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A few nights ago, Andy Miller (who corrals Northern Kentucky University’s Creative Writing Program) and I were giving a presentation to the Kenton County Library’s writer’s group and the public on “Marketing Short & Long Fiction.” They’d set up for thirty attendees; we ended up with an overflow crowd of over fifty.
Before the presentation, while they were bringing in more chairs, a very friendly older gentleman came up to Andy and me and handed us each an envelope, telling us to read it at our leisure. When I finally remembered it the next day, the letter turned out to be what I’d expected: in essence, in ungrammatical and poorly-proofed prose that wasn’t set up in any particular format, he asked if either of us would be interested in ‘collaborating’ with him because he had this great idea for a novel, and if we’d only write the book and sell it with our connections, we could share the wealth…
The assumption our gentleman made I find to be a common one: that coming up with an idea is the hard part of writing, and actually writing it is the easy part. I’ve been approached at least a dozen times at cons I’ve attended with a variation on “Look, I’ve got this great idea for a novel, and if you’d only write it…” At most cons, when a new writer comes up to me to ask a question, the most common one is a variation on “Where do you get your ideas?” — which again hints at a general assumption that finding story ideas is the Hard Part.
I don’t understand. I think ideas are the easy part. My problem isn’t a lack of ideas; my problem is a lack of time in which to write them all down properly. Ideas are everywhere: they’re in the news stories you read about or hear; they’re in the strangers you see walking down the street (maybe the couple over there having an argument, which starts me imagining what the argument is about and what precipitated it and what’s going to happen next); they’re in the strange sights you see (like the yard I passed that had small Easter Island heads dotting the grass); they’re in the stories people have to tell you (listen to your older relatives; they all have wonderful stories you can adapt); they’re in always asking yourself “what if…” or “I wonder what happened next…?” or “Where’s the story in this…?” with things you read; they’re in looking into yourself and finding what you feel passionate about one way or another, and designing a world and a situation and characters that illustrate that theme…
Ideas are thick on the ground and float in the air around us.
At least it seems so to me. What about you? So where do you get those crazy ideas?
Before the presentation, while they were bringing in more chairs, a very friendly older gentleman came up to Andy and me and handed us each an envelope, telling us to read it at our leisure. When I finally remembered it the next day, the letter turned out to be what I’d expected: in essence, in ungrammatical and poorly-proofed prose that wasn’t set up in any particular format, he asked if either of us would be interested in ‘collaborating’ with him because he had this great idea for a novel, and if we’d only write the book and sell it with our connections, we could share the wealth…
The assumption our gentleman made I find to be a common one: that coming up with an idea is the hard part of writing, and actually writing it is the easy part. I’ve been approached at least a dozen times at cons I’ve attended with a variation on “Look, I’ve got this great idea for a novel, and if you’d only write it…” At most cons, when a new writer comes up to me to ask a question, the most common one is a variation on “Where do you get your ideas?” — which again hints at a general assumption that finding story ideas is the Hard Part.
I don’t understand. I think ideas are the easy part. My problem isn’t a lack of ideas; my problem is a lack of time in which to write them all down properly. Ideas are everywhere: they’re in the news stories you read about or hear; they’re in the strangers you see walking down the street (maybe the couple over there having an argument, which starts me imagining what the argument is about and what precipitated it and what’s going to happen next); they’re in the strange sights you see (like the yard I passed that had small Easter Island heads dotting the grass); they’re in the stories people have to tell you (listen to your older relatives; they all have wonderful stories you can adapt); they’re in always asking yourself “what if…” or “I wonder what happened next…?” or “Where’s the story in this…?” with things you read; they’re in looking into yourself and finding what you feel passionate about one way or another, and designing a world and a situation and characters that illustrate that theme…
Ideas are thick on the ground and float in the air around us.
At least it seems so to me. What about you? So where do you get those crazy ideas?
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The problem with this is I often end up with a number of characters who are very interesting to me, with not much happening around them.
I love to sit and write, and for me, I sometimes feel embarrassed to say the writing is easier than the coming up with ideas. And by saying that I am NOT saying everything I write is wonderful and publishable... I'm saying that sitting and writing -- and particularly writing in character voices -- is THE MOST fun I have writing. (Well, I take that back. I actually LOVE love love the editing process.)
Generating and then working over a specific idea, especially for plot, is hellish for me. Ideas for characters coming running at me from every direction, tackling me to the ground. Plots feel like they play hide and seek, and always win. Sigh.
Reading over the other responses, I run into thoughts I've had about this over the last couple decades during which I've been trying to hammer out a writing career. For instance, it's occurred to me more than once that this has something to do with fear... I was certainly raised/socialized in a number of ways to think like a wildebeast, and to watch out for the lions. I *do* find this manner of generating ideas (completely character-driven while struggling with plot) to be crippling in working on novel-length work. Frustrating as all hell. >:-/
I'm working on it.
And I honestly cannot IMAGINE the gall of approaching a published author with "I have a great idea... if only you'd write it." I've heard of this happening and it always makes me absolutely cringe.