The Internet is a hotbed of creativity. Social networking sites (like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal, etc.) can link up like-minded individuals interested in working together on a project. Though not every attempt is a winner, some amazing things can come of these collaborations.

Bryony (Paperlilies) Makes a Zombie Movie is a BBC series that chronicles one attempt to channel Internet creativity in order to make a zombie movie. With no budget, depending on the donated time and effort of people around the world, Bryony (aka Paperlilies on YouTube) attempted to make an Internet zombie movie in four months in 2008. Did she succeed? Watch the BBC Webisodes in order (starting with Week 1) to find out. You can also see the video promo clip for World Wide Dead: The Internet Zombie Movie here.

The series gives you a good look at everything that goes into such a monumental undertaking. Basically? Brains. Lotsa brains. Located all over the world. All focused on a single goal: making something cool. (Knowledge of filming, video editing, costuming, project management, directing, scripting, storyboarding, lighting, makeup, and distribution probably doesn’t hurt, either.)

Sticking with the zombie theme, how about June 13th, otherwise known as Blog Like It’s the End of the World Day? In 2007 and 2008, blogs and news feeds around the world were shaken up on June 13th with news of invading zombie hoards. The effect was so widespread (and so well-written/acted), that concerned family and friends called or left worried posts on blogs, wanting to know what was wrong, if everyone was okay, and why these strange events hadn’t been reported on the news.

The success of this and other similar memes depends on word-of-mouth and people getting excited about participating. The lower the requirements for participation, the more people jump on the bandwagon. Or perhaps projects with looser expectations have a better chance at success?

Shifting to projects not related to horror (or zombies), I enjoyed Colorwars, last year. This is how it started. Another brainchild of Ze Frank, Colorwars 2008 involved people picking color-themed teams via Twitter and participating in random challenges. Challenges included long-distance Ro-Sham-Bo, the broom game, reverse captioning, a Google Street View scavenger hunt, a nerd rap challenge, bingo, and recreating pictures from participants’ childhoods (called “youngmenowme”). Teams and individuals could win real-world prizes for participating online. The Colorwars evolved organically, with participants suggesting new games or creating their own challenges.

See if you can watch the video explanation of the broom game without snickering. And who doesn’t love the theme song? Sadly, the nerd raps are no longer available, except as a zipped file of the mp3s here. There were other random events over the course of Colorwars 2008 that weren’t archived, such as “Tell Me a Story!”, in which people told stories from their lives into the camp microphone for others to listen to online. Even if you didn’t participate or follow the events, you could still enjoy the fruits of other people’s labors. For free.

These are just a few examples of online projects that brought people together in their spare time and created some cool free content. Are there any similar undertakings out there that deserve a shout-out? Let us know about them in the comments!

Sometimes the problem isn’t that a writer has no ideas. Having too many ideas can be just as paralyzing as having too few. With lists and lists of potential story ideas, it can be difficult to decide what to focus on or what to try next. In his recent guest blog, Apex author R. Thomas Riley talked about how not every idea is a winner, and not every idea needs to be or even can be turned into a story.

Picking the ideas that will work as a story comes with practice. In the mean time, there are other ways to deal with an overabundance of ideas. If the ideas are written on loose scraps of paper or in journals (online or paper), they can be gathered in one place and organized. If you’re comfortable with using a computer, word-processing programs or spreadsheets can be used to collect ideas and review them. If you prefer physically organizing your ideas, you can write them on index cards and store the cards in a box. These are both good options for laying out your ideas and seeing which ones might work as a story or how they might work together. Ask yourself if there are similarities or themes evident in your ideas, and if several ideas can be used in a single story.

An overabundance of ideas can also present a distraction. If you’re working on a longer piece or a story that’s giving you trouble, new and different ideas can make you wonder if the grass is greener elsewhere. At times like this, I often think of Kiki, the easily-distracted ferret from the webcomic Sluggy Freelance: “Oooh, shiny! Poing!” No matter how difficult it is, resist the siren song of the new ideas–at least until you finish what you’re working on. It doesn’t have to be completely finished; a draft is fine. But leaving something half-finished can make it more difficult to return to after you’ve been seduced away by a new idea.

For some writers, idea generation becomes the end goal rather than putting those ideas to work. The ideas are so shiny and perfect in your head; why cheapen them by trying to use them in a story or a script? In his daily vidcast The Show, Ze Frank described this phenomenon as being addicted to “brain crack.” (Note: The video may be NSFW due to swearing.) Ze, who put out a new video for The Show every day for a year, promotes doing something with ideas rather than keeping them under lock and key, safe in a journal or in your head where they’re not doing any good. In order to get better at something, you have to try it out. Even if you fail, that still gives you more experience than someone who never tried in the first place.

Believe it or not, you will never run out of ideas. You will always find more. And yes, some of them will be amazing. You just need to get organized, focus, and put your ideas to work.