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[sonder]

Anyone else ever been in my situation?

Wear many "hats", developer, artist, game designer, app designer...

You've started or half-filled up lots of notebooks and sketchbooks, never settling on a "system" but desperately wanting to not have to think about where what sketchbook is when you want to record an idea.  

Personally I don't want to mix technical stuff and creative stuff so at the very least I should have a notebook of some kind just for technical ideas and notes.

What do?

I tried to sort it out this morning but I short-circuited ... It seems hopeless, should I "bury" these miscarriages, come up with a simple system and move on, or try to make some sense of it?  Seems like a waste of paper...

[sonder]

I know this could make this a bit of an anti-climactic thread, but I decided to just label each half-filled book according to my best summary of its contents and go from there.  Turns out some of my past decisions were somewhat consistent.

Still curious to hear how others have dealt with / are dealing with this.

[s0]

i basically don't write down ideas ever. my rule of thumb is, if i forget an idea it probably wasn't worth remembering to begin with. it's also a good gauge for potential longterm motivation for a project. if you have an idea rolling around your head for a long time that means you're probably passionate about it.

[JWK5]

i basically don't write down ideas ever. my rule of thumb is, if i forget an idea it probably wasn't worth remembering to begin with. it's also a good gauge for potential longterm motivation for a project. if you have an idea rolling around your head for a long time that means you're probably passionate about it.

I can't work that way, I have issues with remembering (especially more so after ending up with concussion syndrome). An idea I forget is lost potential, not a process of weeding out.



I doodle down nearly every idea and go back and mash ideas together and rework them and create new ideas from them. Ideas are a toy for me to play with, they are fun and enjoyable and I have a nice collection of them. I don't ever take them too seriously, none of them are my magnum opus they are just spaces to explore and tools to use to learn and grow. For that matter, I have tons of projects that contribute pieces to other projects and so on. I have come to learn that I create because creating is my passion, not the projects (that is, it is not my goal to finish a project it is my goal to have a project to work on at all).

For me, happiness is not "success", happiness is growth and discovery. My piles of notes and ideas are not a collection of half-finished failures, they are a diary recording my explorations and reminding me that I've grown.

[sonder]

For me, happiness is not "success", happiness is growth and discovery. My piles of notes and ideas are not a collection of half-finished failures, they are a diary recording my explorations.

At least you have a single pile.  I'm still trying to figure out where I went wrong and avoid ideas for different projects getting lost again.  I'm fine with a mess of papers, that's fun.  I also have a giant easel pad for general idea jotting, it takes up half my 7' desk.  

I have characterized 8 books.  One is my "OK to show" sketchbook which contains everything from character designs to games to apps to whatever but nothing having to do with programming apart from front ends or concepts.  I'll keep that in my bag and take it with me to places and let people look at it.  The others generally stay in my home office or bedroom.  A couple might make cameos to the work office.  I have to keep the technical stuff separated.  I also need project books, it's so hard to find stuff you wrote down last month if it's all mixed together too much, or in god-knows which book.

The stuff I have left to figure out is some kind of standard size scratchpad for work (development).  2 of them one for the home office one for the work office.  Should it be a notebook, or something cheaper with tear-out pages like a legal pad?  Or both? (4 books)  I find myself scribbling things that are only meant to help me for the next 15-30 minutes and have no hope of understanding later.

[s0]

I doodle down nearly every idea and go back and mash ideas together and rework them and create new ideas from them.

well that much is obvious from your posts on this forum haha

i think in the end tho, this is personal. the important thing is figuring out what process (or processes) works for you.

[sonder]

I doodle down nearly every idea and go back and mash ideas together and rework them and create new ideas from them.

well that much is obvious from your posts on this forum haha

i think in the end tho, this is personal. the important thing is figuring out what process (or processes) works for you.

Indeed, some people like to give all ideas a proper chance of one day happening or giving birth to another idea.  And others prefer to weed out distraction and focus.  I actually struggle with these two divergent ways of approaching creativity.  I've found some rest by culling the breadth of my interests.

Along these lines, I've found that passion erupts when someone else is interested in collaborating on any of my ideas.  So I guess I treat my ideas more like currency than successors in a lineage.  There was a time when I was really good at ignoring all distractions and fleshing out single story or game ideas as far as I could take them and obsessing over them.  Ironic how now that I have the power to make any idea I want, figuring out what to make is the main obstacle.

[JWK5]

At least you have a single pile.

I have several boxes. On the computer I have a couple GB worth. When I said "pile" I was generalizing, lol.

I doodle down nearly every idea and go back and mash ideas together and rework them and create new ideas from them.

well that much is obvious from your posts on this forum haha

i think in the end tho, this is personal. the important thing is figuring out what process (or processes) works for you.

Yeah, everybody works differently. Same is true of drawing and music and anything else, no one process works for everyone. People learn differently and think differently.

[sonder]

At least you have a single pile.

I have several boxes. On the computer I have a couple GB worth. When I said "pile" I was generalizing, lol.

Maybe I don't have it so bad then ...

What's in it?  Just game ideas or other stuff?

[JWK5]

Characters, game ideas, story fragments, doodles, sketches, etc. It dates back to around age 3 or 4 and continues to this day. I also have a box that I've kept all the drawings and such my siblings and cousins did for me through out the years and all the drawings and such my nieces and nephews have done. Possession-wise, outside those boxes I have a laptop, a PS4, and art supplies (It's all I need and want).

Going back through it all is like looking at a photo album, I can remember where I was when it was created (or where I was given it) and everything that was going on. It also brings back memories of old ideas and the emotions attached which can open up a whole new branch of ideas built on nostalgia combined with new knowledge.

I consider them my most valuable possessions, even if they are monetarily worthless.

[sonder]

Characters, game ideas, story fragments, doodles, sketches, etc. It dates back to around age 3 or 4 and continues to this day. I also have a box that I've kept all the drawings and such my siblings and cousins did for me through out the years and all the drawings and such my nieces and nephews have done. Possession-wise, outside those boxes I have a laptop, a PS4, and art supplies (It's all I need and want).

Going back through it all is like looking at a photo album, I can remember where I was when it was created (or where I was given it) and everything that was going on. It also brings back memories of old ideas and the emotions attached which can open up a whole new branch of ideas built on nostalgia combined with new knowledge.

I consider them my most valuable possessions, even if they are monetarily worthless.

Lucky you.  My mom threw out some of my best work...   

[JWK5]

Lucky you.  My mom threw out some of my best work...   

Sorry to hear that.

I've saved every piece of art my kids have given me, which I will give back to them should they want it when they are adults. A lot of people think I am crazy for saving every piece of art I get from kids (my own or otherwise) but when I remind the kids I've still got the pictures (or they see them up on my walls) it makes them really happy and makes them feel like their pictures have value and are worth making.

[dxman]

I tend to quickly write ideas down so that they're not bouncing around in my head when I need to focus on other things. Then, I come back later and if I think the idea is still worth keeping, I type it up or scan it into my computer.

[ProgramGamer]

I have an actual box filled with drawings and ideas, and I feel similarly to JWK5 towards the value of ideas.

[sonder]

I have an actual box filled with drawings and ideas, and I feel similarly to JWK5 towards the value of ideas.

i have a question.  both for you and JWK5, on this box business.  how do you actually store them in the box?  loose sheets?  in folders?  plain stacks?  notebooks and sketchbooks?  binders?  standing up?  or flat?

[JWK5]

I have an actual box filled with drawings and ideas, and I feel similarly to JWK5 towards the value of ideas.

i have a question.  both for you and JWK5, on this box business.  how do you actually store them in the box?  loose sheets?  in folders?  plain stacks?  notebooks and sketchbooks?  binders?  standing up?  or flat?

A little of everything, but flat in the box. I did begin the very tedious task of scanning them all but as you can imagine it is quite the undertaking. I've had to do this because a lot of the drawings I did as a kid were on those cheap ass newsprint paper pads so now the pages are progressively disintegrating. A lot of the formerly white copy paper pages are turning yellow. Looks like some ancient manuscript stuff going on, lol. When I first started collecting my work (when I was very young) I didn't really think the storing of them through, for my later works they are much better contained (in protective folders, etc.). I also have a shit ton of digital stuff which I think I started somewhere around 17-18.

It'd be fun, sometime in the not-so-near future, after having scanned it all to put it up online as this massive visual library of where my mind has been all these years.

[ProgramGamer]

I have them in a loose pile in the box. I actually used to store them on a shelf before, but my mom threatened to throw everything out, so I had to put them in the box.

The big digital showcase thing sounds cool, maybe I'll get around to scanning the whole thing one day.

[oahda]

An idea I forget is lost potential, not a process of weeding out.

Agreed.

[Zorg]

I'm only using a sketchbook while sitting in a train (travelling alone) for more than one hour. I should use it more often, but i don't like to carry things around.

[Jason S. Longia]

I say just don't think too hard about it.

If it's bothering you that much, don't sort anything. I'll be honest just make a pile somewhere,
there's a process called "Organized Chaos". Simpler to think about, don't need to stress.

Also, when you want to record an idea, it's good to draw it, write it down, say it audibly, think about it.
Any method that helps you best. I'm a visual learner, I learn by looking at something. If you want to flesh
a concept out, a good method I read, was by Taro Yoko (NIER, Drakengard) who obtained that method from
Jonathan Spence (but I digress), and he said in order to really make an emotional scene
(you could use this for anything), make a "memory palace" of all the senses and little nuances
you want to relay, now simply transmute this (lol FMA) into your dilemma.

Here's the link if you want a good read.
http://www.siliconera.com/2014/03/20/nier-drakengard-creator-says-nier-inspired-9-11/

Good luck and sorry for the text block. Also thanks to the other posters for their input.