Twisting Yourself in Knots

Done. Just done.

So for this year's NaNoWriMo, I completed a novel. More or less. You see, it was meant to be the first in a series of at least three books combining a few stories I already had plotted out. The problem? I made changes, I loved them, and then... I started thinking.

There are few things as dangerous as a writer thinking. Things go from smooth sailing to second guessing everything in no time flat. I managed to twist myself in knots about whether I wanted to break two of the plots taking place in the book out into two separate books to give them more focus. And then how I wanted to handle the interlocking timelines of many events if I chose to do that. And how it would affect the other stories planned for the other books. And then my brain started leaking out my ears, and I stopped thinking.

I'm still a bit twisted up as to how to resolve it all, so in the interest of not driving myself crazy, I'm fleshing out a couple of other ideas to dive into in the meanwhile. So, writers, crafters, artists, general creative types, how do YOU unknot your brain once you've tied it up?