‘Help! I have too many ideas and don’t know which to choose!’

How to cope when you have too many things to write about, so you're not writing about any of them.

Last week, I wrote about the problem of not having anything to write about. If you’re in that situation – where your mind feels blank and the empty page fills you with dread – then hearing someone complain that they have too many ideas might feel like a real kick in the teeth.

It’s like being strapped for cash, only to hear your neighbour bemoaning the fact they have too much money, and what will they possibly spend it all on? (Side note: if that person really is your neighbour, maybe ask them if they fancy the philanthropic gesture of supporting a writer? Or at least if they fancy signing up to my Substack.)

But in all seriousness: having too many ideas can actually be a huge problem. I should know; it’s the problem I’m having now.

As some of you will know, I recently finished a draft of Novel Number 3 and sent it to my agent. Woohoo! I poured myself a glass of Prosecco, sat back, and allowed myself to feel pleased. It was a great feeling. Then the itchiness set in.

What now? What do I do while I wait for her to read it? How do I distract myself from the anxious thumb-twiddling?

The most sensible answer (and the most common one when I posted this question on social media) is to start on a shiny new project. After all, it isn’t like I don’t have any ideas ready and waiting. I poured myself a coffee, sat down, and opened my notebook.

I often describe the way book ideas occupy my brain by comparing it to those nail varnish dispensers you get in Boots. You know the ones: you take the nail varnish from the shelf, and another one slides forward to take its place. That’s how I picture book ideas, all stacked up in my mind; while I’m working on the current one, the next one is percolating somewhere behind it.

Except that right now, my ideas store is less of a neatly stacked nail varnish dispenser, and more of an explosion in a makeup factory. Ideas are everywhere, and I don’t know which one to work on first.

And so, in true panicked over-stimulated fashion, I’ve found myself unable to work on any of them.

So what’s the solution?