Write Down All of Your Ideas
I am an article writer, musician and online comic strip creator. I do a few other things here and there but I will concentrate just on those things in this article just to keep things simple. Those are three creative endeavors that I do. Each of those require the use of various ideas that may come to mind from time to time.
Sometimes a good idea is hard to come by. I don't know how many times I had a dry spell. I might have writer's block when it comes to writing articles or writing the basic script for a four frame comic strip. The same may be true when it comes to writing song lyrics or composing music. So when a good idea comes along I write it down. I try not to take any idea for granted.
One example is when I write my comic strips for the Punksters.net Comic strip Series. There have been times when I went a week or two without an idea for a new strip. I start to panic at that point. But suddenly I might get a burst of ideas for the comic strip. It might be one idea after another. So I write them down. To be more exact, I actually type the idea up on the computer and send it to myself in an e-mail. Then I put it in a folder that I have reserved for the comic strip ideas.
I have a lot of them in there. So when it comes time to do a new comic strip, I sort through the ideas and pick one out. Some of them are completed ideas for a four frame comic strip and some of them are only a basic outline consisting of just a couple of sentences.
People who are not familiar with the process of creating a comic strip might not realize that you would need a script for such a thing. After all, a comic strip usually only consists of three, four or maybe five frames. But I write a basic script for each one. The script will basically be the dialogue that takes place in each frame.
In frame one, character one will say such and such. In frame two a different character will say something else. The dialogue is all laid out by frame. Then, when I go to create the comic strip, I create the visual part and add the dialogue to each frame, in the form of captions.
Like I said before, there are times when I have a dry spell, so when I do come up with an idea, I try to make sure I write it down so that I could retrieve it later. I sometimes come up with the ideas at work. Since I work at a computer all day, I have the opportunity to type up the idea and send it to myself in an e-mail.
I not only write down ideas for my comic strips but I will do the same for articles. I might come up with a good idea for an article. So I will crate a title from that idea and send it to myself in an e-mail, where I file it away in a folder reserved for article ideas. Then, when I have the time, I will write the article.
Sometimes I will get an idea in the middle of the night. Often it will be at a time when I am having trouble sleeping. I will think to myself that it is a great idea. Then I tell myself that there is no need to write it down, I should remember it in the morning. Then I wake up in the morning and forget what that great idea was. So I learned my lesson. I will now get out of bed and write the idea down.
Ideas come whenever they feel like it. There is no set schedule. Creativity often comes in spurts. You may have writer's block for a while and then all of a sudden, without warning, a rush of ideas come flooding into your mind. Sometimes they may come so fast it is hard to keep track of them unless you write them down. Ideas have no schedule. They don't operate by a calendar. You can't say that at five o'clock today, I am going to have a great idea come to me.they come when they decide to come, not when you decide they will come.
Don;t take any idea for granted. What may even seem like a bad idea might become a good one with a little reworking. I have had a number of occasions where I took mediocre or bad ideas and tweaked them to be something very good. At least in my opinion anyway.
I don't know how many ideas I have sent to myself in an e-mail. I couldn't even count because after I use them, I delete the e-mail I typed them up in and sent to myself. It is a process that really has worked out well for me. I do know that if I never started doing that, I would never have completed anywhere near the number of things that I have created over the time period I have been doing it.
A lot of the creative things that I do require a lot of time and effort. So having my ideas all written down and stored somewhere actually makes things a lot easier and will save both time and effort. Overall,it has really increased my productive capacity. Also the time saved allows me to do other things like loaf around and watch television, if I am not in the mood to do anything in particular.
So writing down my ideas allows me to be more creative, more productive, more efficient with my usage of time and it allows me more time to relax. It is a multi-win situation for me. It could be for you as well.
