The issue of Too Many Ideas
To create is to live twice.
– Albert Camus
I haven’t updated in a while, but my few but dear blogging companions kept going. Robin of Robayre writes about two recent losses (one turned out great, the other unexpected and sad). Mary-Ann has, after doing a public count-down for years, finally stopped working to enjoy retired life. Her joy of being finally free is contagious. She always seems so full of wanderlust and artistic curiosity, something that I can only dream of. Ingrid had a baby girl this summer, and I feel happy about that even though I have never met them. She’ll be such a good mom I bet, always kind and encouraging.
Rachel, “The barefoot crafter”, is once again and on her own on the other side of the world, doing the Blogtober challenge (publishing one blog post each day for a month). I find her series of random thoughts on kids growing up, trying to find your mojo for crafting as life progresses, and her ever big slew of ongoing projects, invigorating to follow along with. They’re filling my feed with new [actual blog] reads this October, which is kind of encouraging me to get going too.
In her blog post On series as scaffolding Rachel writes:
“Sometimes, the hardest part of carving out a slice of creative time in a busy day, isn’t actually stealing the time. It’s the idea of finding something to work on, or making a decision and fighting the terror of the blank page.The problem can be a lack of ideas, but also be an issue of too many ideas”…
I totally get that. And for me, I love working in a series, it takes some of the daily decision-making out of the picture entirely, right?
Like simply deciding to blog every day for a month – no hesitations needed after the initial decision has been made. You are set on your road ahead. Just do it! Same with my 365 collages. Even if I stumble and fall behind again and again, I know that I want to finish it. I need to finish it for myself, for that promise I made to not waste another year without making art. I know I will finish, even though I’ve been on a break again. And that after I was just catching up and feeling good about myself, hah. Then another entire month and a half went by and I didn’t post anything, which makes me sad. Well, a random timed seasonal post, but nothing else.
As far as I can remember I have never posted a “sorry for my absence” or written ornate excuses for my lapses and breaks in blogging, and that’s intentional. I do think women tend to say “sorry” way too often, even when they don’t owe the world anything! I’ve pushed myself a lot, but I won’t beg your pardon when I couldn’t. I also know I expect more of myself then any of my readers ever asked for, and nobody will halt their life wondering where I went once I stop/disappear/die. For now though, I am here. And this blog post is not an excuse of my absence either, it’s me thinking via words, as usual. I’m thinking that a blog is a long-running series of snippets that you can always come back to. It’s as forgiving and welcoming as you allow it to be. It is all about us giving ourselves creative assignment – and fulfilling that promise to ourselves, one step at a time.
Another “series” that has always been my life’s scaffolding, is filling a notebook or art journal. You don’t have to start something new or make any decisions about what’s next. Size & place is already there. Just open it and keep going my friend.
But back to this “issue of too many ideas”, which has been stopping me this month and so many times before. Maybe I have written about it previously, I’m not sure, but the issue of too many ideas is bothering me more than usual right now.
Whelp! I do have too many ideas
This is also a problem of internal stacking that I don’t seem to grow out of or learn how to deal with. Your advice and thoughts welcome!
For example, I have the next collage blog post almost ready (week 36), but as days and days pass I feel that I want to post another blog post before that one but I can’t make up my mind about what. Not an excuse, but a filler, talking about how I got stuck editing videos and doing voice overs for several weeks in September but not feeling ready to start posting again because I thought I could just finish the other two videos (fillmed last year!) before I started sharing… and on it went. I really wanted to start the swap in early September, or at least by October 1st, but I never got to write the blog post because I realised I had forgotten about my newsletter for months! And I do feel guilty sending out just “swap’s open” and nothing new or fun for my subscribers who are not into the swap… So I procrastinate. And how about the yummy blog posts I started in January and February, fueled with blogging energy from iNaBloPoMo? It’s closing in on November again a year later and I haven’t finished any of those yet either. They, and all this, is stacked up in my mind like a commentary on how to not run things. Like wet snow ready to avalanche down and drown me if I try to pull out just one of these ideas to get started on and finish…
Just do the best you can, they say. Just start, they say. My own previous advice also swirling around, nudging me. I’ve wished that I knew how to not feel late, to not feel overwhelmed and angry with myself for not starting 6 months ago or at least last week. What was I doing last week, and this summer? Why didn’t I keep up with the Spotted Photo Challenge at least for the entire year (BTW, this month Tammy picked the theme and it’s doors, so at least there’s that)? Now I do feel guilty and behind, like I really need to produce the three photo blog posts that I’m behind. The question is not when, but how and why? For how long will the ideas stack up in my brain and make me feel ever behind? Why don’t my brain help me sort some of the ideas out to let them slowly evaporate? I have no idea at the moment. I do feel a bit lost I guess.
In September I re-started by journaling habit, my diary writing habit, and even though it’s not helped me with this the issue of too many ideas, it’s helped me in other ways and it grounds me when I sit down to write by hand for a bit. I feel grateful for having it in my life, as well as being able to share this on the blog today. Not according to plan, but what in life is?
BTW: What’s one thing that helps you stay on track when your head is filled with too many ideas?
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Telepathy? I was thinking of you and you pop in my mailbox.
Meanwhile I sit at my desk, clueless of what’s next, what I should do, too many projects and classes waiting for me.
When I am overwhelmed with ideas, I tend to freeze like you have. But, I also know that doing a deep clean and update re projects languishing in my studio always helps me start moving again. Discarding ideas that no longer fit feels liberating and putting things where they belong/cleaning out the dust bunnies makes me feel calmer. I agree we all say ‘sorry’ too often but perhaps we need to give ourselves more grace. Not every no- second has to be productive.
I can totally relate to what you’ve shared here Hanna. I’ve clearly not been consistent in my blogging either and really want to get back to it, and I feel stuck just like you do. Same with my newsletter. Most of 2025 has been a crap show for me, but that’s really not an excuse either. If nothing else, I’ve had a lot of fodder to write about! I’ve been thinking through a longer post that I’d like to write soon – but right now I’m laid up due to having total knee replacement surgery last week. All in all though, when it really comes down to it, I don’t blog for others; i just blog for me. Sure, I’m hopeful that someone out there is reading what I’m sharing, but …. I guess I just really miss the heyday of blogging when so many creatives where posting and sharing often. That’s how I met you, after all! I see Substack making a surge back to longer form writing, so I’m hoping that will continue to grow, but I’m hanging on to this little Google Blogspot blog of mine either way!
Time and ideas are two battling forces for me. More often than not, when I have the least time I’ll have the most ideas. I write down potential blog posts in my planning notebook, every week I look over what I have done and haven’t, and transcribe the ones I haven’t done to the new week. As the weeks go by, if I keep on writing the same post ideas over and over, I’ll jettison them if I can’t find a compelling reason to keep it on the list. My list has remained static over the past couple months, as I do have some stuff I want to write about, but my time has been strained, with work and a return to school. Same goes for my daily drawing journal comic–I had hopes of participating in Inktober, at least just for myself, and I made it two days in and haven’t opened the sketchbook since.
Your brain swirl sounds like mine! My newsletter is overdue but I’m also behind on blogging, and I really need to get a YouTube up, and if I can do that I can use it in a blog post but before I finish that I need to get the companion photos taken…
I have a composition book I use as my dumping ground for those times I feel like I have too many ideas. Swirling around in my head they feel overwhelming, but once they are down on paper, they feel less so, and generally it’s also clearer where to start.
Thank you for linking my post, I love that it’s inspired a post of your own – it feels a bit like blogging did a decade ago where we would all be inspired and build on each other’s posts
This really hit home with me! I also frequently have too many ideas and then freeze up because it’s so overwhelming. I’m so stalled on my 365 somethings, and I’ve only made 75 of the 100 postcards I so boldly announced I was making. And yet, I’m sure NO ONE even remembers that I said I was doing these things. I’m putting pressure on myself for no reason. I absolutely love how you don’t apologize for falling behind or going quiet for a time.
I definitely relate to the feeling of overwhelm when you have too many ideas, because it just becomes impossible to pick one. And even when I do, I then doubt my choice, quickly get bored and then start again with something else, so I feel like I have a real problem finishing anything! But I always try to remind myself that it’s better than the alternative, as I’ve definitely had phases in my life where I feel like I’ve felt quite stuck with my creativity, and like I have no ideas.