What to do when you have too many ideas

The big benefit of writing for the Web is the freedom. No one tells you what to do: you can write what you like.

However this very freedom can be confusing for new writers.

Yesterday an ezine subscriber sent me a list of projects she’s working on. She wanted to know which project she should pursue right now, because she needs to increase her income fast.

These projects included:

* An ebook with a collaborator;

* A self-help Web site, which will sell…

* An ebook on surviving divorce (she’s written three chapters);

* A major publicity campaign for her writing services business.

I suggested that she do the publicity campaign.

I didn’t suggest this because I have a crystal ball. All her projects are excellent and will generate income, but the other projects will take time to complete and she wants money fast. If she starts advertising, sends out news releases, and does some other marketing, she can line up work for months, and get instant income from retainers.

Choose – remember DDT

I wrote “Your writing schedule – the secret to making money” for my writing blog to help you to get the most from your writing time, and I commend this process to you: choose what projects you want to work on, and schedule them. It’s vital.

For many years DDT – Do, Don’t Think – was my favorite acronym. I used to have the annoying habit of procrastinating. I over-thought everything. However, it’s been at least six years since over-thinking was a problem for me.

Here’s what changed for me: I started to blog.

Blogging cured my procrastination, because blogs are HUNGRY. They force you to stop dithering, and just write.

I became aware that procrastination wasn’t a problem for me this past week because I’ve been working on launching a podcast. So, since that’s one of the items I’ve chosen and have scheduled for this week, I’m working away quite happily.

I’ve chosen the tools, am planning the podcast, have lined up a service to manage the downloads for me… I’ve managed to do a lot in just three days.

My next steps are to create some practice recordings, and to launch the podcasts in conjunction with next week’s ezine.

If I hadn’t CHOSEN and SCHEDULED I’d still be wondering whether podcasting was a good idea, and over-researching the process.

So, when you have too many ideas: CHOOSE.

Then schedule. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll accomplish.

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