IF Seal: How do I keep motivated on projects?
Dear IF Seal
First of all, thank you for existing, because just finding out this blog exists has brightened my day considerably!
I'm messaging seeking advice on sticking with projects and finishing them as well. I've had so many ideas for stories that I've simply let fall by the wayside or left on a backburner for too long and worry that trying to start something I don't dedicate enough time to will erode my passion for the story, or demotivate any readers I might pick up along the way. Is it just about practice?
Dear Motivation-Seeking Friend,
Thank you so very much for your loveliness, you have also brightened my day a great deal!
The first thing I would say, and which sums up much of what I say below, is try not to bite off more than you can chew.
Which is perhaps a little glib (I do love to be glib sometimes) but is very much true. I wonder whether any of your story ideas would work as a short game - perhaps with a slightly more linear approach, or with a less customisable player character, or simply a shorter play length. You could try making something that has a few branching scenes, the equivalent of a short story rather than something more on the scale of a novel.
This can help you get in the swing of being in a project from start to finish, and can also help you concentrate on what are the most important places in which you want to spend your energy. Does this game perfectly suit a structure in which the player character can choose between three different magical powers, and therefore you might like to make the player character non-customisable? Maybe it has a complicated timeline going on with scenes that are very different depending on the order they're played in, so each individual scene is linear when played.
I recommend having a think about this before you start the project, and it'll help refine what you want from it as well.
I also suggest sticking to one project at a time if you haven't finished one already. This may not be entirely your method: some people genuinely work best hopping from one to another and back again. But since you are asking about avoiding falling-by-the-wayside, I have an inkling that this may be good advice for you to try.
Of course you will get new ideas as you go, especially when the project you are working on is proving to be a challenge. In those cases I recommend taking a little bit of time to conceptualise and maybe outline the new shiny idea, then set it aside. This means you will have it stored on the backburner for when you'd like to see it again, and at the same time it will help it not take up so much space in your brain. It's been freed! It can be used! But in the future, not right now.
Best of luck, Motivation-Seeking-Friend. I hope you settle upon something that brings you much joy!
