I have a treasure trove of weird ideas to write & draw....

[Ameriblush]

I've posted before that I love to draw comics. It might seem weird to see someone like me complain that I have too many ideas to draw. But I do! And I have issues deciding, it's like it just blows up in a big dilemma over nothing thinking about it. Do any of you guys suffer from this alot? What criteria do you use to decide which idea you want to draw or write?

 

[Judge]

Why not write them all down? Keep them on file for future reference.

 

[Streetwise]

I've posted before that I love to draw comics. It might seem weird to see someone like me complain that I have too many ideas to draw. But I do! And I have issues deciding, it's like it just blows up in a big dilemma over nothing thinking about it. Do any of you guys suffer from this alot? What criteria do you use to decide which idea you want to draw or write?

My mother always said do the best you can

 

[Ambi]

Being overwhelmed by too many thoughts and ideas at once is solved, for me, by journaling. I have multiple journals I have going at once - to kind of categorize the thoughts. Each one has a cover that reminds me of the basic theme to be written about in that particular journal. Also, blogging really helps - but you probably wouldn't want to give your ideas away publicly! A private blog could be a good way to organize ideas, though, and you could keep going back to re-edit posts as you add to the ideas.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Make a list, labelled with numbers.

Work on idea number four first.

Do what you're told.

It will save you a lot of time.

 

[Nervous Rex]

I have produced over 150 patents for my employer. I also sit on a patent review committee and occasionally participate in brainstorming sessions.

One thing I've learned is that every new idea is exciting, simply because it's new. To sort the good ideas from the bad ones, I have to let them sit for a while. If I get a new idea, I get really excited. But I don't do anything about it for 2 - 3 days. Once the newness of the idea wears off, I can look at it critically and see:

Does it still look like a good idea? Are there holes in it? Is there a better/cheaper/faster/easier way to do it? I kinda have an internal checklist that all ideas have to pass to make it a good idea. My checklist is for engineering solutions, so it won't work for your literary creativity.

But you can develop your own checklist. One question I would add is: Is it easy to forget, or is it something you can't stop thinking about? That's how a friend of mine judges whether a movie is good or bad - if you can't stop thinking about it, there's something good in there. If it's forgettable, it's a lousy movie.

 

[Beguiling Orbit]

I agree with @Nervous Rex. Make a list of all of them but then put it away for at least a couple of days. When you return to the list, you will realize that many of them will no longer be as attractive as they were when you wrote them down. The ones that still resonate with you are the ones that you should further develop.

 

[watersprite]

Or just start throwing stuff down in paper or digital form.

An art teacher from years ago told me.

Good ideas will mostly be done in the first go, in a half an hour or an hour. Or. You'll know they're good, and will neverhteless require 10 or twenty re-do's.

Sometimes stuff is hard work. Be happy that you have the ideas, jump in there and start.

 

[Lithenai]

Honestly I have like 20 million files which are all just little sketches or doodles of ideas I've had and my friends are constantly buying me paper and pens at any chance they get for all the various writing. It can seem a little overwhelming and sometimes frustrating to not be able to sit down and focus on one topic but writing them all down lets you have them around for later even if you forget them.

I think that's the biggest thing here. There's no need to isolate which ones are "good" or "worth the time", every idea has potentially to be amazing artistically and it's better to write them all down or doodle them all out so you don't regret not doing it later.

 

[Nervous Rex]

...it's better to write them all down or doodle them all out so you don't regret not doing it later.

I need to start a notebook like that. I'm working on a project (6 months so far, and I'm maybe a third of the way through it), and I have to work hard at not starting any other projects (or hobbies, or house projects, or TV shows, or book series'). Writing them down for later will take away the urge to fully flesh out the idea right now.