I'm hoping for a bit of comfort and support here, but the truth is the most important. I find that my writing "style" is to do what I want when in the mood. As a result, efforts on most projects are rather erratic, and I've got more ideas on the boil than fingers on one hand to count them with. Not really looking for advice, but I'd like to know how many other people here keep active tabs on multiple works. Hell, post the title and premise of yours while you're at it! Once Bitten (novel - current) - Zombie apocalypse survival ARENA (3D animation) - a Heavy Gear that won't die off before reaching any kind of closure Gretel (animation) - Gretel attempts to rescue her abducted brother as the good and evil forces within the Fae and Human worlds prepare for war Academic (animation) - The day-to-day happenings of two adjacent all-boy and all-girl colleges and the misfits enrolled there. Revelations (multimedia) - two mortals and two ethereals and the part that they play leading up to Armageddon
like most pros and seasoned writers, i'm always working on multiple projects... but i have no idea what you mean by 'keep active tabs on' them...
I know I get random ideas from things happening in life, people I talk to, movies I watch, things I read. Then I write them down in their own little word doc, save the file under the idea heading, and put them in my folder marked "Ideas" of all things (I know so creative of me huh?) When I write longer bits, like outlines for plots I put them in a "working plot" folder. I have short story folders, contest folders, screenplay folders, novel folders....you name it I have a folder for it. I make sure once a month to go through these folders and see if the inspiration strikes again while looking at them. Actively, I think I working one piece intensely, a zombie-type novel, and about five short stories at various stages of development.
Well some things are just fleeting ideas that you'll shelf for a few months to gather dust and come back to review every now and then. Other projects are things you catch yourself trying to work on every seven days or so, even (especially) when you're supposed to be doing something else
I always have a bunch of things in my mind. Some of them I come back too, some of them I don't. Some of them I won't think of anything for, but I will see or remember again and say "hrm. Wonder what I could do with this..." And these are just the first things that come to mind. I've got about fifty more things that don't end up more than a few sentences. My projects: Einher/Sefirot - a fantasy novel I've been working on for... I think six years. Vindae - Geofiction, the place that the Einher/Sefirot story takes place. Ashcroft - Intended to be a survival horror puzzle game (think Silent Hill meets Seventh Guest), but it's also shaping up to be a setting on it's own. And then little projects: Odyssean - intended to be a pen and paper game. You play as someone gifted with magic, and cursed to never be able to settle down. You have to perform equal (or opposite) tasks to learn magic, such as mending a broken bone to learn a healing spell (the other way would be ritualistically hurting someone to learn a healing spell, or healing someone without a spell to learn a spell to hurt people. You're a magic hobo. The Legendary Thief - a small story that was supposed to take place in Vindae about a young thief. Azrael and Samael - random events in the lives of Vindae's grim reapers, mostly them wondering why they get these impulses to go see random people when they're dying and cross them over. Eden's War - Lucifer tries to save the world from being destroyed when Azazel exiles him in an attempt to try to overthrow Eden again.
