Story idea backlog?

[Christa M. Miller]

What do you do when you have several ideas backed up and you can't work on them? The obvious answer would be, write the basic idea down and then get back to it, and I do that. But I hate like hell to find myself thinking up whole scenes and good descriptions, because whatever I come up with a few days later never seems to be as good as when it's fresh. Anyone know what I mean?

Anyway, what do you actually do about it when you have pressing work that needs to come first? Do you still put it off to get the ideas down, or just pray it's all still there when you are able to come back to it?

[Angie]

That's an excellent point. If an idea really won't go away, then I'll write a short bit (opening para, maybe notes on a few scenes or plot points) and then stick it in a folder. If it's a keeper, it'll keep bugging me and that ol' unconscious will have been working at it while I've been busy doing more pressing work.

[Christa M. Miller]

Angie, I do that too. Or try to. This post came about because my time was so limited that I literally had to choose between taking 15 minutes to write down a new idea/scene, or working on some deadline. I did scribble down the rough idea on paper though. I think that will be enough for now.

[Johnny Ostentatious]

I write 'em all down in a notebook. It kind of works out sometimes that I don't stories on them right away. For instance, about five years ago I had an idea for a dysfunctional love story about a successful romance novelist and a failed horror writer. I finally wound up using it as a subplot last year in my novel AFTERLIFE BATTLEFIELD.