The problem with coming up with a million ideas for novels is that usually – about 500,000 of them are class B, 499,000 of them are class C, and maybe a thousand of those are worth writing.
The problem is, you don’t know which ones are good until you start writing them, and you feel the book fall apart around you.
If you follow my Twitter feed, you know that every day I come up with a writing prompt. If I took every writing prompt and made a novel about it, I’d have 700 novels in the pipe, because I’ve been doing that for a while.
But as I pointed out, it’s not until you’re about a chapter into it that you know that the idea well… sucks.
Like my modern day Samurai novel. Okay, it was a blend of Mad Max and Shogun. A bunch of villages are near a Daimyo (Samurai Warlord), and they have resisted coming under the Daimyo’s authority. But the presence of Raiders sends a wave of panic, and they rush to the Daimyo to agree to sign up – if the Daimyo will send Samurai to wipe out the Raiders. The novel climaxes with a dismounted Samurai battling the head of the Raiders – a renegade Samurai (Ronin).
Wow! Exciting! Red Samurai Armor, honor, feudalism, and all kinds of neat things! I love it!
…until two weeks later I realized that in my brilliance I’d come up with a variation of the plot of The Seven Samurai.
Oops.
And I’d gotten about 3000 words into it.
Grumble.
No wonder it sounded good. I even had drawn out the battle plan of blocking off the entrances to the village, diverting a stream and flooding fields, then setting up one entrance into the village.
Another one is one about a devotee of a man who wrote cheesy Ninja how to books. The devotee is hunting down and killing everyone who makes fun of that man. A police crime drama where the detective has to train in martial arts to get himself ready for the showdown.
That one stalled out when I began to question if the idea was really that good or not?
I had a growing fear it tasted a lot like thanksgiving, so… probably not. But hey, Steven Seagal, or Jean-Claude Van Damme….
I dunno. I haven’t given up hope, though!
The point is, not every story automatically is awesome. I know I come up with a million ideas – it’s just the execution of that idea thats the problem!
If a story makes you say, “uh…no… not buying it”, no sense in writing it.
If a story sounds too much like a book you’ve read or a story you’ve read, don’t.
If the idea feels cheap, don’t go any further.
Only devote your work to novel ideas that work. That feel good. That don’t feel cheap. Every author out there will tell you it’s not coming up with ideas – it’s coming up with GOOD ideas!
Every idea feels good, until you put about 1,500 words into it. Then you stop and say, UGH!
Don’t waste any more time. Jump to the next project immediately.
I’ve got this idea about a man who can’t remember his vacation…
