Kids are away for the weekend, and my husband and I are sitting in our bedroom, with the two whiteboards out, brainstorming what comes next in our creative endeavors.
He looks at my side, all those ideas I’ve listed noncommittally, and he says, That looks like a lot.
And I know what he’s saying. It looks like too much.
I can do it, I say. He shrugs a little and turns back to the boards. So I say, Some of those I don’t really have to do. They’re just ideas for now.
But the truth is, I want to do them all.
There is so much I want to do, so many stories and poems and pieces of my heart that want to be written.
But there is only a limited amount of time, a limited amount of me.
I wish it weren’t so. I wish I could spend hours and hours every day creating and writing and brainstorming into being all the bare-bone ideas that come calling.
I keep a journal full of these ideas, short stories and novels and nonfiction books that wait for writing, and that list doesn’t seem to be getting any shorter.
I add to it every week.
How do we who are bursting with ideas find the discipline to take it one at a time?
There is no easy answer to this.
Because sometimes we will start on one project and find that we just don’t have the time needed to make it good or lovely or interesting; or we find we just don’t have the passion for it, at least right now; or we find we just don’t have all the details worked out and need to let it sit for a while.
There is no shame in starting and then putting aside, as long as it doesn’t stay put aside.
Sometimes we move through seasons where we can work on multiple projects—crafting a book of poetry at the same time we’re writing a novel that’s waited years to see paper—and our creativity still feels alive and eager and magical.
And sometimes we move through seasons when we can barely fit in the time to work on one project, even though more ideas are pelting us in the back when we turn away.
It’s not easy to remember that there is a time for everything.
I’m not so great, sometimes, at recognizing my circumstantial limits—because I love what I do and I just want to write and who cares if I’m working on 10 projects all at the same time.
It always seems like the right time to me.
But if we are pursuing an idea out of season, we are bearing fruit that is expensive and sour, fruit that steals valuable resources from other projects that might be entering the perfect season.
So it’s not worth it to cram our schedule full of so many projects, because we can only tell our stories and write our whole hearts well if we’re doing it in the right season.
Sometimes it’s just the right season for poetry. Sometimes it’s the season for that fantasy novel we’ve been setting aside for too long now. Sometimes it’s the season for 365 essays that turn into an unexpected book.
We must determine the season and then fit those projects in the right places, understanding that “not now” doesn’t mean “never.”
I pace myself with a brainstorm journal that I check every week so I can schedule out projects and keep a running tally of the “not now but soon” ones and mark the long-term need-to-develop ones so I don’t feel the urge to start them right this very minute.
We do ourselves no favors trying to tackle too many projects and not giving any of them the time they really deserve. We do ourselves no favors trying to start a new project every time we think of one and rushing through the finish of the old one we honestly don’t have much interest in anymore.
I take my time, because I know that, eventually, I will get to those other 37 projects (as of today) on my brainstorm list.
And if I don’t, maybe they weren’t such great ideas after all.
Do you have trouble taking one project at a time? What do you do with your “extra” ideas? How do you decide which project comes next in line?
Welcome to The Ink Well Creative Community.
The Ink Well Community is evolving. While this used to be a place where I posted a prompt for writers to share their creative works, I have been receiving several inquiries about my process, how I create and read and manage a household with half a dozen little ones. So I thought we could turn this into a community of people who share about the creative process in all its many facets, from where we find our inspiration to when we find time to create (especially if we work other jobs). I’ll be sharing struggles about my creative life and logistical information about my particular creative process and what I’m learning about creativity, among many other things. I hope you’ll weigh in with your own struggles and observations and lessons. Let’s start a conversation. Let’s encourage one another. Let’s live the creative life together.
And if you have your own questions about creativity or process or inspiration, feel free to visit my contact page and send me a note.
