: Re: Idea overflow in plotting? I've been working on a paranormal/romance/mystery kind of novel for over 4 years now and still haven't finished it. It all started out as a fanfiction but I decided

@Si5022468

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...but between that there's so much to put into. It pains me so much.
Do any of you understand where I'm coming from? How do you deal with that overflow?

I completely understand and my suggestion is, first of all, not to think of it as overflow. Don't think of it as a weakness, but a strength. There are stories whose worlds should have been fleshed out in greater detail, not for the reader to drown in those details, but for the nuances to allow a truly immersive read. You have the impulse to flesh out that world and its nuances, so it is a strength.
Secondly, just like you plotted down all that must happen for the characters to go through certain actions, you 'paint' the setting and the world. Do it outside the narrative, though - and I cannot stress that point enough. You can paint in a vague overview focusing mostly on the tone, or you can go more into the mechanics, or both. One simple method would be to build a wiki with all the important details of the world, or you could just have a list of bullets/topics organised in categories. You can even do it in the shape of short stories with completely different characters (with the added bonus that you don't feel like you're wasting time on worldbuilding as you are writing stories).
Once you have set the main points of how the world works and understand the setting, you can sit down to write your story. Do not in any way dwell on the setting (unless it is important for the plot advancement and the character development, obviously), but rather drop subtle references. Instead of a narrator explaining the local politics, let a main character participate in or listen to a discussion on the topic. Even just a complaint about the child-king's advisors heard in passing gives colour without a long explanation of the regency problems (or if that regency will ever come to a willing end).
The key is to organise your ideas for the world without getting lost in never-ending details and then allow the reader glimpses without ever describing it fully in the story. If you care about that world too deeply to follow that guideline, just add an addendum at the end, Tolkien style, and pour it all out to your heart's content.
Someone once told me she derived so much pleasure in world building that delaying the writing didn't bother her. Both activities gave her the same level of pleasure, so why force herself to write while she wasn't satisfied with the fantasy world? Her goal was not to write the story, but to have fun both developing the world and then writing the story. So find out what is your goal - and whether the time spent worldbuilding is joyful enough that you aren't frustrated for not yet having finished the story - in order to define how much time and effort you are ready to invest in the world setting.

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