
And if you want to get back to them later, you already have something to work with.
That’s what I do, except mines an unsorted mess. Usually, as im writing one fic, I’ll get ideas for some of the ones I’ve written down, and whichever one is most developed by the time I finish one fic is the one I go to next.
I have a document with a list of almost ideas. When one matures enough that it has a ship or characters or any actual details I create a new doc just for that one. Label it with said information and then leave it until I get to it. I have a lot I haven't touched in years but at least there's record of them.
Basic ideas that prob won’t see the light of day I’ll jot down a few sentences. Some others I’ll flesh out with names and places and ideas. Others I’ve written the first chapter or two of and there they sit. I used to interrupt long fics to write *other* long fics. Now, I’m much more disclipined. I won’t stop writing a long fic in the middle to start another. I have written a few under 10k fics, but they only take me a week max and don’t interrupt the flow (much).
Let me know if you find the answer as I have like 24 WIP
So far the answer is “write them down and do your best :)”
Darn, something else you can do for a story is limit its scope. All my WIP are long, and I feared that I would never finish one, so I started one to tell a limited story, eliminating all the typical cannon stuff so I didn't have to address it. I was able to finish it and it made me feel real good.
I corral them into a private writing Discord where I can poke at them at my leisure lol
The problem with saying "too many" is it implies there should be a line you can't cross. I handle having a lot of ideas by writing them down in notes and I go with the ones I'm really inspired by
I used to follow a writer who juggles like five stories at any given time. They update whichever fic appeals to them. They have commenters vote on which of several story ideas they start next. It's bedlam!
Diplomacy in fanfics how absurd
It's all Omegaverse and fairly similar, they just come up with different senerios / time periods. It's pretty fun. I don't read that much Omegaverse though. The only one I'm still following is faux-Omegaverse where a group of people isolate themselves from the world and believe in Alphas/Betas/Omegas and occasionally kidnap and outsider and attempt to brainwash them. It's fantastically demented.
I store my ideas. Write them down so they’re out of my head, but not forgotten about.
I lay awake at night and a tear escapes me for every idea that is still only in my head instead on paper. I totally get you, I have many vivid dreams that are like movies and GOOD movies and I just don't have the capacity to give them life. It's killing me. I keep revisiting my ideas and try to think about what I could do with them. My tip is to try and create different things. Maybe just write the one short scene or write a poem about it. If you have that many ideas, try to see if you can combine some, or give each a short time. Like sit down, set a timer for 20-30 minutes and start writing. If you are excited about the idea and actually write a lot instead of just staring at the screen - that's the one! If you feel like that about every idea - oh, well ...
Start by writing all the ideas down. Then work thru them, starting with whichever one feels easiest for me to do at that moment. Get stuck? Switch to the next one I feel I can work on. Bounce around or hyperfocus until one of them is finished, then rinse and repeat. And also learn to accept that not all of them will see the light of day, no matter how much I love the concept.
I have multiple documents to track ideas, sorted by fandom and, if necessary, fanfic series (sometimes I get ideas for different AU continuities, so they each get their own document). Every time an idea comes up for something but I'm not in a position to start writing it, I jot it down in one of those documents. Even if I *am* ready to start writing, I'll still jot it down first so that if I have to set the writing aside, I can keep track of what I had in mind, because otherwise I *will* forget and it will bother me. When I am ready to write, I pull out all the notes I wrote for the story idea I plan to tackle, organize it into an outline or summary of sorts, and then get cracking. And many of my ideas start creeping up into novel-length territory or higher, yes, but I'll sit and evaluate if the idea *really* needs to be a multi-chapter work, or if I could condense it down to a short story/novelette/novella for better flow and efficient storytelling. There is value in learning how to trim down a story, and many creative writing courses will cover that at least in part. One thing that can help is looking at a story idea with a critical eye to try to see how far the concept as written can really go. I've definitely read more than a few stories (and had more than a few ideas of my own) that were longer than they needed to be, and could've benefitted from a trim-down. As for how to focus on writing just 2 or 3 fics, start by writing down *all* the ideas bouncing around in your head. Get them on paper (digital paper is fine) as short summaries or bullet lists of the details that came to mind. Make sure to label each one so you can identify them quickly later. Once you've done that, look over your list and see which one or ones are calling out to you most, and consider tackling those as your next stories to write. Which ones do you most want to turn into real, tangible stories at the moment? Start there. Limit yourself to whatever small number you find to be doable. Consider focusing first on some of the ideas that can be short fiction, because you can also clear out more ideas faster that way. As you finish a story, go ahead and start on a new idea to keep yourself rotating through 2-3 active projects.
Jot those down somewhere! Just write whatever's on your mind in pointers; be as descriptive as you want to be but try not to spend more than 15 minutes on it. Once it's done, you are free to complete your pending work without the worry of loosing your new ideas. I too, like others here, have a google docs where I write all the ideas floating in my head.
Write them all down. That's how. Some of them I'll get around to fleshing out, others I won't.
I started saving my random ideas in Word. Each one gets its own doc so that I don't lose the idea. Please don't ask how many I have as that's none of your business. 😂
I have this problem, but each idea is a separate longfic, and then I get four other ideas to toss into each one. Idk how to deal with it still, I have like six fics that I wana finish or at least get halfway through before I post, but I have like two chapters.
Right now I'm working on a Skyrim series that I want to finish before moving on to another fandom, so any ideas that fall outside that umbrella get noted down for later.
I start multiple fanfics. I once had 3 WIPs and I finished them all. I have 2 atm.
Brain dump document where I have all ideas in different stages As soon as one idea becomes "big enough"/gets.some serious work, it's removed into a seperate doc
Throw everything that sounds good together in a blender.
I feel like I’m the opposite in terms of length, I have no idea how to make a story longer than maybe 1000 words.
I write faster
*How?*
By ceasing all other activities haha. Eat sleep work write write write
coffee coffee buzz buzz buzz
I write every idea down in Chat and write atleast one chapter. Then it's saved. Later, I wake up in the middle of the night, or have a vision while going through social media, or something like that, and I pop it back open and get typing. As for the slow writer problem, use ChatGPT, describing every Chapter in detail. Chat will do the chap for you, and you can make small corrections. Eventually you will be so aligned, you can breeze past a dozen chapters before Chat misses. I can write 15 chapters in an hour, ez
Haha absolutely fucking not
WhaT? Why?
From an ethical standpoint: generative AI works by taking other people's works, chewing them up, and regurgitating the mixed-up remains without crediting the original authors that provided the foundation. It literally cannot exist without the unpaid, uncredited exploitation of the labor of real artists. It's art theft. From a creative standpoint: ideas are cheap. Art is in the *execution:* style, pacing, word choice, narrative voice; those are what make the work *yours.* You're letting a robot do the actual "art" part of the writing process for you. Why should I care what soulless, pattern-recognition, lowest-common-denominator prose a computer spits out? If all you actually want to do is write an outline, then fine, write a bulletpoint fic and tag it as such! But don't feed an outline into AI and then call the results your own story, because it isn't.
Holy smokes, I swear I didn't know it was theft!! I am so sorry, I will start writing myself, I just needed to save a lot of time, so I used it.
literally the worst part of this is that i can't tell whether you're serious or not
What is going on? Why are y'all mad at me?
1) art theft 2) the point of writing is *writing*
1. Excuse me? 2. I would, if every of my ideas did not balloon into 80K+ words every time I try to write. I'm 15, I just finished my exams, I'm in 10, and I won't get enough time for writing otherwise.
Oh HELL no. But if this is serious, I hope you're honest and tag your fics as AI.
I have never posted a work, thank you, now I will. I currently have 5 different fics in the works.
Doesn't hurt me any. I notice you say that like you know exactly what the problem is, though, so like I said, I hope you're honest and tag appropriately.
Look, I screamed at SSS too when she did not provide the right names. I am NOT going down the same path.