How much "Stuff" do you generate?

[daMoose_Neo]

Just a wondering post, if thats all right.
I was wondering: Just how much "stuff" does your average writer here generate?
I've got a WAY hyper-active mind and wandering around here more I'm seeing stuff and thinking to myself "Wait! I have a folder full of notes on that!" None of it is neccesarily complete, and not all of it is really coheasive. I've got stuff like some Pokemon fan-fics and mock rules for a Pokemon RP (dredged out of memory by another thread on Kids & RPs), a space RP with, what I thought, to be a cool little space-combat system, several fantasy systems, some notes on card games...a lot.
But how much of everyones work actually sees daylight in one form or another? And how much of it is canabalized into another project?

[M. J. Young]

I'll bite.

Focus, boy. Finish something.

It's easy to make notes on things; it's easy to have ideas. What's difficult is bringing something to completion.

I'm not a fan of deadlines; however, I write two columns--the weekly Game Ideas Unlimited at http://www.gamingoutpost.com/">Gaming Outpost (approaching three years) and the monthly Faith and Gaming for the http://www.geocities.com/christian_gamers_guild/chaplain/index.html">Christian Gamers Guild (just reached three years). Having to put out an article on schedule is an exercise in focus, a recognition that what you start doesn't count for anything, only what you finish matters.

I've got two novels started at the moment. It doesn't bother me that I've got two novels started, because I've got one published, and two fully drafted waiting for editing. I've got a set of worlds for The Third Book of Worlds which I am expanding and editing for publication--but as long as the company remains solvent, I fully anticipate that this, like its two predecessors, will see print. I don't have deadlines on these, but the fact that I have practiced working against deadlines has taught me the importance of application, of focus. You need to finish what you started.

Edison said that genius was 5 percent inspiration and 95 percent perspiration.

I'm reading Straczinski's book on scriptwriting at the moment, and one of the things he emphasizes is that no one wants to read your ideas for a movie or an episode of a television show or a play--they want to see your script. Ideas are cheap; everyone has them. It is completion that matters.

I'm not completely against putting time into jotting down ideas. I'm an advocate of using a writer's notebook to write some fragment of something every day, to keep your thoughts and observations available and to keep practicing your writing. (This is for people who want to write.) C. J. Henderson, however, thinks that's a terrible idea. He says no one will ever pay you for those notebooks. Write something you can sell.

The point is somewhere between the two. Yes, jot down your ideas when you have them; but as long as you're only gathering ideas you aren't actually creating anything. It isn't until you put those ideas into useful shape that you've done anything worth mentioning. The rest is so much wasted paper, until you can make use of it.

--M. J. Young

[daMoose_Neo]

Understood~
And lol, yes, finishing something is good. DID just finish a first release of my CG (in the sig) and am simply awaiting the printing to finish. Then comes the promoting and marketing and getting it out there, but the creation portion of it is fairly well wrapped up. Supporting it is next after the initial promotion.
Personally, I do like working on like three projects at once, not neccesarily because I'm clinically insane or bored. With having a bunch of ideas, it lets me try it out in three different ways.
The CG is a modern fantasy, dueling mages and warriors in a big city. Also working on some stuff for a comedic RP or CG game, a PC game akin to Pokemon (Genetisys: Evolutions), and writing more material for the CG. One idea crops up, I can try it at least these three ways, if not leave a note and look at it in another setting.

[ChefKyle]

I have oodles of stuff. It can basically be sorted into two piles:
1. Stuff I'm interested in and would like to finish, and
2. Stuff others are interested in and would like me to finish.

For obvious reasons, #2 trumps #1. So I do #2 as "work", while I do #1 for "relaxation." I use the quotation marks because I don't get paid for the "work"; but there are still people who want to read it, and ask me to hurry up and finish it.

[brainwipe]

I have about 12 different things on the go with Icar but I have a good track record of finishing things!

[clehrich]

There's a weird German word, Sitzfleisch, which sort of means the flesh on your ass that comes from sitting on it a lot.  People with a lot of it tend to sit down and plug away at something, no matter what, until they finish.  People without it tend to skip around and never really finish things.  Lots of folks, like me, have some but have to use it artfully; I think that the art of manipulating your ass, if you'll pardon the expression, is critical to producing creative work successfully.

I knew a guy in grad school with a lot of Sitzfleisch.  He basically constructed an orderly process by which to write his dissertation, then sat down and did it, day in and day out, 9 to 5, every day.  He finished, from proposal to completion, in 4 years.  I can't do that, although it only took me 5.

I also know a guy who has a lot of trouble sitting on his Sitzfleisch.  He basically skipped around in his dissertation project, so that it kept changing on him every time he discovered something really new, and he'd have to go back and redo everything.  He never finished, ended up with his wife saying that he had to go get a job and help pay the bills (it had been 17 years, after all!), and he's not real happy about it.

My personal experience is that I have to give my Sitzfleisch a rest quite a lot by sitting on it for another purpose, but that I have to ensure that I don't end up like the second poor sap above.  So for example, right now I'm at work on the following (in no particular order):

1. Rewriting Shadows in the Fog
2. Writing up weird theory things for the Not Lectures On Theory thread
3. Responding to interesting threads here
4. Writing chapter 2 of my book, on ley-lines, Frances Yates, and Giordano Bruno
5. Researching ritual theory for chapter 3 and also for another book project
6. Teaching, preparing classes, and grading papers
7. Working on a paper on ritual magic for a conference in June
8. Applying for jobs and postdocs as they arise
9. Trying to maintain a positive relationship with my wife

The thing is, when I was in graduate school, I tried to focus such that almost everything I was doing was about the dissertation.  That didn't work for me.  I had to have at least a couple other projects going at the same time, or I just got bored and frustrated.  To compare to the guy who did his dissertation 9-5, like everyone tells you you should do (if you read those stupid books on how to write your dissertation and the like), my dissertation was better, more creative, and I was able to publish it with a major publisher relatively rapidly; he's never published his, and frankly it was very plodding.

Consequently, I generate a huge amount of "stuff" as you call it, much of which gets thrown away or filed for later possible revision.  But the art of this is to keep deadlines in mind, and whenever possible to get others to force deadlines on you.  This allows you to prioritize somewhat, and to ensure that things eventually get done.  Set yourself the following absolute rule: if you have a real deadline, and I mean a real one, never, ever miss it.  If you do, you will be stressed and depressed, and it won't do good things for your other works.  One other trick is to make sure that everything you take on relatively seriously is something that will be useful in the long run, whether you finish it or not.  So for example, all those posts I'm making in the Not Lectures On Theory thread are very useful for me in thinking through some theoretical things for my current book projects and articles.

I find I am more productive if I multitask, but I have to be very wary lest I end up producing a zillion not-quite-finished things.

Chris Lehrich

[Matt Wilson]

But how much of everyones work actually sees daylight in one form or another? And how much of it is canabalized into another project?

I was digging around on my computer a week or so ago, and I found a system idea that I had apparently abandoned a year and a half ago. Rereading it, I thought it looked kind of cool (why'd you shelve this, self? I asked myself). Showed it to a friend who thinks it might make a good fit for a game he's working on. Now I'm thinking that maybe all the "dumb" ideas that I'd deleted might also have looked "cool" a year later and wish I still had them to look at.

Aside from that, I have a lot of ideas in various stages. I have fun coming up with them, and I work on them when I feel like it. That right there is enough to make me content. Unless you're being paid, or you've made a commitment to someone, you shouldn't worry about something being "finished" in order for it to be worthwhile. Work on it when you want. The work itself should be rewarding, not some idea of "when it's done I can finally respect myself."

[orbsmatt]

I have somewhat the same problem as I have tons of ideas and I want to implement them all.  Not only am I working on my RPG, but I'm going to school and designing web pages and working part time.  I wish there were more hours in the day...

As for material, I probably have about 20 big notebooks worth that needs to be compiled.  I have managed to compile some, but the work continues.  I agree that deadlines do suck, but we need some of them to stay focused.  Progress is always nice.

Just my 2 cents.

[daMoose_Neo]

Ditto~
Notebooks up the wazoo! I dread the day I move out ^_^
Did some more digging around myself:
1) Scrapped ideas for FT expansions
2) An online game idea similar to Myst, using Javascript no less!
3) Enough comic book material to rival current small press publishers (multiple titles no less, at least 25 issues each, with cohearant stories! Mostly outlines and pages of layouts)
4) The beginings of a D&D adventure I had started with my party, was shaping up nicely too~
5) Notes on some work I did with Pheonix Games on their "Legend of the Pheonix" (anyone know what happened with them?)
6) Notes on a mecha-anime and accompanying CG
7) Portions of a novel "series" I had started (got a good start on each book).

If I ever find the time to assemble all of this, could be fun ^_^