How do you pick an idea?

[KreativeConfusion]

Lately I have been thinking of starting a new comic after I finish chapter one of the one I have now. Mostly just to give me another project to work on without experiencing burn out.

However I have a few ideas I want to do but can't pick one. They all have pros and cons and I'm at a lost at how to pick. Do you guys ever have a hard time picking out an idea? If so, how do you solve the problem?

[Tanisha]

I usually sketch out a few pages and see which one I want to continue with the most. I may like all my story ideas but that doesn't mean I'm always in the right place to start actually making them into pages///

[KreativeConfusion]

Ahhh that sounds like a good idea. I might just try that to see what happens. At the bear least it'll kill any plot bunnies. XD

[AnnaLandin]

The first step is to let it sit for a while - if it still seems like a good idea after a couple of weeks, then it probably IS a good idea.

The second step is to really examine it and experiment a bit. Try to sketch a couple of pages, poke at any potential plot-holes, try to figure out the plot-twists, etc. If it holds up, it's a good idea! If it doesn't, it might need to sit a while longer. You don't have to throw it away - it might just need more time.

Grassblades needed, like, 4 years before it came together. ^_^;

[joannekwan]

Usually the most developed idea and the one with the most script written is the one I'll go with.

[R.n.P]

When I have various ideas bout a scene in my comic especially fight scenes what I do is that I try to act out what I want to happen n see how epic or touching it is so the one that I feel the most will be my pick.

[niinasalmelin]

I pick the one that is the most fleshed out of them all.
Also how skillful I am at the moment. If you want to do both space opera and western but draw horses better, maybe start with the western. Just keep up practicing on those spaceships and start that comic when you can do it justice.

[PaulDevers]

Generally, I agree with what AnnaLandin said. Kick it around for a few weeks, and if it's still there, then you must like the idea enough to keep it!
Otherwise, what I do is aggressively write down every idea I like. So that way, later down the road when your writing a story, you can say 'hmmm, I don't know what to do next', look in your bag of story options. 'I need a new character/villain', good thing you got a few lying around. The same goes with cut concepts/stories. They all stay written down so that I can one day try and salvage as much as possible from it to be reused somewhere else.
I got no less then seven different stories lying around my computer, besides the comic I'm already doing.

[sincerely]

I had to pare down my idea list recently. I put a doc together that contained all the ideas that I have: title (or working title), genre, theme, what I think the scope of the story will be (how long), and then I started poking at them. Just sitting around daydreaming all day and when I got inspired to work on one I worked on that one. Eventually I had to kill one because I didn't like the characters very much, and I benched two others, one because it was dealing with some really heavy stuff that I don't want to deal with right now and one because it's too big.

I just kept writing them until they fell apart or... didn't. I'm pretty excited about the one that didn't. I'm working on writing it right now (or I should be but instead I'm compulsively checking the tapastic forums)

[Doubtcent]

For me, if I have an idea, I don't even put pen to paper yet. Instead I write it as if it would be a novel. If I can write more than four or five chapters, and I still feel excited, then it can become something more. If not, it could be a nice short story or something.