How many is too many?

[GeneralHZRD he/him]

Do you think that you can have too many book ideas? I personally don't think you can, as long as you limit how many you are working on at one time. I also plan on becoming a writer for a living, (hopefully) so I figure that at least this way I won't run out of ideas.

I currently have 11 separate ideas or roughly 26 books. (Most of the ideas are three book trilogies, one idea is 6, and a couple are stand alone. And one of them is a comic idea, so potentially endless.)

Out of curiosity, how many different book ideas do you all have?

Edit: Actually, I have 13 ideas. If you count the one that is literally just the title, and the one I just came up with. (Which is what prompted this post in the first place.)

Edited February 22, 2020 by TheVillageIdiot

[Kureshi Ironclaw]

In terms of whole ideas that have enough meat on them to create an entire story from, probably only four or five. However, I am working on a pair of trilogies and I am constantly coming up with new ideas to feed into those that deepen the world. I think a lot of the time a single book contains a number of strong ideas that intersect in interesting ways, so I don't really have that one idea = one book mentality about it.

[Ataraxian Wist she/her]

I... Yeah, I have too many.

I start from the magic system, then build a setting that facilitates either the evolution of the magic system or the creation of a plot that actually benefits from the magic system, then I create a story based on what I think would be interesting in light of the magic, and... A lot of them just don't meld well. Many of them need their own stories, some need their own planets, others can share with each other. Some need only short stories or references in other stories, and others need full novels or even trilogies. So...

48. That's a lot. I mean, 20 of them are to be short stories that are grouped into anthologies for a total of 28 full-length works, but... That's still so many!

Yes, there is such thing as too many. In the State of the Sanderson 2019, Brandon actually talks about how his best predictions put him finishing the Cosmere in his 70's or 80's IF HE DOESN'T WRITE ANY NON-COSMERE WORKS (besides Rithmatist 2). That's with thirty-seven (IIRC) total publishable works, many of which are already written.

I read that and honestly started freaking out about my own writing aspirations, because Brandon writes at least ten times faster than I do. Granted, I spend a lot of time distracted by new ideas and very little time writing. But that makes time kinda scary.

26 books is fine, though, if you're not old and you start soon. That's what I'm doing. Or trying to do, around listening to Shardcast, doing school from quarantine, and trying to work from quarantine. So.. It's still slow.

[Frustration]

1 hour ago, Sazedezas said:

I... Yeah, I have too many.

I start from the magic system, then build a setting that facilitates either the evolution of the magic system or the creation of a plot that actually benefits from the magic system, then I create a story based on what I think would be interesting in light of the magic, and... A lot of them just don't meld well. Many of them need their own stories, some need their own planets, others can share with each other. Some need only short stories or references in other stories, and others need full novels or even trilogies. So...

48. That's a lot. I mean, 20 of them are to be short stories that are grouped into anthologies for a total of 28 full-length works, but... That's still so many!

Yes, there is such thing as too many. In the State of the Sanderson 2019, Brandon actually talks about how his best predictions put him finishing the Cosmere in his 70's or 80's IF HE DOESN'T WRITE ANY NON-COSMERE WORKS (besides Rithmatist 2). That's with thirty-seven (IIRC) total publishable works, many of which are already written.

I read that and honestly started freaking out about my own writing aspirations, because Brandon writes at least ten times faster than I do. Granted, I spend a lot of time distracted by new ideas and very little time writing. But that makes time kinda scary.

26 books is fine, though, if you're not old and you start soon. That's what I'm doing. Or trying to do, around listening to Shardcast, doing school from quarantine, and trying to work from quarantine. So.. It's still slow.

That's my problem too much to do.

1 hour ago, Sazedezas said:

Yes, there is such thing as too many. In the State of the Sanderson 2019, Brandon actually talks about how his best predictions put him finishing the Cosmere in his 70's or 80's IF HE DOESN'T WRITE ANY NON-COSMERE WORKS (besides Rithmatist 2). That's with thirty-seven (IIRC) total publishable works, many of which are already written.