How many ideas do you actually complete?

heyjude · May 7, 2012

I'm filing another idea away "for later" and wondering how many ideas you leave, half-formed, alone, forgotten, in the savage wasteland of your hard drive (or head).

I've got about 3 or 4 solid story ideas that have some amount of work on them--a few pages, a couple paragraphs of what the story could be about, or even several thousand words--that might or might not see the light of day in terms of completion. Two of them are, I think, good enough to make it as complete novels, but they're backburnered. Is backburnered a word? Or two words? Back burnered? That looks wrong. Spell check is giving me fits either way.

Anyway, 3 or 4 ideas out of the 10-ish books I've completed doesn't seem so bad.

How about you? How many ideas* do you kick around and then abandon? What percentage of ideas do you bring to completion, whether as a novel or short?

*Let's define ideas as more than a flash-in-the-pan huh, I oughta write about that. It needs to have something on paper, or a decent amount of thought gone into it.

Adam · May 7, 2012

I have a folder full of ideas, ranging from a sentence or two, to a couple of thousand words. Probably one in ten will make it to a completed novel, if that.

Namatu · May 7, 2012

I'm a slow writer so I intend to get to them all eventually.

In addition to my current WIP, I have four other solid ideas in the queue. Three of those are very well defined, the fourth is "am I seriously going to write this?" I think I will, but it's not my usual thing.

Not included in that total is an idea I had that I haven't figured out how to execute. It's a plot detail thing, and I don't want to sit down to figure it out because there are other ideas much better formed already standing in line.

Maybe it's a bit odd of me, but I discourage ideas from forming when I'm busy with others. "Go away. Don't distract me. I want to finish this one now." When I have an idea for a scene, I've found that if I think it through, dialogue and all, without being able to write it down at that time, the magic goes with the thinking and I can't recapture it later. This bleeds into my approach to ideas. My subconscious can store them until I'm ready to give them their due consideration.

itsmary · May 7, 2012

Very, very few. Out of the dozens upon dozens of ideas I've gotten over the years, only 6-7 have been written down. So definitely less than half.

DocBrown · May 7, 2012

I put less than half, because numerically, that's true at the moment and I suspect it will always be so.

But I have had ideas absorbed into other ideas. This happens to me from time to time, but that may be how I've structured my current set of stories.

Good question though HJ.

kaitie · May 7, 2012

Namatu said:
I'm a slow writer so I intend to get to them all eventually.

In addition to my current WIP, I have four other solid ideas in the queue. Three of those are very well defined, the fourth is "am I seriously going to write this?" I think I will, but it's not my usual thing.

Not included in that total is an idea I had that I haven't figured out how to execute. It's a plot detail thing, and I don't want to sit down to figure it out because there are other ideas much better formed already standing in line.

Maybe it's a bit odd of me, but I discourage ideas from forming when I'm busy with others. "Go away. Don't distract me. I want to finish this one now." When I have an idea for a scene, I've found that if I think it through, dialogue and all, without being able to write it down at that time, the magic goes with the thinking and I can't recapture it later. This bleeds into my approach to ideas. My subconscious can store them until I'm ready to give them their due consideration.

This is pretty much me. I'm so slow that I haven't written that many full novels compared to the ideas for them, but I have several more I plan to do.

I also only get about one or two really decent ideas a year, by which I mean ones that stick with me enough to want to be written. I don't know that I'll ever get around to writing all the ones I have, but right now they are just waiting for me to have time to get around to them.

Shakesbear · May 8, 2012

I have a box of notebooks filled with stories from the days when I wrote everything by hand. There is one story though, that has been in my head for thirty years or more that I really would like to complete. I started to write it on holiday and took loads of photos of places that I wanted to use for locations. I am not sure if I ever will fill it out and complete it. Some of the others I look at and wonder what was in my head at the time of writing!

Nightingale · May 8, 2012

I have a drawer full of notebooks, restaurant napkins, etc. with ideas jotted down. Some are more complete than others. It's basically like a trunk load of fortune cookie slips LOL! I finally completed the one that wouldn't leave me alone and it ended up being a 93,000 word mystery that will probably never see the light of day but at least it's complete. :Shrug:

FoamyRules · May 9, 2012

I have notebooks full of ideas. I get to all of them eventually, but most of them still don't make it into a ms that I can submit. I mean, what I do is end up combining more than one idea and working them over until I get it right.

heyjude · May 10, 2012

I'm surprised at how many "less than halfs" we have.

Not surprised at all on the "needs more chocolate." :tongue

Feeling lonely in the 75% category. Anyone...?

Cathy C · May 10, 2012

I'm also in the 75%. Mostly I think I've learned how to create ideas that are saleable, so I sell more of them.

onesecondglance · May 10, 2012

Err... having completed none I voted for chocolate.

I do intend to complete the novel I'm working on. And if anyone fancies a bash at doing a script for the Aliens movie I came up with then that would be two out of the four things that are more than just one line in a notebook saying "it's got dragons and stuff blowing up, like Reign of Fire but less McConaughey".

Namatu · May 10, 2012

heyjude said:
I'm surprised at how many "less than halfs" we have.

Not surprised at all on the "needs more chocolate."

Feeling lonely in the 75% category. Anyone...?

I intend to be in this category, but since I'm slow, I haven't gotten through half yet. So naturally, I voted for "needs more chocolate."

randi.lee · May 10, 2012

My mind is a very manic place. I probably go thru with one or two out of every fifteen to twenty ideas that pop into my head.

heyjude · May 10, 2012

onesecondglance said:
"it's got dragons and stuff blowing up, like Reign of Fire but less McConaughey".

I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood. For a second there I thought you said "less McConaughey" like it was a good thing.

heyjude · May 10, 2012

Also, I feel better now and less lonely. Thanks!

onesecondglance · May 10, 2012

heyjude said:
I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood. For a second there I thought you said "less McConaughey" like it was a good thing.

Even with the Kerry King-bald beardy combo he's got in RoF? Wow.

I'm making a note on the ideas board now. "Like Reign of Fire but ~~less~~ just the right amount of McConaughey."

Ari Meermans · May 10, 2012

I voted for "This poll needs more chocolate." I'm ~~running~~ plodding along at about 14%. Little focus, easily distracted.

heyjude · May 10, 2012

onesecondglance said:
Even with the Kerry King-bald beardy combo he's got in RoF? Wow.

I admit I haven't seen that...

I'm making a note on the ideas board now. "Like Reign of Fire but ~~less~~ just the right amount of McConaughey."

I'm in!

Ari Meermans said:
I voted for "This poll needs more chocolate." I'm ~~running~~ plodding along at about 14%. Little focus, easily distracted.

14%? Is that an exact percentage?!

Ari Meermans · May 10, 2012

Yepper. There weren't that many to have to count.

Namatu · May 10, 2012

onesecondglance said:
Even with the Kerry King-bald beardy combo he's got in RoF? Wow.

No. No. hj is wrong. She hasn't seen it. I have. NO.

And, hj? You're welcome. Trust me.

WildScribe · May 10, 2012

I think it's hyphenated. Back-burnered. Not that spell check likes "burnered", but we all know it's a word.

I cheat... I am a short story writer, and I write to markets, so I see a call, I plot a story for that call, and then I write that story. Sometimes I am working on half a dozen stories at the same time but I finish at least 75% of them, and probably more. I think that the reason I picked 75% instead of "most" is because I do occasionally have an idea for a novel, and sometimes I even toy with it for a few days, but I hate writing long form mostly, so I don't even start them, much less finish them.

ETA: Wow, I just realized that there are only three of us at 75%... I feel so lonely...

heyjude · May 10, 2012

Ari Meermans said:
Yepper. There weren't that many to have to count.

But you're completing stuff! That's GOOD!

Namatu said:
No. No. hj is wrong. She hasn't seen it. I have. NO.

And, hj? You're welcome. Trust me.

Uh ho. I do trust you! I shall not Google...

WildScribe said:
ETA: Wow, I just realized that there are only three of us at 75%... I feel so lonely...

Hey, I'm feeling happy! For a couple days it was just me... and we're good company, you me and Cath!

DocBrown · May 10, 2012

I have always found that if you're even mildly creative, ideas are a dime a dozen.

It's those few you finish you need to turn into gold.

speirbhean · May 10, 2012

I voted half. Buried in my hard drive are at least two partial novels and tonnes of short stories and half stories. Have two completed trunk novels and then the current one, one submission. I also have 50k of another written which I'll return to 'if' this current one gets published!! If not I'll just weep

and take up angry birds

How many ideas do you actually complete?

What percentage of your ideas make it to their completed form?

All or almost all

75%

Maybe half

Less than half

This poll needs chocolate

Making my own sunshine

Not dead.

Lost in mental space.

have faith, restart

Hopes to one day write for food.

With great power comes

knows a hawk from a handsaw

Hamtaro Rules

Making my own sunshine

Ooo! Shiny new cover!

pretending to be awake

Lost in mental space.

Certified Non-Genius

Making my own sunshine

Making my own sunshine

pretending to be awake

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter

Making my own sunshine

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter

Lost in mental space.

Slave to the Wordcount

Making my own sunshine

Hopes to one day write for food.

wishing I was reading