How long do you wait?

[sciencewarrior]

The hosts of the Techzing podcast coined a term, "The Madness", to an effect that is probably familiar to most of you. Do you know that moment right after you have that absolutely fantastic idea, and you can hardly wait to start working on it? It can be the idea for the new Facebook, or an amazing motif for a new song, or an incredibly clever plot twist. And then the Madness slowly goes away, and you start noticing the flaws in your idea, or realize how much effort it will actually take.

Do you start your projects during The Madness to harness this initial jolt, or do you wait until you cool off a bit to make sure you know what you are getting into? How long do you wait?

[CheeryMoya]

Ideas gnaw at me everyday. What do I do?
I wait.
And wait.
And wait some more.
I wait upwards to about 2 weeks until I deem an idea worthy of my time. I let them ferment, I rip them apart while they are fresh, and I mock them till they look ridiculous. If I find too many flaws in the idea, I dismantle it and throw it back into that bubbling pot that's my mind. If it survives all that and still manages to look appealing, I expand on it.

That answer your question?

[misamane]

I jot a few things down, just so I don't forget it. And then if I carry on thinking about it for a few days, every time I do I'll jot a few more things down... eventually I decide whether it's good enough to keep or not. I never really throw anything away though, just incase it shows some sort of use later on in life.

[redeyesblackpanda]

If I'm inspired, I'll start, but I won't make it public until I confirm that it's decent (a few days of thinking works for me, personally). At least, that's what I'm supposed to do.

[saguaro]

I "marinate" on it for a while to see if the idea has legs or not. For a short story, I might sit on it for a few days. For larger projects, weeks or months.

Once I begin to think it might be a solid idea, I jot everything down in a notebook until I reach the point where I feel I have a good framework and enough material to start with. When I was younger I used to start projects immediately during the Madness and I've got lots of half-stories and first chapters sitting around on my hard drive as a result. Now I hold off until I have a good feel for the length--the longer it is, the more complete the framework has to be before I start working on it.

[kaleidofish]

I've got a whole list of visual novel and story ideas. Every time I get an idea, I write it down on whatever's available at the time (my laptop, a notebook during class, a napkin during lunch, my cellphone, etc). I like planning things out before I actually convert them into project form, though. I rarely start writing without outlining the story from beginning to end.

I've only got a few projects I'm working on at the moment. The rest are on the shelf until I'm ready for them. It's easier for me to focus on my current workload that way. I know that I'm building up my skills with every project I finish, so that some day I really can manage to work on some of my biggest ideas. Everything goes in steps. I'm enjoying the journey.

[Shoko]

I would love to start working on all the ideas I feel really work right at the moment, but most of the time i'm not a place to do so, so I jot it down so i can remember it later. Then of course, you figure out what's good by doing them all!

[Gambit74]

I usually just write it down somewhere and keep it as a reference. If I find it to still be appealing even after a week, I may find a way to work into my story somehow. If I can't, I just leave it alone for another project.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Like others have mentioned, usually I just write down all the notes and details, thoughts I immediately have on the idea, then add to those notes over the course of a few days. I then let that idea sit on the backburner, sometimes for months or years. If I have a particularly compelling addition to the idea, I'll open up the notes and add to them, then put it back away. I peruse my ideas folder once every few months, to read through all my notes again, changing or adding things as I see fit. It also reminds me of old ideas I may have forgotten.

I can usually feel when the idea is "ripe" by instinct. But what happens most of the time is that I will have two separate ideas that are stalled on their own, but when I add them both together suddenly everything 'clicks' and the two partial ideas form one vastly superior whole idea.

My most successful ideas are those that have germinated the longest. 3 years is a pretty good average on how long one sits ripening. I've got one that has sat for 13 years now. I've written four different versions of it, and it has changed tremendously each time. Who the main character is has changed, the plot has changed, even the setting! The core kernel of the idea is the only thing that remains the same. It's not 'ripe' though!

[Greeny]

I'm still waiting. I've been sitting on a few good ideas for a while now, one for a month, the other is an adaptation of a simple idea I had laat year (or was that two years ago?) but I really don't want to do anything concrete until I have my first project out there. I want to be sure that when I start it, I can finish it as well. Especially because I actually care about these ideas. My first project, complex and bloated as it is now, started out as an incredibly simple "test run" with little or no story whatsoever, and it's still not done.

[ffs_jay]

I like to dive into it right away. I may not see it through to completion, but taking immediate action usually results in several other related concepts I find interesting, all of which tends to get fed back into future projects. My current project (and certainly the one I'm taking most seriously of any since I started) has the germs of several other failed ideas in there, as I realised ways to reintegrate those in ways that complemented the new game. It still mightn't get finished, but every time things iterate it feels like the foundations are getting stronger and stronger.

EDIT: I should add that this is fine for me as I largely work solo, but certainly isn't the way to go with any kind of team project.