What To Do With Too Many Ideas

I have so many ideas to write, I just don’t have time to get to them all… not immediately, anyway. I think that’s my biggest problem.

I want to commit and focus on my projects, so I do. Occasionally, while working on a large project, I take a break to write something small, and then I return to the big project. But I have several large projects I see coming down the pike. The problem is, I’m having to line them waaay down the road. I’m traveling south from Boston, working on a current project. I see my next project up ahead in New York. Another idea that I am so excited for… but has to wait… it’s chilling in Philly waiting for me to come pick it up. A script idea that I decided would be better as a book is waiting past that one in my nation’s capital, D.C. I swear to you, I have projects positioned in Atlanta and Miami, I am thrilled about the ideas that I came up with for them… but they will have to wait until my hatchback makes its way down south.

For those of you that are geographically-challenged, not familiar with the U.S., or just not thrilled with my analogy… I have projects marked off for years. That is, if I can stick to a good timetable. It’s 2023, I am hoping to finish my first big project soon. And then I am on to the next one, I suppose the hope will be that I can finish that in 2024. And the next in 2025. And so on. I have an exciting idea from months ago that I am thinking… is this going to have to wait for 2029? Yep. Add it to the list.

I suppose it isn’t a horrible problem to have. I just have to jot down all the notes and outline all the ideas that I have for these somewhere so I don’t lose them, and then keep working on the project that I am in the middle of… which I am also excited about, mind you! They all excite me. I can only work on one at a time, though.

But I had a thought recently. An idea I had for a script a while back that I hadn’t ever gotten around to and began wondering if it may do better as a book… I shivered when I wondered if I should start this in 2030. I know that’s 7 years in the future and that’s not a frame of time to scoff at… only 7 years… but 2030 just sounds so much further into the future to me. Like I will never get there. That’s even 15 years after the future of Back to the Future 2!

The Sci-Fi idea I had in the back of my mind from years ago… I thought I could push it to the end of the line… get to it in several years. But what if… in the meantime… I wrote a portion of it? It was an interesting idea. I wonder if others have tried this out. It felt nice to get a portion of the story out. Or perhaps it is just an adjacent portion, I don’t know.

But I wrote a short story. Flash fiction. Under 1,000 words. And this exists in the universe of what I was planning for this big project. It could be just a portion of the overall story. I really enjoyed how my short story came out and I submitted it to Sci-Fi Shorts… and guess what… they accepted it for publication! And it came out today!

I’ll include the link to the story in the comments as I sometimes have trouble getting it to stick in the body. So, if you’re interested, feel free to go check it out! This story is titled, "Fury of the Yellow." My hopes are that it will be part of a larger work… someday… maybe 2030… maybe south of Miami… yes… I’ll have to drive to Havana first. Someone get the boat car ready.

Solid geography joke, right there.