An assortment of ideas… what am I supposed to do with that?
Have you ever been in a position where you’ve had multiple ideas come out of you in a flood? Where there are so many that you can’t possibly remember or capture them all? How about when you’re desperately trying to conceive of an idea, and you’ve got nothing, nada, zippo, zilch, and any other ridiculous metaphor or euphemism that you can come up with? Both events can be very trying, and extremely difficult to handle when they happen arbitrarily with no conceivable reason, trigger, or command.
Marketing people look for the next-best sales pitch; they sit in a room, either with other like-minded people, or alone, trying to come up with the next-best Coca-Cola or Doritos ad. You know the ones that I’m talking about. The advertisements that will win them accolades for the creative genius behind making people want to purchase something that they probably don’t even like, which will ultimately result in increased sales. As a separate disclaimer, I LOVE Coca-Cola and Doritos!
All of that stuff starts with an idea.
Writers and authors aren’t that far from the same process. Harry Potter started off as an idea with JK Rowling; look how that turned out? It’s all got to start somewhere.
“Outstanding rant, Steven. What’s your point?”
I went to a book-to-screen pitch fest in late 2012, and heard one of the best single-line phrases ever in my writing career.
The idea is the king.
Not much if you look at it as just a bunch of words, but if you think about the concept, it defines EVERYTHING. Every great thing that has ever been brought into this world, comes from a single thought, which turns into an idea. On the flipside, every bad thing that has ever been brought into the world also comes from a thought or an idea. We could talk for days on the differences between good and bad, but the common denominator is that it all starts with an idea.
I’m not here to give a philosophy lesson, but to share a further point.
Even if you don’t think it’s worth much, capture all of your ideas; squirrel them away for a rainy day, even if they don’t fit your current writing project. I had some amazing concepts when developing my first book. Some were like 180° from each other, but that was okay. Each of my ideas has spawned into additional books within a series; some holding themes for other books. My writing cache is full. I have enough material for nine books! It may not be a big whoop for some people, but that’s a pretty big deal for me.
“Is this ever going to end?”
I’m almost done… One last point. Don’t ever discount an idea no matter how crazy or unrelated you think it may be. It could turn out to be your very own Harry Potter.
