Too Many Writing Topics? What to do With Them

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

I’ve often written about how to come up with ideas when you’re struggling to find topics as a writer. However, I am one of those writers who always has too many ideas. I can’t be the only one who has docs, notebooks, and cell phone space full of them. So, how do I deal with all of these ideas? What exactly do I do with them and what can you do with yours?

Sort and organize your ideas for ideal use
Many writers write to more than one venue or have somewhat of a designated space or time period for certain topics. It may help to sort your ideas into categories based on topics, venues, styles, in alphabetical order, and more. We each have our own way of doing things. Therefore, only you can decide the exact sorting method that will work best for you specifically. Whatever you choose should make it easier to find and take advantage of all of your ideas.

Give away good ideas you’ll never write
We all have those ideas that sit in a notebook or file somewhere that we keep skipping over for various reasons. Some of those ideas are ones that we may come back to eventually, while others are those which we know we will never write. Take the latter ones out of your records completely and compile them to share with fellow writers who need ideas. Most writers are friends with other writers and you may even be able to think of an exact person who’d appreciate at least some of the ideas.

Create blank docs with titles ahead of time
This is one of the many things I do to help keep track of ideas, as well as to save time when I am ready to write. I title a blank document using the idea and try to make the title one I can use for a potential article or other piece of writing. I save the documents in the most appropriate folder for that specific idea. This could be a folder of docs designated to a specific client, a specific category of ideas, or for one of my own websites. If I don’t yet know where it might go, I save it under the regular documents folder and move it accordingly after it has been written and published.

Use your ideas to create templates/outlines that speed productivity
This is taking the blank doc idea one step further. I have a method I use to speed up my productivity when creating content. I make myself templates or outlines that have all of my ideas listed so that I only have to think of how to explain it in each section and type out just that part when ready to write. To see samples of how I do this and exactly what I mean, go here: Make an easy Outline to Sped Writing Productivity

Stop staring at them and just write!
You knew I was going to say this at some point, right? The most obvious thing to do with all of your ideas is to just start grabbing them and write! It really is just that easy. Do the voices in your head keep switching back and forth from idea to idea? Let them. I have an easy way that I deal with that issue as well: Writing Multiple Article Topics at Once

What do you do when you’re overwhelmed with ideas?

*I originally published this on Bubblews.com.

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