Ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s rare to see an idea so great that it can transcend actual writing. Everyone you talk to has a great idea for a book. Few of them will ever write it. Writing isn’t about ideas. Writing is about writing.
I’ve got notebooks full of ideas. I write them down as they come to me. I jot down pieces of dreams as I wake up from them. It’s rare that I ever get around to writing them. Why? Ideas are easy. I can sit down at my laptop right now and think of something to write. I can do it on command, without a prompt, at any time or place.
I have a theory about ideas, and that “well” from which they spring. When you first start out writing, you are an idea writer. You think of scenarios and you write them. But you don’t really become a good writer, a good storyteller, until you have used up all those obvious scenarios and realize your idea well is poisoned by all the writers who have come before you. (more…)