Writing Wednesday: Ideas

 

Writing Wednesday:

Ideas

 

When we started writing, we had an idea. That idea grew and eventually turned into a book. Along the way, other ideas hit that may or may not have worked their way into your WIP. Sometimes those ideas are written down and saved in a file for later use.

The key is getting that idea on paper and save it. If not, it will be gone. I know you have heard the story about me running my story in my head on my commute. I did that for about a year before I started to write it down. When I did, it changed dramatically from my initial idea. But, that will happen when the mood hits.

Ideas are great, and they can be harmful. Heck, my initial idea is almost into a finished book. So, that has been a  good one. But, along the way, I had a couple of ideas I thought were top notch and really focused on those. However, that was a bust and wasted a good deal of time on those.

The bad thing with ideas is not all of the bad ones are apparent in the beginning. Working on a bad idea just eats into your productive time. So, make sure you have a person or group that you can bounce questionable ideas off of. See, support is essential.

Even with a support team, we fall into the trap of, “This is a great Idea” as we waste time and energy backing it in our minds. Trust me, I recently did it, and it hurt big time! Not only did I waste time, but I seriously began to doubt everything I had done. That is the drawback when you don’t bounce ideas off a support group; you follow the wrong one down a rabbit hole.

Use your support system if you have a question about an idea. If you get a mixed response, then I would say develop it a little, but move on if they pan it.

To me, never let an idea die, give it a little breath, and see what happens; you never know.