After an intolerable span of time where I couldn't come up with anything I find myself with a stack of ideas and more showing up in my brain daily. Now instead of not having anything to work with I have too much. How do you all figure out what to explore and what to store?
I'm fairly new to writing so perhaps you shouldn't take what I say to heart. I've had the same problem: having too many plot/character/setting ideas for one story. I keep a notebook where I jot down anything that pops into my mind and sounds even remotely like a story possibility. When I'm ready to start writing I make myself pick one, and if it's absolutely impossible for me to choose, I number them and pull a number out of a hat.
A lot of people have told me I shouldn't force myself to write, and that I should wait till I feel inspired, but that doesn't seem to work for me. The times I get really into my writing are when I sit down to foccus, even it I'm not in the mood. Most of the time it just takes a few minutes of trying really hard not to be distracted, and then the story just comes out naturally.
I make notes on all my ideas. I have two right now that I think will be pretty good, but I am powering through a draft with a self imposed dead line and have two partially finished manuscripts on the back burner, so I can't invest time in the two ideas (one will require a lot more development than the other). So I have just made simple notes on them in places I can easily revisit when something is nagging me.
When I have a lot of ideas and no direction, I just read through my notes and sleep on it--I repeat until something starts playing in my brain and I can put more down than a few notes, and I roll from there.
When I have lots of ideas, I write.
Ideas come and go which is a huge problem of mine so whenever anything and I mean ANYthing I quickly jot it on my notes. The best thing to get me writing is compile my most desired ideas and start a detailed outline usually consisting strings of random assortments leading to my first phases of writing.
