I have all these ideas of novels I want to write, but there’s never going to be enough time to write them.  (Okay, maybe if I ignored my puppy and stopped talking to friends and family or watching television, I might be able to knock out more of them than I can now, but life needs balance and I enjoy those things as much or more than I enjoy writing.)

So I’m sitting here thinking that I have books 2 and 3 in the series I’m about to publish to write.  And on my right-hand side I have a very brief outline for a nine-book series (three three-book series that are related) that I want to write.  And on my whiteboard to the left I have a note about a long-running series idea I’d like to try.  And that doesn’t even count my “ideas” folder or the notebook where I have brief outlines for about six other novels.

All of them sound interesting to write.

Which leads to a bit of decision paralysis.  Even though I know what I need to do.  That nine-book series is calling to me, but there’s no point in starting a series if you can’t finish it, too.  So what I need to do is start on book 2 of the series, because, Lord help me if the first book actually does well.  Readers might actually ask where the next book is.  And something tells me, “in my head” is not the answer they’ll want to hear.

(Of course, I took the trade pub approach on this and wrote the book as a complete, stand-alone novel that could end right where it does although obviously events are in motion that could lead to another novel.)

Funny how before I started writing I thought finding ideas would be the issue.  Turns out the real issue is finding the best ideas or choosing those ideas that have a chance in hell of appealing to someone other than me.  Who knew?  (Oh, right.  Every frickin’ author out there.  Or at least most of them.)