When the bug of inspiration bites, what do you do? Do you drop the old project and go for the new shiny one? Or do you ignore the urge?
I am one those of people who is constantly switching between my personal projects. I will work tirelessly on project A, and then on a certain Tuesday when the wind is blowing just right, I’ll suddenly lose all desire for project A and find a sudden and insatiable urge to work on project B. When inspiration strikes, it tends to be very difficult for me to ignore. My hard drive is consequently littered with half-starts, rough outlines, notes, and various ideas, bad and good, in various stages of completion.
This brings up the interesting question as to what the preferred state of affairs is. Should I be more disciplined and learned to ignore the grass-is-always-greener syndromes, or should I go with my own fickle whims? Am I perpetually distracted by these flirtations of inspiration, or is this, in some way, healthy? Given that I almost always chose to drop the old clunker and work on the new thing, you could certainly read into my character quite a bit, if you wanted. Maybe I am too fickle. Maybe I am easily distracted. Maybe I’ll never actually accomplish any of these things. Maybe. I see it another way.
Most projects get exactly one burst of effort before permanent abandonment. Some problems though, I find myself coming back to time and again. I view this particular mechanism as healthy. It’s a natural selection of my ideas. May the fittest survive. This is why I don’t really feel guilty for dropping yet-another half-started project and starting something new. If the idea survives a few months off, it’s probably worth keeping. If it doesn’t, so be it.
So in that vein, I’ve put on hold several slightly boring personal projects for a shiny new one. I’m writing a game. Oh this will end well. I’ve spent the last three weekends tearing apart the UDK to learn how it works and over that time I’ve put together this spectacularly early prototype:
So here’s to another distraction.