Germany's paper response to British 18-inch capital ships

How would Germany respond to planned British battleships and battlecruisers with 18-inch guns?

With ambitious paper designs it lacked the industrial and financial capacity to build while still completing the preceding generation.

Germany's response is described as drawing up larger paper designs. It was already failing to build the generation of ships that the British 18-inch projects were intended to defeat. Producing another set of plans would not by itself close that construction gap. The immediate response would therefore remain on paper.