take a big piece of paper or - even better - get yourself a blackboard, and write down every single idea, however useless it may sound. look at the paper every other day or week and see if you can make any connections between the ideas, if they are complemetary. if an idea can't get out of your mind for at least two weeks, take it and use it.

Yeah, that's good - often the best ideas are actually two separate ones merged together...

To add context - I'm nearly done with my current project and a number ideas are milling around my head:

- commercial project, a history of republicanism, which I've already researched quite indepth and could put together in a few months
- fun project, a travel book documenting a year I spend in Africa and the Middle East
- articles, I have about 8 working papers in draft form and never get round to completing them
- fiction, I have a pretty good novel idea and have written about 10,000 words so far into it.

Just not sure what to devote my energy to.

Hmmm. Not sure any of those can be merged together particularly well.
They all sound interesting. But the £££/$$$ are surely in the commercial project... which doesn't sound particularly commercial.

Well when I say commercial, I mean I'm confident that I can publish it and make a little money from it. I never aim *fully* commercial.

They all sound good to be honest. Of course before you can work out what will make you most money, you have to think about what you can actually get published too.

just write what ever,some will be garbage some not,some you will think is garbage or too personal or useless but the truth is that you can't not know what others will think.
just write as much as posible and don't trow anything,if you don't like it just put it away for later,you may find it in a few years from now and think different.

Syn - what's your novel idea about? very curious, as I like to write fiction too, and I'm sitting on many manuscripts of short stories/novelles (5K to 30K words)

I write about whatever is the most compelling, and whatever I know will hold my interest for months. In terms of long stuff.

I don't really write fiction, despite having tried a few times, it always seems that the point would be better delivered in more of an essay form, even if the essay takes on something of a poetic structure.

The base story is about a country undergoing violent revolution from the perspective of a young student who can't get to grips with what it's all about and the various parties (good and bad on both sides). So it's also a coming of age story, and a political commentary. There are reasons to support the government and reasons to support the rebels - our main character is caught up in it all trying to keep a grip on the status quo. I've got some long segments of commentary lined up in it all about the folly of war and politics, despair but also hope towards the future and it's really all about the potential of things and the reasons that stop us reaching our potentials

Lol I can just see #krellinbookopeners now...

"John Galt woke with a start - the explosion sounds could only have come from one thing - libtard terrorists were finally making their move to instigate a coup d'état. He took his hands out of his pants and leapt out of bed, reaching for his trusty O'Bungler..."

Palin crouched and readied her rifle as the ultra-liberals drew closer, prepared to defend her freedom of speech to the last bullet

I usually ask myself, "what will upset the greatest number of uptight idiots?" and then I go ahead and write that. Straight stream-of-consciousness the first time 'round, followed up by a round of editing to inject the maximum dosage of snark and bite to the text.

I'm a really lazy writer. I basically don't write an idea down until it's burning inside of me and I HAVE to get it out. Where essays and critical stuff comes in, I usually compile a bit of my thoughts on something right after I read it, and if it's still on my mind say a week later I'll see if I can make something out of it. (Most of ideas don't last a week of non-input, but the novel I'm working on did.)

Thucy - I can assure you, I can write circles around you. I'm also certain that all of your "compelling" writing has to do with your Noble White Guilt and how you spend your days looking down on all the women and un-white people around you, thinking about how best you can save them from themselves...

SYn -- lol good lord, don't let Obi-fuck read that...since you just described a dystopian YA novel!! lol

Nah actually what I'm writing now is about the mind's relationship to the physical world and the source of divinity in life. Sorry to disappoint you. It does have a part where I argue that this justifies egalitarianism , though, so since you're anti-egalitarian I guess you would hate it.

I'm actually working on a realistic fiction novel myself right now. It's about 15,000 words and my goal is 60,000 words.

SYnapse, my advice to you would be to just start writing. Jump right in to some sort of prologue as soon as you get an idea. If you feel like you're starting to stretch and the length doesn't feel right, it's not a good story. The audience can tell when the author is forcing the story. A good story that flows naturally in your mind from start to finish will flow naturally from page to page. Don't force the slow parts of the story. Let the slow parts build themselves in your head. You should spend ten minutes thinking about your story for every one minute you spend actually writing it. Think about your story throughout the day, especially when you're zoning out at work/school. Think about your story when you're doing everyday menial tasks such as personal hygiene. Take advantage of your mind's natural wanderings.

Also, I find it helpful to include large chunks of myself into my protagonists. Your protagonist should be at least a partial reflection of yourself. Your protagonist will be more sympathetic and believable if it's your alter ego. Your supporting characters should be reflections of people you have encountered in your life. Storytelling is allegorical. You should have real-life acquaintances in your mind that could reasonably stand in for all of your major characters.

Finally, find a close friend or confidant who can proof your storyline in chunks as you write it. They don't have to be grammar experts or English majors, but they should have strong critical thinking skills. You don't have to know dick about English to tell a good story from a shit story. Bounce your ideas off of this person and make sure that the story in your head makes sense in their head too.