Easily manage all your great ideas

There’s a lot inside you. Books. Blog posts. Essays, and then there’s that class you want to teach. Oh, and poetry, too.

Ring true? If you’ve been bitten by the writing bug, chances are there is a never-ending stream of ideas you want to write.

One of the biggest challenges we face is knowing what to write, and when. How to prioritize all of our great ideas? It’s going to be different for everyone, but as a seasoned writer’s coach, I have some ways to help focus enough so we can write what we want.

First you want to get clear on why you are writing and what you want for your writing. Is it for yourself only? For your loved ones? Or do you have publishing goals you want to meet?

Get clear on what you want for your writing. Now, check out this handy exercise from my book Create Your Writer’s Life.

1) Make a list of ten things you want to write.
These could be specific (an article about ADD) or broad (honest journal pages every day). They can be short term (a birthday letter to Vicki) or long term (a novel about real people).

2) Assess your list.
Decide which items you want to focus on. Go through the list. Make a check next to the projects you will work on in the next year.

Repeat this process, using the following units of time. What will you work on in the next:

• six months
• three months
• next month

Example of a list of writing projects:

• Yoga article √√
  • Artist profile article √√
  • Artist technique article √√
  • NPR piece √√
  • Letter to Sara √√√
  • Daily journal entries √√√√
  • Novel √√
  • Nonfiction book √√√√
  • Essay about ex √√√

By looking at the number of checks next to each item, you can easily see which projects have the highest priority. The more checks, the higher the priority. The nonfiction book has four checks, which indicates that I want to work on it this month. Journaling also has four checks, indicating that that is also a priority now.

The yoga article and artist profile article, with two checks each, are not as important now, but I would like to get to them in the next six months. Now I have a clear sense of what I will work on now, and what will come afterward. The list propels me from ideas into action.
The items that have the most checks carry the most juice and energy for you now. Begin today.

Before you plunge in with your project, take some time to get familiar with it. Brainstorm it. Mind map it. Draw it in colors. Feel free to outline it. Know that it will change as you work on it, but this is the initial getting-to-know you phase.

Warning! Don’t get stuck in the planning process. Often we don’t have the whole thing mapped out and need to plunge into the writing even when we don’t have everything figured out. I’ve seen clients drain their enthusiasm for a project by outlining it to death.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. What’s important about this project?
2. What will be different for me when I am done with it?

I’d love to know how this process worked for you. Feel free to share your experience below.

Now that you are clear about what to write, let’s get that in ink! Join us to write every day in February, May or October and by the end of the month you will be glowing and gloating about all the process you’ve made.
Join us to write every day.