I am in the middle of a flood right now. A flood of ideas, and somehow it feels like I am paddling madly yet going nowhere.
Wait a minute, you are saying that sounds like a good problem to have! Ideas after all are the stuff writers are always chasing after. The more the better, right?
Here’s the thing most people don’t know, ideas are cheap. There are millions of people out there with ideas for books, and probably many of those are fantastic ones. Yet how many of all of those ideas see the light of day, and the ink (even electronic ink) on a page?
Here’s the scoop, it isn’t having the idea that is the real work of writers. It is writing it, molding it, editing and polishing it. There go your hours and hours of labour, far more than one moment of inspiration.
My very first book signing in America, was at a bookshop in Baltimore. It was Monday. Lunchtime. On the third floor. By the cafe. Yeah, there weren’t many people there, but the ones that did show were memorable. Apart from the lady whose cats were dictating a book to her, there was this young guy. He sidled up to our table, and whispered, like it was a state secret, “I have an idea for a book.”
Tee and I both smiled politely. “That’s nice.”
Then he looked at us and in all sincerity went on, “If you write the book, we can split the proceeds 50/50…”
Even back then, a tiny seed of a published writer, I nearly burst out laughing. This gentleman honestly thought his having a thought, was the same value as writing, and editing a whole book—at minimum probably six months of a person’s life.
As I recall, neither of us laughed, we simply nodded and said something like, “That’s nice, but we’re rather busy with our own projects.”
The only people I would write an idea for would be someone whose ideas come with more value (i.e brand recognition)….like Chuck Wendig writing for Star Wars.
Anyway, right now I am indeed dealing with my own ideas, and plenty of them. As of this moment I am sitting on three new novels. One is a completed first draft needing to be polished up. Two are maybe half done. Beyond that, I have two other projects I am working on with Tee Morris. I dare you to look at my list of projects. Go on. I can’t or I might run screaming.
So yeah, I have a lot of ideas all flying at my head right now. Organising them and getting them to stand in an orderly row is half the battle. My weapons are a white board, a calendar and a lot of tea.
Maybe I am just a whiny author with too much to do and not enough time- but then isn’t that everyone, not just writers? Point taken, let’s jump back into it then!