What makes an idea good enough to stick with?

[aqua03]

Uh oh back to da lab again Oh no back to da lab again...

So I've been jotting down a few ideas here and there for a new project to work on and I have come up with some pretty interesting stuff (Like a shonen battle manga type story about people who can harness the power of creation to gain special abilities based off of their desires and motivations, a story taking place in a unique fantasy world about a courier/mail service helping reconnect a broken land, a story about a robot akin to Cave Story, maybe a return to the sentai/Kamen Rider/Ultraman/Bionicle roots that inspired me in the first place, reviving one of my early scrapped comic ideas like Canis Ex Machina or Nebuluara: Space Whatever, a Dungeon Crawling story with a bit of a lovecraftian twist about the nature of the dungeons, and quite a few more.)

As much as I like those ideas, I really can't seem to muster the energy to flesh them out more or pursue them more as my next project. I can;t tell if that's because I'm still tired after I canned Drachenseele a few weeks ago, am afraid of becoming so attached to a project that I can't do it no matter what I do like what happened with the Dragoons, if I'm lacking confidence in my own ideas, or if I just don't think they have as much potential as I initially thought to carry a whole story, or anything else. These ideas, though good ones I feel, just don't seem to spark a fire under me like the Dragoons, EGT, or Alpha Alpaca did for whatever reason.

What do you think? What does make an idea good enough to stick with for a full project and permanently have in your story's world? How did you come to such a decision?

Thanks again for the help guys.

[rajillustration]

I mean it's only been like a week or so, right? Ideas have to sit and mature for a while, like a cheese. I never know which ideas will stick with me until I've daydreamed about them for kind of a while. Then, inspiration will hit, I'll get that urge, and I'll just start testing it out to see if it works when I write it out.

Like sometimes I tell people that illustration is the step where ideas go to die, because when we draw stuff out we see it for what it is--we finally visualize the thing that some of the people who commission me have been dreaming for years and years--and we realize together...wow. This idea was a turd, wasn't it? I have drawn quite a few ideas that small businesses wanted to see, things they were REALLY excited about, but when it came to seeing it physically they were like "Oh. My idea was BONKERS." because not every idea should get made, and honestly, that's worth every penny, because people need to see that so they can move on to a better thing.

If you're getting the sense that these stories aren't what you want to do, it's because you don't want to do it at all, or it's not really the thing you want to be doing right now, and that's fine. Just keep playing in the space of low commitment ideas. Forgive the analogy, but in the same way you don't always need to be in a relationship, you don't need to always be working on a comic. You can straight up just...be single for now. Don't commit yet if you're not feeling it.

[Kaydreamer]

You're racing much too fast here. The best ideas come from a state of calm, and of flow. They're like being in a butterfly house. Chase the butterflies, and they fly away. But sit still for long enough, and they will flutter down to land on you.

As for how to know if ideas are good enough to stick with; let them percolate for a while. Daydream. Let your mind wander into different storylines, follow around different characters, just... daydream. I do most of my 'writing' in the car or in the shower, because those are places where I can just sink quietly into my imagination. The ideas you keep circling back to, the ones you enjoy diving into the most - these are the ones which, in time, can be fleshed out into bigger stories.

But, in order to reach such a state, you have to slow down. When I knew I wanted to begin a webcomic, but my main Dragonfeathers story was much too big to dive into as my first project, I didn't force myself to think of alternatives. I trusted myself that a suitable tale would make itself known to me, and just kept daydreaming through the various story threads which made up that universe. Eventually, one of my favourites began taking a clearer shape, and that one became Blue Star Rebellion.

I mean, I wrote 90% of my current script within a day of realising "Oh hey, this is the one!" but the process of arriving to that burst-of-inspiration point was very relaxed and unpressured.

Just give yourself time to relax, to allow yourself to stop pursuing ideas. Just play with them for a while. Enjoy the process of exploring, directionless and curious, as the half-formed threads of stories flutter around you. There's no time limit, no deadlines. You can choose to write things down if you wish, but don't pursue a structure. Just dot points of half-formed ideas. You may be in that state for a few months, or a few years, but it's a creatively healing place to be, and every creator needs to spend time there once in a while.

[Rhonder]

To piggyback off of the above, while you're giving them time to develop and mature, and just for yourself to continue thinking about all of these different possibilities, consider letting yourself just explore them casually for a while~ jot down characters or locations or scenarios that you think of for any and all of the big-picture ideas you have, but keep it light and just try out a lot of things for each of them (and any other new ideas that come to mind)

As you go through that process, you may find that certain ideas start to feel more or less appealing over time. The less appealing ones you can shove to the side, or try to revise to try again. The more appealing ones you can start to chase down the rabbit hole a little bit, and if you find the designs, locations, scenarios, etc. start flowing naturally, then you may have found the one~ But it'll take time to get there. When you find an idea you can really get behind you'll know. Until then just explore and try to have fun being creative in a non-committal way

[simonitropunk]

It's my main protagonist, Lyza. She's the greatest that I've ever created and want to keep working on her story until the end. Many friends love her and she's quite very inspiring to me. With that said, because of Lyza, I started to come up with scenarios and adventures that makes want to go along with it.

[potatogirl]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[darthmongoose]

In my experience, the idea isn't what makes a story click; it's the characters, atmosphere, and the story.

You need to force yourself to sit down with the idea scraps you have and to look beyond the concept and at "what happens in this story?"
Who is the protagonist? What are the problems in their life that they'd like to solve? What BIG THING happens that shakes up their life bringing both challenges but the chance to get the thing they want? Who or what opposes them? Who will help them? What happens if they fail?

Ideas not pinned to a story feel exciting when you have them and it's all like... vibes and atmosphere, like "Oh! It's about a girl who goes to another world that's ruled by witches! And there are talking animals! And there's a wizard, but he turns out to be just another guy who got isekai'd there years ago!"
But the passion tends to burn out fast because there's no impetus to tell this story because there isn't a story. Because when it's a story it's...

A teenage girl called Dorothy is bored of her mundane life on a farm in Kansas, but then her house gets swept away by a tornado and accidentally kills a witch as it lands in a mysterious fantasy world. Now she must find her way home by meeting the Wizard of Oz, aided by a robot lumberjack, a cowardly lion and a talking scarecrow, but her quest is threatened by the Wicked Witch of the West, out for revenge for the death of her sister! Can they get to the Emerald City and overcome the Witch? Or will Dorothy be stuck in Oz forever as her servant?

Vibes and ideas aren't enough. You need the framework of "stuff happens to these characters" or you'll run out of momentum and a clear goal to work towards.

[azzy-m]

For me, it depends on which ones can be expanded upon and which ones can't, at least not for the moment. I have a google doc dedicated to jotting down possible comic ideas and only very few of them I can imagine actually being a story one day. For fuck's sake literally only two out of these comics are ever going to see the light of day.

For example, I have a story that is a fairy tale retelling set in the criminal underbelly of the city, that I decided to put in the backburner because I can't think of any proper way to expand upon the world (and making a fantasy comic is already a lot of work, imagine throwing in another one). I have two superhero comic ideas, both different but I couldn't think of anything else beyond a concept, just throwaway plot points that I tend to come up with thinking of literally any story concept.

Honestly, stories very rarely develop as actual stories for me quickly. All of my ideas-that-definitely-will-be-a-thing are all ideas that I've kept in may brain for years (with the exception of one which really is just a longer and more expanded-upon version of a short story I made a year ago), my current comic's concept has literally been stewing for five years.

Maybe work on your other stuff and let ideas for your other concepts come naturally to you - that's how I've been doing it and it works for me. It's better if you don't really force yourself to come up with anything good.

[DualDragons]

Hmmm honestly I think it might be the type of story you are going for that gives you trouble.

Like one of the things that EGT and Alpha Alpaca have in common (from my perspective) is that they have some kind of comedic undertone, whereas Drachenseele and the new concepts seem to be way more serious epic plot/worldbuilding heavy type of media. I think that could play a role in as to why writing these stories could be difficult, because they are different.

My advice: try to play around with the type of story as well when you try to figure out ideas. Not every story has to be grand and epic to grip a reader.

[aqua03]

Yeah, you have a point there. I know I've always wanted to have an epic fantasy story akin to Zelda or Final Fantasy when I set out to make something back in 2011 with the Dragoons and I've always worried that if I focus too much on just doing comedy, then I'd just be pigeonholed as a guy who can only do funny if that makes sense whereas it seems that the more serialized and epic fantasy writers tends to get more of the "respect" as writers in that regard if that also makes sense.

@darthmongoose

Good point. Yeah, for as scattershot as the Dragoons were, I did really gel and vibe with them as characters. It's just I sat on them for so long a bunch of issues sprung up related to them that I couldn't bring myself to work on them for whatever reason.

I need to think of more of a framework for the characters and stories to move forward in general beyond just a cool idea for a setting.

[NiWo21k]

I am no real creator, I wrote a few stories and only now try to get one out as a comic, but I always thought a good idea, is the one, that you will always think back with a smile and one you like fiddeling around.

The story of the comic I just started releasing is based on a bad RPG character I once created. She never was used, but her file always stayed on my computer and over time and time, every now and then, when I had a little spare time I worked on it. I loved working on it, and that is what my test readers always said is visible.

This love is what will bring you foreward and keep sticking to it. because you want to see it evolve. A befriended writer once said: Our stories and characters are like kids, we want to see them grow and become their own. And the moment you have this connection, you will continue.

Yes, I know this is so cliche and stupid, but that is how I think, sorry

[ryoko]

You may not have given yourself enough of a mental break for a fresh start yet. I don't think you should get discouraged that you haven't been able to flesh out an idea immediately since none of us come up with a detailed plan of action for our stories immediately either. I have a very long series so I can understand how even just starting it and wondering if you can see it through can be daunting.

When I was younger I had sooo many different story ideas and I started several different stories, but none of them really got fleshed out or went anywhere. In fact, the series I do now had the same name, but when I came up with it in grade 6, it was set in our modern world and was a comedy about a dragon selling bottled pond water he had stolen only to be thwarted by Victory, her cat and a pond monster. Totally not what it's about now. I also had another story I was working on which was a adventure/fantasy with catlike people in it. Neither of these stories really had the makings of a long-form comic and it wasn't until I was 15 that I suddenly came to the realization that if I combined them, the characters from each would work really well together.

Everything just flowed from there. I was able to flesh out the entire plot and had begun something I could see myself working on for a long time. Since I already had a solid idea of my characters personalities, much like you have with yours from Dragoons and your other series, it made it much easier to structure a story around them as I knew how each would react to different situations.

After reading all of your well thought out threads here on the forums, I think you have a great imagination and a lot of great story ideas. I think that the strength of your characters and how well you understand them are the first step in developing a long term project. You don't need to abandon old ideas. You could also plan from the ending rather than a beginning for a story. Just thinking backwards might open up new ideas on how to make an existing story you have work.

[cherrystark]

I love @rajillustration's analogy about ideas being like relationships. You know it's the right idea when you can't stop thinking about the idea and can't imagine a future without the idea. Now, I know a lot of people are saying you haven't given yourself enough time to recover from your previous idea. This might be true, but you know yourself better than anyone.

Even if you just bounce around with smaller ideas for short stories or comics for a while, your idea(s) should make you happy. If you aren't happy with it to keep working on it, no matter how potentially "awesome" it is, you're going to find yourself falling into the same traps all over again.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I suppose only you can say why these projects don't seem to inspire you...to answer your actual question, though: for me, someone who is intensely motivated to do basically everything, what makes an idea good enough to stick with is whether or not I can come back and work seriously on it after the initial buzz dies down. ^^;

I can do concept+character designs+basic premise/backstory in my sleep (literally); but sometimes that's all I can manage...I open up a Word doc to actually start the story, and nothing comes out. 6u6;
I can live with that, though. Like others have said, some ideas need time to marinate...and while I wait, I can always work on other things. Who knows, someday I might find myself in the right mental space to tell a certain story, and that discarded idea might end up being something I can stick with after all.

[therosesword]

I've always found that what I want a story to be and what it ends up being are two different things.

When I first started writing I wanted to write "important" stuff. Considering what I was reading at that age (around 10) one could hardly say it was high literature. I'm not sure where I got the idea to write that way, probably a teacher waxing on about the Great American Novel or some such drivel.

Anyway, when I concentrate on something big or important or illustrious in some manner it doesn't happen. Now when I get a nubbins of an idea I think about it and let it develop a little and then I sit down and start to write and I let the story tell itself, but, I am a pantser, that doesn't work for everyone else.

I no longer try to write something "important." So many of those things once deemed important are now looked down on so... why bother? I'll just try and write a good story that keeps people entertained and is a joy to write now that I'm out from under the sword of Damocles.

Plant the seed, see what grows.

[artamazon]

Man, I sat on my idea for like 2 or 3 years until I gathered more ideas for it and then started telling people about it and then started getting more excited myself and eventually did it. Now, I just have fun with it.

[joannekwan]

For me, an idea sticks when I come up with a decent amount of content related to that idea. A premise is just a premise. It's an idea for a sandwich but you have to produce the bread and the meat and the fixings for it to be a real sandwich you can show and offer people.
It's not just character sketches, but an actionable plot and scenes and dialogue snippets: stuff I can actually make into something. These things may come over many months or within a week, it's different for each idea.

And then it comes down to feeling excited about the things I invent too. You can have everything drafted, have all your fixings ready, but if you aren't passionate about it, what's the point? Why make an anchovy sandwich when you hate anchovy?

[Hazumirein]

This might be the discovery writer in me talking, but, "ideas" are a dime a dozen. It's what you do with those ideas that counts. It's why so many successful stories have the same basic plotlines; no one is going to tell that story quite the same way you are.

Anyway, focus less on finding a "good" or "unique" idea and more on finding an idea you like. Sometimes that means letting one sit for awhile and seeing if you find yourself coming back to it. Sometimes it means forcing yourself to sit down with a blank word doc and writing an outline, or a couple of chapters, to see what happens.

Also, assume that things are going to change along the way as you work on your stories. Everything I've written that's gotten past the conceptual stage is very different than what I originally imagined it to be, whether it's because the characters ran off and did their own thing or because I discovered that I'd been pursuing the wrong plotline and pivoted. Don't get married to one specific idea, because there's a solid chance that you'll start with one and end with another. This is often a good thing. My newest project started with "I want to write a story about a band" and "I want to write a horror/comedy story", and I couldn't come up with anything good for either individually, but when I combined them...it worked, and I wound up with a very silly Scooby-Doo-esque plot about a band with a ghost dog that's a ton of fun to write.

The bottom line here is to stop stressing about this stuff so much. Don't worry about potential, and don't be afraid to just let something sit and simmer until you find yourself with a bunch of notes and character descriptions and plot threads. Or, alternatively, write the first chapter of every idea you have and see if any of them make you want to continue. It's all pretty low-stakes at this stage, so just have fun with it.