How to Choose a Novel Idea You Want to Spend Years With
Choosing to write a novel is no light decision.
This is not a quick creative exercise you try on a Saturday afternoon and forget about by Monday. A novel asks something steadier of you. It asks for months of attention, and often years. It asks you to return to the same characters and questions long after the initial spark has faded.
In many ways, it is a long relationship.
You have to care deeply about the idea you choose because you will be living with it for a while.
I don’t say this to scare you off. I say it because writing a novel is already hard work, and it becomes much easier when you feel anchored to the story itself and supported by people who understand what you’re trying to build.
When the Problem Isn’t Too Few Ideas
If you’re like most of the teachers, moms, and new writers I work with, the problem isn’t a lack of ideas. It’s the opposite.
Your brain is full of them.
They show up while you’re driving to school, folding laundry, or supervising homework at the kitchen table. You probably have half-started drafts, notes in your phone, and a few concepts you return to again and again.
This is a good problem to have.
But at some point, you do have to choose.
Recently, I sat down with a client who believed she had one big idea for a novel. As we talked, we realized it was actually several different ideas braided together. Each one could have been its own book.
No wonder she felt stuck.
She had been trying to force everything into a single story, which made the project feel tangled and overwhelming. Once she separated the threads and clarified what she truly wanted this particular novel to explore, something shifted. The path forward felt simpler. She could finally begin drafting with clarity and purpose.
Sometimes the work isn’t inventing more. It’s narrowing down.
Two Questions That Bring Clarity
If you’re staring at a list of possibilities, try slowing the process down and asking yourself two honest questions for each idea:
Why do I want to write this novel?
What is the point of this story?
Don’t rush your answers. Don’t limit yourself to a few tidy sentences. Let yourself freewrite until you reach something real. You might discover that one idea connects to a personal experience you haven’t fully explored yet, or that another simply sounds clever but doesn’t hold your attention for long.
That difference matters.
Writing a novel will always feel big at times. There’s no way around that. But you can make it less overwhelming by grounding yourself in your reasons. When you know why you’re telling this story and what it’s truly about, the next steps become clearer. You can start creating a container for the idea by choosing a time period, a point of view, and a main character to follow.
Small decisions build momentum. Momentum builds confidence.
And confidence makes it much easier to sit down and write.
These are the kinds of exercises we’ll be doing inside Plan Your Novel: A Guided Course for Teacher Moms. Together, we move from a swirl of ideas to one clear, focused story plan you can actually begin drafting.
The class starts in two weeks. You can learn more and register here.
If the timing feels right, I’d love to guide you through this process. And if not, start with those two questions and a blank page. You’re closer to beginning than you think.
