Focusing on a project vs nurturing new ideas

[Funnyguts]

How do you balance focusing and finishing a project with getting new ideas that take over your brain? There's lots of stuff I want to work on but it means that I never get anything done.

[specialtantei]

I write the new ideas on a sheet of paper and keep them there for the future. Then, after I finish a project and look at them, I discard the ones I don't consider that good anymore and choose between the masterpieces xD. Right now I am working on a VN but have like 200 ideas written down .-. Imagination to the max xD.

[TrickWithAKnife]

Pretty much the same as Specialtantei, except that mine are ideas for features rather than actual new VNs.

I have list after list of ideas that I'd like to add, so basically I check it every now and then and see if something still seems like it's worth adding, and whether I'm able to add it.

[tigerkidde]

I guess it depends, but I would say not to nurture the idea too much until your role in the main project is finished.

If you have a smartphone with a file synchronization app like Dropbox or Google Drive, I would say open up an "Idea Brainstorm" document and belt out a few things that come to mind.

Or feel free to throw some ideas into the idea dump container here on the forums and see if it's still an attractive option to you post-project.

[lycheechan]

Sometimes I go back and forth with my projects. For most of the time, I would focus on the new IDE for a long time and when I look back at my old ideas, it gave me an opportunity to put in new stuff to put in and to put out the stuff that sounded totally retarded. I also mix and match them but I tried to be careful not to make them too similar.

[KittyKatStar]

Pretty much like specialtantei. I just write it down (i.e. on my phone when I get inspiration) and keep it somewhere safe. I find if I don't write it down, the new ideas persist. Or I'll forget those ideas over time and regret not writing them down. >.<

That way I don't have to worry about forgetting, and I can return to them and see if the ideas still hold up. =)

[Blane Doyle]

I find it better to keep a median between feeding old ideas and nurturing new ones.

If you are working on a project it should remain your main priority. However, if you have a new idea you shouldn't just push it aside for later if you are interested in it either. I find it best to keep my work in progress my main objective, keep most of my focus on it, but also look at the new ideas and see what you can do with it little by little.

I always write my ideas down and develop them as they come, write down every little idea for them that I get, dwell on them a bit, but I do not let them get in the way of finishing what I am already working on.

*says the woman who has yet to make any of her projects public, but what have you*

[Manga]

I end up jotting and dashing between all of them, and end up getting nothing done.

[Applegate]

Once I get an idea I work that out. Any ideas I get after either add to the first idea or will be worked out conceptually but not really worked on. There's no use in a lot of new ideas if you can never accomplish anything with any. Ideas are worth zilch.

[Carassaurat]

How do you balance focusing and finishing a project with getting new ideas that take over your brain? There's lots of stuff I want to work on but it means that I never get anything done.

I only have bad ideas, so nother ever needs to be made!

It's sad, but only all too true.

[Blane Doyle]

I only have bad ideas, so nother ever needs to be made!

It's sad, but only all too true.

There's no such thing as a bad idea, only bad execution.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Oh my god, I was going to write a topic like this last week. I actually started typing it out and everything. And then I wandered off and did what I was going to do anyway XD

Anyway, I think it depends if you trust yourself, and I mean HONESTLY trust yourself, to be able to look at new ideas without letting yourself be drawn in. If you KNOW deep down in your heart that you'll get carried away by the new idea because it's so exciting and you are at the hard work stage of your main project, DON'T DO IT. There is too much of a risk that you will become one of those people that jumps from project to project without completing anything and it can do a lot to damage people's trust in you. Just write it down so you remember and get back to work on your main project.

However if you truely know that you can step back a bit and still be perfectly able to return to your main project without fighting yourself, then it can be beneficial in my opinion. I did it very recently. In the beginning I was very wary of looking at other ideas because I had seen so many people get sucked into it. But after working on BCM so long, finishing two other games and discussing 2 other projects, I still came back to BCM and did a significant amount of work and managed to keep that spark alive. So I was pretty confident a minor detour would be just that. So I let myself indulge in some concepting work. This had a number of benefits for me:

- It allowed me to solidify some of my ideas and record them.
- It's a highly creative process the concept stage, so I found it very invigorating.
- It's given me more confidence that I can actually draw and that I don't suck terribly.
- It's helped me pick out things I need to look out for so I can start collecting resources. I'm already starting to collect outfit inspiration on DA.
- And finally, since I'm not working on the project immediately, it gives me time to think about things. Too often I make decisions too quickly and then I'm stuck with them. I like the idea of including a pre-production phase where I can consider different options without feeling pressure to start getting things done. I think this will lead to more thoughtful designs and better overall artwork.

That's my experience with it anyway

[dramspringfeald]

I have Binders full of Game ideas, comic scrips, Character details all over the house. My backpack has 2 binders with 3 or 4 Mead minis each. 2 voice recorders one filled to the brim. my god how the Ideas keep coming. My problem is focusing on then longer than a few days before moving on to another idea.

[CtrlAltLee]

You really can only focus if you truly want to. A lot of the time, if it's just for giggles, you will always be swept away by a new idea before you finish your old one since having fun is the whole point. (especially when you reach stages you don't find as fun.) It just clicks one day, and you go 'I can't get distracted, I need to get this done.' But only if you really believe it deep down. If it's 'I ought to get this done', well....

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I keep a folder of ideas, divided separately for each idea. When I get one, I write notes exhaustively on the idea, brainstorm, and do a few quick concept sketches or dump some reference or "feel" pics into the folder as well. This usually only take one night, and then I go back to my main project.

I find that no idea by itself is "ready to cook". Instead, I often find myself combining ideas into a single story or project, and they both flesh out holes in the other. Often, when I'm stuck in a current project, I'll go look through my idea folder and see if anything inside it would be the "peanut butter" to my current project's "chocolate". I may even cannibalize old ideas. For instance, the setting of one idea might work very well with the story of another idea, or the main character of one idea may go better in another story.