Do you have any 'side' ideas tickling your writing muscles right now?

[A. E. Lowan]

I love the lil evil snow globe!

Look closer. Search your feelings.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Always.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Always.

It's constant with me.
So many dumb plot bunnies I've had to either murder or set aside til later.

 

[Gurkhal]

I have so many ideas right now that I don't know which one is a side idea and which one is a main idea anymore.

 

[Lynea]

I came up with an alternate timeline kind of thing a few months ago. I haven't written much down, but the idea lives rent free in my mind these days.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I came up with an alternate timeline kind of thing a few months ago. I haven't written much down, but the idea lives rent free in my mind these days.

I tell people we write our own fanfics.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I tell people we write our own fanfics.

And some of us have guilty pleasures writing our own fanfics of fictional shows/games/movies.
Or Planning them at least, gosh if I wrote down every fanfiction idea I'd never get my original work done lol

 

[Lynea]

I tell people we write our own fanfics.

Lol, yess! I never thought I'd get to that point-- especially not before releasing the OG stuff, but here we are

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Lol, yess! I never thought I'd get to that point-- especially not before releasing the OG stuff, but here we are

My 'trick' for my brain is to write chapter 1 of an idea and get the feelers out if said idea will stick (If it's fanfiction of a show/game/movie etc)
If it doesn't 'stick' I take notes, scrap the idea and save the notes for another idea.
If it does stick, the chapter 1 goes in a 'waiting room' folder while I work on my 'main' project, out of sight out of mind, and it's working surprisingly well.

 

[Lynea]

That sounds very efficient. I consider my AU idea strong enough to put effort into it later down the line, but I don't intend to finish it anytime soon.

 

[Susannosaurus]

I am a bit cursed in this department, whenever a new 'idea' forms it starts harassing me nonstop until I write at least Chapter 1.
It's a major reason why I haven't finished a book yet. But I refuse to write anything else until I finish Sinbad.

I'm plugging away at Sinbad and will be finishing the first chapter of act 2 soon.

Use the new ideas as rewards! Definitely jot them down somewhere so they don't get lost.
What I do sometimes is to tell myself that if I get my quota on my current project done for the day, I get to work on whatever I want for the rest of the day (if there's any day left...). I call the side projects 'sugar' because they're something I treat myself to like a kind of dessert.
For me personally I've found that it's better to stick to one project at a time. If I do more than one, they tend to assume a similar flavour and the characters lose definition. I need to grow the atmosphere of that one story to give it its unique flavour.
Okay, that sounds a bit gross