WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?
How often have you been asked this question? Plenty of times, I’m sure.
In my world, ideas are not a rare commodity. My cup overfloweth.
I’ve grabbed ideas while eavesdropping on conversations, snatched from newspaper articles, and lifted from one-liners on the news. Sometimes ideas come from an overwhelming feeling, an intriguing notion, an unanswered question, or a comment made by a passing stranger.
Finding ideas is not the problem. Executing them to finished projects is my personal challenge and reality. Deciding which idea to commit to and when—that’s another issue entirely.
Ideas exist for everyone. How you pull them down and work with them is the important and unique part. Prioritizing story ideas and organizing them into some sort of queue can sometimes be downright impossible.
And maybe it’s unnecessary.
Before you set out to wrangle your ideas into a pigeon-holed version of hierarchy, consider the notion that sometimes, some ideas are just not ready to come out and play, yet.
They don’t like to be forced.
They need time.
I call this the fermentation stage. Just like bread needs yeast and rest to proof and ferment, ideas need time and thought to bubble up and bloom.
Some ideas like to be teased out slowly. Others burst upon you like a summer thunderstorm.
But when they are ready, you better be ready too.
I’ve had ideas roll around inside my head for years before they came into full bloom, the story written. I’ve jotted down notes, written a few scenes, maybe even started the book, but for various reasons, the power of the idea took its time.
When that happens, I stop. Wait. Let it rest—and yes, ferment.
I’ve never worried I will lose an idea. I have worried that someone else will find my idea and write their version of the story before I get to it.
But that is not likely. Even if two people conceive the same idea, the delivery of the story will undoubtedly be different because, well...people are different.
Except, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about not acting upon an idea, and losing it, in her book Big Magic. An idea she neglected skittered off to another author, who happened to be a friend of hers, and the friend wrote the book.
No, they had not discussed the idea.
Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
You decide.
Liz calls it a muse thing. The “idea muse,” tired of neglect, simply took its stuff elsewhere. Her writer friend may have been a convenient vessel.
Of course, many things can arrest the growth and development of an idea.
Stress.
Life chaos.
Balancing too many responsibilities.
A day job.
Procrastination.
Worrying about making enough money to feed the kids or pay the mortgage on your meager writing income could be another.
Like Robert McKee said in Story, “...exhaustion sets in, concentration wanders, creativity crumbles...”
Life may impede creativity but try not to let it get in the way of your ideas.
(Excerpted from Chapter 5, Discover Your Write Path to Publishing Success)