Ive realised I have the attention span of a goldfish.
Over the weekend, Ive been through about 4 ideas, going from ,… this is amazing, Il make loads of these, to… naah, can’t be bothered.
Now im back to an old idea and wondered why I strayed from it.
Am I just going through a creative process or can I just not commit to anything?
Please tell me im not the only one that does this.
No you’re not the only one, my daughter and I had a long conversation about ‘Focus’ and how we need to focus more (she does digital work) so we’ve decided to continually check in on each other to see how we’re doing.
We both chose a piece of work to do and we’re not allowed to start anything else till it’s done, I’m almost there so we’ll have to see if it’s working.
Sometimes too many ideas are not a good thing, I try to jot down / scribble ideas into a sketch pad but my problem is I forget / don’t have time or any other excuse to go back to them. So my aim for this year is to work on some old ideas and see them through.
You are not alone - I think it is just the creative process like you say!
I look through old sketchbooks and see ideas that I’ve scribbled down all the processes to and it looks like I was quite serious about them but obviously discarded at some point.
Some of them, I would swear blind that I had never come up with and some of them I have come up with again in the future and believed that was the very first time I thought if it - lol!
The mind has a strange way of deciding what we are going to create and when!
Yep, I’m in the goldfish category too. Brain constantly flits from one thing to another. I also learn things like lightening, but the next day have totally forgotten all about them. I’ve started to write down the methods for making some of my regular items and update them with any “improvements” I come across, finding it helps to keep some sort of focus going.
Yes, I too come up with loads of ideas and some of them never come to fruition. I think the problem for me is that I have more ideas than time to carry them out and that’s why so many fall by the wayside.
My biggest problem is forcing myself to finish projects. I start something, do the exciting bits, have an idea for something I really want to get going on, leave the first project to start the exciting new one, get so far and then have another really pressing idea, repeat, repeat… you get the idea!! I end up with countless unfinished projects and wonder why I’ve run out of things to list in my shop! 
This all sounds oh so familiar. I have a cushion cut out that was going to be a friends Christas present, it’s still there lurking, just for the sake of half hours concentration.
Rather than berating myself for what I’m not doing, I’m now going to try the approach of ‘do something/anything as long as its production’ and I should eventually get round to what I should have been doing 
(well maybe) unless that new piece of fabric urgently calls to me. 
Does anyone have a shop selling Concentration? I bet you’d make a fortune 
Is there room in the goldfish bowl for me? 
I can totally relate to attention span issues.
I’ve found choosing one thing off my to do list and focusing only on that one thing until completion usually helps.
I used to have a scruffy old notebook by the side of me with doodles, designs and ideas glaring up at me and it would just cause great distress.
I have lots of ideas but it’s finding the time to create everything I want to. The funniest thing is when I have a really great idea before going to bed then by the morning I think it’s a really naff.
i tend to go to start something and get all the supplies together. Then It’ll sit there for ages and I’ll make a start some 2-3 hours later…get bored of it and pack it all away. It either has to be something fun and interesting or something that doesn’t seem tedious after 5 minutes…
I think I may enjoy sourcing the components and experimenting with them more than making the finished item!! How odd.
Me too. I enjoy the design and problem solving process much more than the completion process! I’ve got about a hundred WIP pieces in a pile.
I’m the same. I burn with enthusiasm but then I’m on to something else and not everything gets finished. I have 2 illustrated books on the go - one nearly finished I don’t like anymore and one I love but is too huge to face (a graphic novel I’m only a third of the way through). My craftwork is what I do to avoid doing my books as they are more achievable, timewise.
I want to be more like my daughter who is focussed in everything she does! She gets enthusiatic, then sticks with her project to the end.