I get ideas from everywhere, everything, and everyone. Driving into work, the cats acting like cats, a conversation with my partner… (That last one is hard when my brain zeros in on something he says that kicks off a scene or conversation in my mind and I lose the thread of the actual conversation entirely. Oops.)

When I sit down to write, I usually have what I want to get out of my brain and into a document ready to go, fingers twitching while the computer boots up. Usually. Sometimes, I sit down to write and stare at the screen until my eyes cross while I try to wrangle my brain into submission and get my thoughts organized. 

I have two go-to methods of dealing with being overwhelmed with ideas. (Definitely not counting the “whining that my brain hates me while laying starfished on the floor in the middle of the livingroom” method; I’m trying for positive and productive advice here.)

I’m starting with the easy fun one because if you’re like me then having too many ideas mucking up the mental works makes for a gloomy mood that is just exhausting.

Talk it out. I would love to say that I mean talk to someone else to bounce ideas off of, and yes, that’s part of it, but what I really mean it is to just talk to yourself. Like with stream of consciousness writing, get the words out and see where your thoughts take you, but do it verbally. It can be incredibly hard. I often find it easier to write my thoughts down than to verbalize them in order to make sense of what I’m thinking, but on the days when writing seems impossible because I don’t know where to start? 

I sing. Badly.

Oh so badly, but I think it’s hilarious to sing something like, “oh my god, I can’t think, where are my thoughts going, am I losing my miiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnd?” (Gotta hit those high notes!) It makes me laugh. Which is better than crying in this situation, for sure. You know what? That laughter has a way of breaking through the mind-to-mouth block. Not sure if it works for people who can actually sing. Maybe? Give it a try! Rather than laughing, be proud of your talent and use that power to break through the block!

I don’t always sing, sometimes I really do just hold a conversation with myself. (Should you be alone for this? Yeah? Probably, though I guess it depends on how understanding your family is. Mine is used to it by now.) When I do sing it out, I don’t sing to a tune I know because I’ll start singing the actual song. Which will have me diving into my CD collection looking for a disc I haven’t played since 1999 because I have to know the one lyric that is escaping me, and that, my friends, is called procrastination. Stick with making up your own tune for this exercise – hey look at you being creative!

Once I start singing/talking out my thoughts, I find it gets easier to figure out which ones are worth focusing on. There’s always more than one, and that’s when I might turn to a friend and talk at them for an hour while they nod and try to get a word in edgewise but I just ramble on because I’m still mostly talking to myself. Once I wind down and they can add their two cents, the focus narrows again, and I am about at the point where I can write it down. This is when I act like I knew what I needed to be thinking all along, and my friend tells me to just get it done already.

Like with finding inspiration, stream of consciousness writing can work, too, but for some reason I get more out of hearing my own voice when I can’t find focus because of too much going on in my brain. Maybe it drowns out the thoughts that can be too loud?

(I just had to write down “look up that song from Tuff Turf about voices” so I wouldn’t lose track of what I’m talking about.)

The second method is one of my favorite things to do in any situation.

Make a list. I LOVE LISTS. It’s a problem. I’m one of those list writers who has so many lists that a master list is needed. I especially love To Do lists because I like crossing things off, but there’s always something to add on in its place. In this instance, to help calm the brain chaos, just list it.

• Is it a word that caught your attention and you want to figure out why? Write the word down and move on, don’t try to pick the thread to untangle that knot just yet.

• Is there a conversation that you can “hear” that has no real end or beginning? Write down what you hear and move on. The rest will come later. Or it won’t. (And you can cross it off!)

• Do you have a question about that tv show someone told you about that has nothing to do with writing but keeps popping into your head and shifting your focus? Write it down to ask about later and free up some space in your mental harddrive.

As you’re making the list, there will be something that you can’t move passed, something that makes listing the next “thing” almost painful because you don’t want to move on. There’s more to say. Say it. Can you move on once the words are out? Do it. If you get to the end and still haven’t decided on something, but the brain chaos seems calmer I say count it as a win. Have a cuppa and read what you wrote. Even if nothing speaks to you loud enough to get to work right away, you have gotten that jumble out of your brain and have something to refer back to when that dreaded “I have no ideas!” feeling creeps up unexpectedly.

There are so many other ways to calm the chaos, but these are my personal go-to’s that never let me down. What do you do?

PS. “Voices” is by The Jim Carroll Band, and was in the 1985 movie Tuff Turf. I’m dating myself but I had the VHS until the DVD came out. A version of the song scene is here. Baby James Spader (looks at those dance moves!) and Robert Downey Jr (on the drums!) make my heart sing. (Badly.)