How do you decide that something is worth writing down?

Is there a certain process you go through, or do you just write whatever ideas you have down and worry about making it good and coherent later in the drafting process? In case it's not clear what I mean, I'm referring more to stories and story ideas than anything else here.

The reason why I ask, is because I've been thinking up stories for years, but I almost never write them down because I'm not sure if the idea is good enough to commit to paper. Even when I do write them down, I usually end up abandoning the project for much the same the same reason as to why I rarely start in the first place.

Unless you're suffering from a paper shortage, why not write it down? I've got tons of half-page stubs that never went anywhere on my computer...and several completed novels.

^ applies here as well.

My thoughts bustle with many thoughts at any one time, and I trust intuition to help me on a story context. If I really like it, what I've written down, then I go on writing more.

Hey, who should care about expected reader reactions anyway? Write true to yourself, and find a pleasant (or possibly unpleasant) surprise from what others make of it.

edited 27th Aug '10 5:01:01 PM by QQQQQ

Just write down whatever and delete things you don't see worth keeping later; at least, that's what I do.

That said, I don't actually write things down most of the time, I usually type it on a wordpad document. Or something.

I write down any idea that's even vaguely interesting to me.

I have a list of about 800 ideas now. The difficult thing is to put them together coherently.

I'll join the chorus and say write everything down. It's often hard to tell if an idea is any good upon inception. Just write it down and let it sit for a while. If you find it later and still want to develop the idea further, then that's a sign that the idea is worth exploring.

I tend to write stuff down, whatever is currently obsessing me, when I'm in a mood to write. Because I know that once the mood leaves me, no matter how much I love the idea, I won't write it. Even if you never use the stuff you write - it's all practice.

Write EVERYTHING down. ALL OF IT.

You'll never know when you can use it.

Just repeating what other people have said already, but it deserves repeating: I don't decide on what's worth writing down, but what's worth keeping.

Sounds like solid advice - thanks everyone! Guess I'll save the self-criticism till after I've actually written my ideas and stories down.

edited 28th Aug '10 8:02:17 PM by Cresneta

^that's probably a very good idea. I wanted to add that I sometimes get a certain feel about stories after I've written a basic outline or a bit about the main character down. Once I have something on paper, then I can look at it more objectively and decide if it is worth pursuing. I also get an idea of whether or not it is a short story or a larger piece. This helps because I can usually write rough drafts of short stories in a week or so, but larger pieces will take longer, and if I already have one on my plate I don't start on the other one.

Do Na No Wri Mo. I never even considered writing any of my stories or ideas down before I did it, and now it's much easier to put finger to keyboard.

I'm going to try and do Na No Wri Mo again this year actually. Last year I failed because I tried to force myself into writing a story that I wasn't really interested at the moment because the story I was thinking about at the time was a fan fic. This year I'll probably write whatever is on my mind at the time unless I end up working from an outline...

@Amarys - I bet that also helps you to figure out whether the plot is too predictable or not and to tweak it in advance - I might have to try this some time as well.

Probably best to keep a notebook by your side at all times to scribble down any flash ideas you have on the fly. Then you can decide later whether they're worth preserving or not.  ^*

Write it down, develop it later. Works for me.

I write down whatever pops into my head/mind at the spur of the moment, except when it involves kinky erotica

I write everything I think off, read it out loud when no one's around (and boy, when there was one person there, I felt like a tool). Everything is worth writing down. Even ideas that seem stupid at first can be converted into something made of win.

Everything in your mind is worth writing. Including the erotic stuff...

Scratch that, especially the erotic stuff. It's kind of a shame when I write ero, it comes off particularly narmy, and is hidden away in a hellish maze of files.

^In a folder called "Schoolwork," amirite? My one and only erofic is very thoroughly hidden too.

I usually keep a notebook on me at all times. It's a nice little one that fits in most pockets, and has a lot of pages. I have another one that's a little larger that I use at home.

Just write down everything that comes to mind. A lot of the time, great ideas happen unconsciously.

For some reason, I'm afraid to write some things down. even if nobody gets to read it. I need a confidence chcek.

I should really get into the habit of actually doing this, but if you think it might be worthwhile, you should just go ahead and write it down.

I always figured the way ideas can trigger other ideas can trigger etc. meant that any idea was worth writing down, even if you were 100% sure that it wasn't good enough on it's own. Plus, you never know if you might change your mind on it's worthiness...

I mean, for the potential gain, there's really almost no drawback to at least jotting down enough to remember the idea again, and if you don't you will forget eventually.