How many future projects do you think about constantly?

This happens to me a lot - almost always when I'm at a sticky point in my current work. Example: I've got one MS looking at one last refinement revision, and another that's needing a hard push to complete a solid draft. I'm constantly distracted by thoughts on another planned novel, and a ton of short story ideas.

YMMV, but for me it's a form of procrastination. Not claiming it's that for anyone else! But I will say if the ideas are worthwhile, they'll survive being jotted down and left for a bit.

I don't think about any ideas constantly, as far as I'm aware. Past, current, and for-future-writing stories come to mind frequently. That used to bother me, but the seems to be part of my process. I tumble story ideas and polish them on each other. New ideas are helpful.

New ideas can also be fool's gold off to the side, distracting from your sculpting. Write down ideas that distract from your current project and remember that idea creation is the easy part. Make sure your WIP gets most of your attention.

I don't have that problem. I seem to be focused on the current WIP, even if it takes me years (which for novels always do) to reach The End. A flash fiction story might pop in there here and again, but even those are rare. I also draw, so sometimes I flip flop between writing and drawing (when depression doesn't cripple me, and I do nothing).

I have three levels of ideas: the one I'm currently writing, the top (small number) of ideas from my story ideas list, and the rest of my story ideas list.

I occasionally get thoughts about group 2, and I record them on the voice memo app on my phone (along with a lot of other things I put on the voice memo app). I periodically go through my voice memos and transfer them to OneNote. By the time I get around to my group 2 items to pick my next novel idea, I'll have, if not an actual outline, at least some plot points.

I find that doing this allows me to 'let go' of the idea and get back to my current WIP.

None. I'm usually too busy procrastinating to even think about what I am currently avoiding.

Quite literally, dozens. The notes for all of them are there on my PC and I do look at them, think about them, jot down more notes and bits of narrative, until one takes my fancy and I sit down and write it (which can be a pretty quick process by that point). I do find there is a certain cross-fertilization---working on one will give me ideas for another.

The lure of the 'shiny new thing' is not to be underestimated. I have about 4 different things on the backburner because of it.

I wish I thought about future projects more. I've started two - each about 3,000 words - and I have a very rough idea of what I'd like to do with them but my current WIP is all I can focus on. I'm still making edits to it and I wish I could write something new (even a more in depth outline for an idea) while I'm editing but I'm having a very difficult time of it.

Too many. Too much focus on what I'll be writing later ends up distracting me from what I'm writing now, and also creates a larger and thus more intimidating end result.

At the moment, I'm trying to restrict myself to two plus one in editing, and even then I'm getting distracted by myth-arc thoughts for the two WiPs in the same setting.

I keep projects in the back of my mind, but it really is a background thing--it's not intrusive, and I have systems set up so I can quickly jot down thoughts related to ideas and move on without losing the idea. I keep loose thoughts in Scrivener, and a larger overview of my projects and when I'm likely to get to them in Trello.

lizmonster said:

This happens to me a lot - almost always when I'm at a sticky point in my current work. Example: I've got one MS looking at one last refinement revision, and another that's needing a hard push to complete a solid draft. I'm constantly distracted by thoughts on another planned novel, and a ton of short story ideas.

YMMV, but for me it's a form of procrastination. Not claiming it's that for anyone else! But I will say if the ideas are worthwhile, they'll survive being jotted down and left for a bit.

Click to expand...

THIS. So much this. If an idea won't leave me alone and is pulling me away from my focus, it's probably because I'm at a hard bit and trying to avoid the tricky work.

I do also think actively at 2, but gathering ideas in the background for more. And it is good - all the ideas need baking time + research in order to become actual novels.

I used to be laser-focused on my WIP and had one other big concept for the future that I wanted to be equal to first. But recently I've had ideas coming at me thick and fast, which is totally unheard of. I'm enjoying it but it's weird, and I'm not sure what quite to do with them all. On the one hand I like the adage that you shouldn't write these things down, but wait to see if it sticks around in your brain and is compelling enough. On the other, ideas aren't cheap for me so I wonder whether I should take notes just in case. At the moment I'm taking notes. But when I do that the impulse to indulge the idea and start writing becomes very strong.

I do agree though, that these things seem to come around when encountering the hard stages in current work. I'm rewriting / revising my WIP at the moment and getting sick to the back teeth of it. No doubt this is at least partly to blame for the 'shiny new thing' explosion in my head.

I'm actively working on or polishing 4 of the volumes in my series, re-thinking my plans for #5, and occasionally taking notes on #N.

I'm old, enduring a fair amount of short-term memory loss, and yet this "system" seems to be working for me.

As usual, the moral of the story is: find your own best way; everybody's got one.

I find scenes/ideas just sort of pop into my head, particularly when I'm working in a world and have future books planned in it. I tend to grab a sheet of scratch paper or have a file for that potential future book and just type them down with no formatting just to get them out of my head. 1) I don't want to lose them and unfortunately, sometimes even sleeping on it means I can't quite recall how I was going to write that scene out before. 2) It clears space in my head to relax and work on what I was trying to focus on and 3) When it does come time to potentially work on a sequel or short story, I've already got some material on hand.

Also, I tend to work on multiple works at once. I might be editing one and working on a first draft of another. Sometimes I can get stuck with things like trying to come up with chapter openings or certain scenes, so rather than sit there feeling frustrated when something just isn't happening right then, sometimes it's useful for me to be able to switch projects and give my subconscious the space to think on it for a little while.

Anyway, that's what works for me.

I kind of have the opposite problem. Once I get into a project I can't stop thinking about it. This is fine when I want to be working on it, but when I'm letting a draft rest, it's torture. I try to have another idea cooking on the side so I can automatically jump into it when I am letting my current WIP rest. It hasn't captured my imagination yet, but at least I'm getting the discipline of thinking and writing.

Two billion.

Nah. I really don't know, but I've been doing a better job of sticking to one project lately. For me, it helps if I take notes for the upcoming projects that way I can get my fix for those while completing the one I already started while also keeping up with ideas for the stories yet to come.

Currently I'm working on editing two MS's, shelved one for some distance before I edit, working on two or three WIP's actively and thinking about sequels to a couple more pretty actively, and thinking about like four other stories that are all tied together. I'm not actually working on those though. So actively actively 5-7ish, and thinking about four more on top of that. I get bored easily so I flip to a new one when I run out of juice for one.