History Main / AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder

* Creator/{{Valve|Software}} didn't formerly provide the page picture for nothing: For the past few years they've been so busy churning out offshoot projects like ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' and ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'', along with their own full-length sequels and commercial releases of past game mods like ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'', ''Day of Defeat'', ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' and ''VideoGame/Dota2'', that their original FlagshipFranchise, ''VideoGame/HalfLife'', hadn't seen a new release in over a decade[[note]]until the release of ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' in March 2020[[/note]], with ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 3'' being seemingly eternally stuck in [[{{Vaporware}} Valve-time limbo]] (a term taken right out of Blizzard's lexicon, coined for their own "when it's done" release schedule).

* Creator/SeananMcGuire is working on several series at once, managing to release at least one book per year of ''Literature/OctoberDaye'', ''Literature/InCryptid'', and ''Literature/WaywardChildren'' since 2016, plus various standalone novels, short stories (she releases at least one ''[=InCryptid=]'' and one ''October Daye'' short story monthly on Patreon), novels from her other series like ''Literature/GhostRoads'', and horror fiction under the pen name Mira Grant. According to her Patreon, she's released an average of five books a year since 2009. And these aren't short novels either. She also writes for Creator/MarvelComics.

* [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/348055/Peptuck Peptuck]] is ''notorious'' for this. Despite crafting very well-known stories like ''Fanfic/TiberiumWars'', ''Fanfic/{{Forward}}'', and ''Fanfic/{{Renegade}}'', you will notice that of all the fics he's started after mid-2009, '''none''' of them are complete. The problem is that he is very much a crossover writer, and just when it looks like one of his crossovers is getting into the meat of the plot, he will suddenly start another crossover. This has happened ''three'' times since he started writing ''Renegade''. His creative juices appear to have been squeezed dry, as no new chapters have been uploaded since Sept. 2016, and his profile itself hasn't been updated since Sept. 2018.

* Music/PhilCollins was well known for this (especially in TheEighties), as a solo artist, member of Music/{{Genesis}} and fusion band Brand X, on-call drummer for Music/EricClapton, Music/PeterGabriel and [[Music/LedZeppelin Robert Plant]], and with his various appearances as a session drummer/producer. This is not counting his work as house drummer for the Prince's Trust concerts, his appearances in UsefulNotes/LiveAid, Knebworth '90, The Secret Policeman shows and the Concert For Montserrat, or for that matter his acting and voice acting work (and the occasional Disney soundtrack later on). The CriticalBacklash his career suffered from may have had as much to do with his ubiquity as anything. Live Aid in particular saw him appear (via Concorde!) in both Philadelphia and London, doing his own set as well as guest-drumming for Music/TheWho and the reunited Music/LedZeppelin. In a documentary about Genesis, Collins stated that in hindsight it wasn't any wonder why the backlash occurred -- he was freakin' ''everywhere''.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' main series has seemingly fallen victim to Creator/{{Bethesda}}'s ADD in this regard. Since ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' was released in 2011, Bethesda has developed, produced, and/or published three ''Elder Scrolls'' spin-off titles (''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline Online]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsLegends Legends]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsBlades Blades]]''), ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', the ''Franchise/{{Dishonored}}'' series, a new ''Wolfenstein'' series, ''The Evil Within'' series, ''VideoGame/Doom2016'', ''VideoGame/Prey2017'', and ''VideoGame/Fallout76''. Rumors continue to swirl of yet another major production which has been clearly stated to not be ''TES:VI''. (Eventually revealed to be ''VideoGame/{{Starfield}}''). ''Finally'', at E3 2018, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkFdqqyI8y4 The Elder Scrolls VI]]'' was announced...vaguely. It is stated to be in pre-production and will not be released until after ''Starfield''. (Educated estimates put the release date somewhere [[SequelGap in the early 2020s]]...)

Sometimes a creator becomes extremely popular, and thus extremely in demand. Or perhaps they become so enamored of their own abilities that they believe everyone wants to see the results of every idea they have. Or maybe it's just their natural state, who knows?

* Creator/KazumaKamachi, better known to his fans as [[{{Workaholic}} Kamachi.exe]], works on so many new novels while updating his current long-running projects ''per month'' that he jokes he'll die if he doesn't find something to write about.

* TheWorkaholic Creator/OsamuTezuka certainly was the top-player of this trope. He worked on multiple comics during the same time, often being confronted with harsh deadlines, sometimes forced to finish 30 pages in one night. ''And he made it''. He created ''seven hundred'' finished and unfinished manga series during his life, spanning everything from multi-volume LongRunners like ''Manga/AstroBoy'' to graphic novels like ''Manga/OdeToKirihito''. Sadly, his masterpiece ''Manga/{{Phoenix}}'' remained unfinished.

* Music/StevenWilson, in between Music/PorcupineTree, No-Man, Blackfield, Bass Communion, Incredible Expanding Mindfuck, his solo career, and several other projects, also finds time to remix and remaster classic albums (mostly ProgressiveRock, but some in various other genres as well) at a staggering pace. He manages to avoid ScheduleSlip with most of them, although the remixes of Music/{{Yes}}' ''Tales from Topographic Oceans'' and Music/TearsForFears' ''The Seeds of Love'', respectively, [[SavedFromDevelopmentHell suffered]] and are suffering DevelopmentHell. However, that's perfectly understandable in the latter case, given that the first time around it reportedly took about six weeks just to mix the sort-of title track. Between all his original projects he's got over forty full-length releases to his credit, plus around as many remixes. This is in fewer than thirty years, mind you; the first Porcupine Tree release was in 1991. And he only started doing the remixes in 2009.

* Music/PhilCollins was well known for this (especially in TheEighties), as a solo artist, member of Music/{{Genesis}} and fusion band Brand X, on-call drummer for Music/EricClapton, Music/PeterGabriel and [[Music/LedZeppelin Robert Plant]], and with his various appearances as a session drummer/producer. This is not counting his work as house drummer for the Prince's Trust concerts, his appearances in Music/LiveAid, Knebworth '90, The Secret Policeman shows and the Concert For Montserrat, or for that matter his acting and voice acting work (and the occasional Disney soundtrack later on). The CriticalBacklash his career suffered from may have had as much to do with his ubiquity as anything. Live Aid in particular saw him appear (via Concorde!) in both Philadelphia and London, doing his own set as well as guest-drumming for Music/TheWho and the reunited Music/LedZeppelin. In a documentary about Genesis, Collins stated that in hindsight it wasn't any wonder why the backlash occurred -- he was freakin' ''everywhere''.

* Creator/TreyParkerAndMatt Stone made ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' while production of the eighth season of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' was still ongoing. According to Parker and Stone, making the film left the pair creatively and physically exhausted when it came time to make the second batch of ''South Park'' episodes for the season, and in DVD commentary for that season, they point out several places where it is evident that they were running on fumes.

* AlexandraErin's projects include serials ''StarHarborNights'', ''Literature/TalesOfMU'', ''{{Tribe}}'', ''Literature/VoidDogs'', ''[[{{Spinoff}} More Tales of MU]]'', and ''The3Seas'', as well as numerous more self-contained or episodic stories. At her peak, she was regularly updating all but the first of those serials as well as a run of stand alone stories in the ''Tales of MU'' continuity. Recently, however, she's been struggling to make roughly weekly ''Tales of MU'' chapters.

* Creator/StephenJCannell had numerous shows on the air at once through the '80s (example: ''Series/TheATeam'', ''Series/HardcastleAndMcCormick'' and ''Series/{{Riptide}}'' [[note]]and ''Hunter'', but he didn't create that one[[/note]] all ran in the 1984-85 season), somewhat less so in the '90s.

* Creator/ChrisCarter of ''Series/TheXFiles'' fame ran four shows in the late 90's and early 2000's. ''The X-Files'' was by far the most successful, but he also had ''Series/{{Millennium}}'', ''Series/TheLoneGunmen'', and ''Series/HarshRealm'', the latter two not even running a full season.

** And when he became a DC only writer, he was given all ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' titles. And when we say all of them, we mean ''[[ComicBook/BrianMichaelBendisSuperman all of them]]'', including the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' and ''ComicBook/YoungJustice2019'', whose only connection to Superman is that each team has a ComicBook/{{Superboy}} as a member.

* In 2015, Creator/KieronGillen had a full plate: ''[[ComicBook/AngelaMarvelComics Angela: Asgard's Assassin]]'', ''[[ComicBook/SecretWars2015 Siege]]'', and ''ComicBook/StarWarsDarthVader'' for Marvel; ''ComicBook/TheWickedAndTheDivine'', ''ComicBook/{{Phonogram}}'', and ''ComicBook/{{Ludocrats}}'' for Image; ''ComicBook/{{Uber}}'', ''[[ComicBook/{{Crossed}} Crossed: Badlands]]'', and ''ComicBook/MercuryHeat'' for Creator/AvatarPress. With so many titles, Gillen had to announce he was taking a break from the Marvel Universe after ''Secret Wars'', since it was getting to be too much.

* Creator/JimLee, who even has the added hurdle of mostly doing the hard part of comics (art) and for a while even worked as editor\publisher. When he left Marvel, Lee helped create four titles for Creator/{{Wildstorm}}, ''Comicbook/WildCATsWildStorm, Comicbook/{{Stormwatch}}'', ''Deathblow'' and ''Comicbook/{{Gen13}}'', drawing at least one issue of each. Lee even took the blame for the terrible ScheduleSlip of ''Comicbook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' (supposedly a 12 issue monthly series, it ended up CutShort at 10, across three years!), saying the scripts were done, but his art was sidelined by ''Videogame/DCUniverseOnline'' and other commitments.

* Creator/BrianMichaelBendis. A ''prolific'' writer for Marvel, at any given point is the main writer for three/four (sometimes more) headlining comic franchises (''[[UltimateUniverse Ultimate Spider-Man]]'', at one point both ''Mighty-'' and ''New Avengers'', ''ComicBook/{{Powers}}'' as well as being a main co-writer for any and all major Marvel events, as well as being involved in some form of movie developments, both Marvel-owned and his own properties, on top of his indie comics, which he both writes and draws himself.

* Music/HansZimmer got so busy with ''Film/WonderWoman1984'', ''Literature/HillbillyElegy'', ''Film/NoTimeToDie'', ''Film/{{Dune|2021}}'', ''Film/ArmyOfThievs'', ''Film/TopGunMaverick'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOnTheRun'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBabyFamilyBusiness'' that he couldn't find time to compose for ''Film/{{Tenet}}'' with his usual directing partner Creator/ChristopherNolan.

* Creator/JimLee, who even has the added hurdle of mostly doing the hard part of comics (art) and for a while even worked as editor\publisher. When he left Marvel, Lee helped create four titles for Creator/{{Wildstorm}}, ''Comicbook/WildCATs, Comicbook/{{Stormwatch}}'', ''Deathblow'' and ''Comicbook/{{Gen13}}'', drawing at least one issue of each. Lee even took the blame for the terrible ScheduleSlip of ''Comicbook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' (supposedly a 12 issue monthly series, it ended up CutShort at 10, across three years!), saying the scripts were done, but his art was sidelined by ''Videogame/DCUniverseOnline'' and other commitments.

* Creator/SeananMcGuire is working on several series at once, managing to release at least one book per year of ''Literature/OctoberDaye'', ''Literature/InCryptid'', and ''Literature/WaywardChildren'' since 2016, plus various standalone novels, short stories (she releases at least one ''[=InCryptid=]'' and one ''October Daye'' short story monthly on Patreon), novels from her other series like ''Literature/GhostRoads'', and horror fiction under the pen name Mira Grant. According to her Patreon, she's released an average of five books a year since 2009. And these aren't short novels either.

* Creator/KAApplegate turned over most of the work of writing ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' to ghostwriters so she could focus on ''Literature/{{Everworld}}'' (at one point, Scholastic was publishing one ''Animorphs'' book every month, plus one ''Megamorphs'' special edition and one "Chronicles" book each year, both of which were not ghostwritten). Ironically, ''Animorphs'' is what she's best known for, while few people have even heard of ''Everworld''. She also started writing ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'' at the same time as ''Everworld'', right after ''Animorphs'' ended.

* It's currently unclear how Creator/IanFlynn manages to get any sleep. At one point, he was the writer of five monthly books for Creator/ArchieComics at once: ''Comicbook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', ''Sonic Universe'', ''ComicBook/SonicBoom'', ''Comicbook/MegaMan'', and the ''New Crusaders'' reboot. He has also written several one-offs in the ''Archie'' series. Add to that his personal forums were acting as a second job, leading him to shut them down in early 2016. At the end of 2019, he posted [[https://twitter.com/IanFlynnBKC/status/1207868357392900096 a tweet]] of everything he had done that year, which included ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'', a personal webcomic, two secret projects, several mini-series and recording his own podcast. He feels like it was a slow year.

* Creator/KevinMacLeod is the most billed composer of all time, having composed ''thousands'' of pieces of royalty-free library music. [[{{Understatement}} He is a busy man.]]

* [[Creator/TheCoenBrothers Joel and Ethan Coen]] frequently have more than one film in various stages of production at a time. For example, ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'' and ''Film/BurnAfterReading'' were written at the same time (on alternating days, in fact), and shot more or less back to back. Not that this was a bad thing, in this case. ''Hail Caesar'' and ''The Yiddish Policeman's Union'' were produced simultaneously.

* Another elder director who just likes to keep himself busy is Creator/ClintEastwood, who is 7 years older than Scott. He is more successful in actually making his movies, even if it means releasing two in the same year - a rare case where Eastwood had to step out was ''Film/AStarIsBorn2018''.

* The most prolific film-maker of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood era isn't Scorsese or Coppola or Spielberg, it was Creator/RobertAltman who made 15 films in 10 years. After the era ended, he was never able to match that rate of productivity again.

* [[IronicEchoCut As noted]], Creator/JossWhedon. Besides running ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' at the same time, had various other pokers in the fire, including trying to start up ''Series/{{Firefly}}''. He's still working on getting a few series started, as well as writing and co-writing multiple comics, both in the Buffyverse and for Marvel.

* Before Creator/JJAbrams, there was Glen A. Larson - he often had multiple shows on air in the '70s and '80s (most notably with ''Series/TheFallGuy'' and ''Series/KnightRider'' running concurrently in the 1980s), but he generally left his shows early on to launch new projects, [[Series/QuincyME not always of his own volition]].

* Creator/AaronSorkin. Not only was he a playwright in the '90s, he was also writing film scripts (and re-writing others, sometimes without credit), adapting his own plays, and then he decided to take a break by writing two TV shows ''simultaneously''. Of course, he was later busted for cocaine possession, which may or may not explain how he was able to write both the first season of ''Series/TheWestWing'' and the second season of ''Series/SportsNight'' in one year. He seems to have slowed down somewhat since leaving ''The West Wing''. Whether or not the second season of ''Sports Night'' would have been better if Sorkin hadn't been suffering ADCD is anyone's guess, as the ADCD may well have been the byproduct of being ScrewedByTheNetwork.
* Jack Webb usually had two or three shows on the air at once, and was often trying to pitch more that were either new concepts or spinoffs/sister series of his previous shows.

* Trey Parker and Matt Stone made the movie ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' while production of the eighth season of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' was still ongoing. According to Parker and Stone, making the film left the pair creatively and physically exhausted when it came time to make the second batch of ''South Park'' episodes for the season, and in DVD commentary for that season, they point out several places where it is evident that they were running on fumes.
** Similarly, the third season was done while they were making [[WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut the movie]]. The DVD commentary for season 3 has the two mentioning how busy their schedule was, especially when they were making the meteor shower trilogy. In fact, they have absolutely no memory of making "Sexual Harassment Panda" (the first episode aired after the movie's release).