Don't Ration Out Your Ideas

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I love this piece of advice from Benjamin Percy, which is featured in the
latest bulletin from Glimmer Train
. It's one of those things I wish all writers
could learn right away:

Most writers are conservative. By that I mean they
lock their best ideas in a vault and take pleasure in the richness of their stores,
like misers with their money. Maybe you have Moleskines full of hastily scribbled
notes. Or a corkboard next to your desk messy with images, structural blueprints,
articles ripped from magazines. Or at the very least a folder on your computer labeled
Stuff.



For every story or essay or poem you write, you withdraw one image, two characters,
maybe three of the metaphors you have stockpiled—and then slam shut the vault and
lock it with a key shaped like a skeleton's finger.



I used to be the same way, nervously rationing out my ideas.




Click here to read the full piece,
and find out why you should go ALL IN.

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Published on October 04, 2010 13:33
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Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman
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