Is my imagination too extended?

Posted by DarkPinkGirl on Wed, 11 Nov 2015

Hey, DarkPinkGirl here

Do you ever start writing a story or poem or any piece of writing and just feel like you have way too many ideas for one person to think about?

I often start writing a screenplay or story with a perfectly planned out idea in my head but then it seems the more I continue to write the more ideas come flooding into my head. Most of the time I end up completely forgeting my orginal plot line and attempt to put ALL of my freshly thought new ideas into one story and it just doesn't work.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, how do you deal with all these ideas in your head? You could pick the idea you like the most and go down that road but then your left with a feeling of what if I had done that idea? Would my work be more interesting? So after I've gone through all these questions I'm always left with one important one, is there too much going on in my head?

Anyway, I'd love to hear if anyone else has the same problem so please drop a comment it's much appreciated.

DarkPinkGirl

Comments

Submitted by celticman on

write them down. Give each idea a pitchfork and spoon and ask them to fight it out. 

 

Submitted by Victoria Elliot on

This is a common problem with both experienced and budding writers alike. 

To assist with your objectivity regarding the nature of your ideas, you could go for a logical option like a process of elimination, or you could simply ask the difficult questions that sometimes might need to be asked regarding the merit of some of your ideas. 

For example, you may be thinking to yourself 'all of my ideas are of equal merit' or 'these are all fantastic ideas', however this is called being subjective and is likely not to produce desired results from your writing. Equally as subjective in this context is asking for family and friends (or a boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse) for their opinion on your writing ideas. I once read from a successful published author that she never used those closest to her for their advice for anything other than a personal opinion. In short, your family and friends cannot offer their professional opinion on your writing abilities/ideas unless they already work in the publishing industry.

 

Perhaps what you are experiencing though is a case of writers block in reverse- you have all of the ideas you could possibly want, but can't seem to pick the best ones. Perhaps write down a list of your top three ideas, and ask yourself if these seem to fit with the overall message you are intending to communicate to your audience of your book or screenplay. 

The other ideas are really good, then maybe use them for another book or screenplay? 

 

Hope this helps and best of luck :)

 

Submitted by DarkPinkGirl on

Thanks that's helped a lot since I posted this blog I've been writing down all my ideas and seeing how they will affect the rest of the story. I'll start asking for more people's opinions I think that'll help!

DarkPinkGirl

Submitted by Penny4athought on

Having a furtile imagination is a great tool for a writer but yes, sometimes it can give you too many paths to follow. What I find helps me in that situation is to let the thoughts flow onto the paper-unedited- a freefall of ideas- and then I read it out loud to myself. It is usually very clear then what doesn't work. I'm not sure why this helps but reading the story outloud has always made me find the errors or wrong paths my writing has taken.

Good luck with your story and dont give up.

Penny4athoughtsmiley

Penny4athought

Submitted by DarkPinkGirl on

Thank you from your advice I'm sure it will help a lot and thanks for your motivation it is much appreciated smiley

DarkPinkGirl