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I have four short story ideas, all plotted up in my head. But I don’t know which one I should write first! How should I best prioritize my story ideas when I have multiple ones floating around in my brain?
—Too Many Cars on the Racetrack
Dear Racetrack,
About a year ago, I started reading multiple books at once. I’m interested in way too many things at once to be satisfied with just one read at a time. At first, I thought it would be total madness. But then I realized something huge: the books fed off each other. That is, reading multiple works made my reading experience that much better. Some part of my brain was comparing and contrasting, finding relief in one where it might be tired in another.
I suggest that maybe your experience with short stories is like this. Why prioritize at all? What happens if you let yourself work on them all at once or as ideas come to you? Surely you can’t stop yourself from thinking about one story in favor of another, can you?
Your question makes me think that you have determined that your favored MO is to work on just one story at a time. To this, I still say, to hell with it. Let your brain run loose! You have had four stories! You say they are all plotted out. Work on ‘em all at once, see what happens. Why prioritize, honestly? It’s only exciting if you have more than one race car on the track, anyway.
Keep calm and drive on,
—Gigi
