It seems when I look at my idea it all seems rather dull and lifeless. It's a good idea, it's just I have known the idea for over a year! I keep adding threads and complications but its like I am waiting for something to make me go 'wow'. It seems to easy to criticize the idea when it is only an idea--I sometimes think I ought to start and then it will have more substance...

Anyone else get this '...wait you might come up with something that will improve it further...' malaise?
 

If you've had the big idea for over a year, without doing substantial writing on it, maybe you've just gotten sick of it. I've certainly had that happen with unfinished ideas.

Of course, some stories I've finished have had gestation periods of five to ten years before I've written anything down. Personally I prefer the ideas that come more quickly, they seem more fun to write...
 

A good idea can help with sales, it's true. You hear of a book about an artificial planet built like a ring that completely encircles its sun, and (if that's the kind of idea that appeals to you) you think, "Cool! I want to read that one." But that doesn't mean that the book itself is any better, or even nearly as good, as one about a white trash boy and his black companion floating down the Mississippi, which sounds about as dull as you can get.

It's not the idea that makes it good. It's the characters and the storytelling.
 

Makes me think of some of the fake biographies that have been published in the last couple of years. When the author gets busted, they always say that they just got carried away with the character. That must be because they just started writing and the character became so strong that it became an alter ego. A made up person who had, his or her own, fake, but very believable, story to tell.

That’s how it works for me anyway.

Tracy

[This message has been edited by tnwilz (edited March 08, 2008).]
 

A novel rarely works like that. Sure you may come up with a character or idea you love but it takes time and evolves and goes through these strange sea changes in the course of thinking and writing about it. What I end up with at the end never has much resemblence to what I expect to end up with.

The thing is that is part of the process (at least for me) and I suggest just going with it. Don't worry about coming up with better ideas. You don't have to wait for those to write. They'll come even more so as you're writing.

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited March 10, 2008).]
 

He also suggests writing some fictional reviews for yourself such as would go on the dustcover. "Mrs Brown makes a blockbuster debut, bringing her world and characters to life yadda yadda yadda.."

I can see the first technique working on me, but not the second one. Whatever works!
 

For example my brother is really into world building, he can write you an encyclopedia on a world he created, but then never write anything much because he can't think of a main character.

On the other hand my largest peice of work started very much like this:

'There is a boy sitting on the grass with a stone. The boy wants to turn the stone from a solid to a liquid.'

And the description of this boy sitting on the grass and failing to turn the stone from a solid into a liquid was the first bit written. Where he got magick from, where he got the spell from, where he lived, who he knew, why he was important... all this came after the writing had begun, and all of it changed (except maybe who he knew, but those characters changed as the story changed) and it turned out this boy was not even the main character, he just knew the main character. And he never actually turned the stone from a solid into a liquid, though thirty chapters later he worked out how he could have done it.

Therefore I suggest write, everything might change, but that is part of the fun.

Grant John
 

An idea isn't worth much until it comes alive, IMO. And you can't make it come alive until you inhabit that idea with people (that's an odd way to say it, but it makes some kind of sense to me - then again, I've been stuck in nonfiction mode for a while, argh!) You've probably spent so much time planning, you're locked into a straightjacket kinda thing. Lose some of the detail of your plans, so you're down to a "situation" (your original idea) and give your characters the freedom to LIVE rather than following a strictly set path. Add your characters, turn them loose and watch what happens. Start writing as you follow their exploits, and you'll have a lot more fun with it. That's what I do, anyway. It may not work for you, but it's a lot of fun for me.

I'd LOVE to be writing something original right now, but I have to start the revisions on my second novel. I can't seem to revise and write original stuff at the same time - my brain just doesn't have that many channels, I guess!

Good luck with it!

 

So if you have an idea, run with it. I may still go back to my great idea but if the past is any indication...