What ideas do I prioritize as a writer?

As a writer or creative of any type, there's a never ending list of things you could be doing to advance. You could write more, pitch more, write a book, try a screenplay, post on Linkedin, make a reel, post 4 times a day on TikTok, try to find an agent, make enough money to live, try not to go insane...the list goes on and on.

Plus, there's your own ideas. That brilliant story, silly podcast, or innovative newsletter that you've had in the back of your mind, but aren't sure if it's worth the time to actually make it.

I have one really good metric to help you choose from your many ideas:

How mad will you be when someone else does it?

How many times have you thought of an idea, went "ugh, nobody's going to care" or "that would take too long" only to see someone else do your idea in a subpar way and get tons of attention. It's happened to me approximately 397 times.

It sucks! Seeing your idea done by someone else is initially irritating and disheartening. But here's the silver lining: If someone else did one of your ideas, that means your ideas are clearly interesting to a wide range of people. Even if you thought it "wasn't good enough," "too easy," or "no one will care." Well, people will care, you just have to put it out there.

Don't keep sitting on your ideas. It's a lot more fun to put work out there than watch someone else do it.