The paradox of ideas

Where do you get your ideas?
For many writers, that particular question makes us dead inside. Bestseller Neil Gaiman answers that question over and over again while trying to keep some semblance of his sanity by, well, making shit up. “From the Idea of the Month Club,” he says, among other things.
 
Some ideas are so twisted that we ask fearfully where they come from. Who’s the most twisted writer you can think of? Maybe Chuck Palahniuk springs to mind. You have all heard of Fight Club. That’s not even Palahniuk at his most twisted. Some of you will have said Bret Easton Ellis. American Psycho was so twisted that it was briefly banned in Canada. But Bret Easton Ellis has said he gets “horrified and upset” reading disturbing things, never mind writing them. And Chuck Palahniuk uses twisted ideas only as a ploy to explore deeper emotions – emotions that men aren’t always comfortable exploring. Love or hate these books, there’s no denying they’re memorable, which is exactly the point. Writers all want ideas that stick.
 
But the thing about ideas is, we’re afraid we’re going to run out. It’s a Writerly Fear we’ve all felt. In truth, it’s the Idea Paradox.

• On the one hand, we believe that if an idea is “good”, we’ll remember it. But that’s a lie. If we want to keep a good idea, we have to write it down.
• On the other hand, we believe that ideas are rare. That too is a lie.

So, how can an idea both be too important to leave to memory AND not rare whatsoever?

I love great ideas and have had the germs of several novels. I keep a file folder of potential ideas and feel a rush whenever I open it. Some were abandoned early or not even poked at for a wide variety of reasons; others sit stewing waiting for me to get serious about them. I just finished one where it’s undergoing a final edit. Another has been a bumpy ride so far, but it’s well underway. I still feel the rush.

See, as much as I love great ideas, what actually counts is the execution of those ideas. Depending on who you believe, there are only one or four or seven different types of stories. Yet all the millions of novels and multi-millions of short stories, poems, non-fiction articles, and so on are unique. How can this be?
It’s another part of The Idea Paradox. Even a unique idea is not unique. Even a common idea can be made into something unique.  

For example, The Great Gatsby doesn’t tell a particularly imaginative story. Jilted, poor lover tries to win back the love of his life from rich, upper-class bore. Goes to all lengths and dies in the process. In fact, when it was first published, many took Gatsby to be a dime-store thriller romance. It was the execution that made the difference between paperback pulp and timeless classic.

So, following that logic, it doesn’t matter what your idea is, does it? Can you start writing about a Tiddlywinks game gone horribly wrong, and create a masterpiece? Yes and no.

The purpose of a good idea is to keep you, the writer, interested. In turn, it’s your job to keep the reader interested. But here’s the catch. You need that little rush – and that rush has to last the years it will take you to finish your book. If you lose interest in the story, it’s likely that your reader will, too, because your writing will become flat and uninspired.

So, finding the right idea for you is important. The good news is, there are a millions of ideas out there.

Six Reasons Why You’ll Never Run Out of Ideas

1. The creative mind never rests. Or, at least, it doesn’t rest for long. Most, if not all, writerly types have what-ifs running through their minds like a ticker tape. All you have to do is reach out and grab one that inspires you.
2. You learn something new every day. We read news or hear gossip or watch a movie that show us things we’ve never seen before. All of these new things trigger creative ideas. That’s why travel can be such a creativity boost – you’re learning something new every minute, not just every day.
3. We’re always thinking. I don’t mean creatively, necessarily. I mean, working out the problem of how to clean out the clog in the sink drain or when’s the best time to take the dog out. These somewhat mundane lines of thinking often spark the creative mind.
4. The Internet is your oyster. Let’s assume for a second that your brain is dry and brittle, barren of any creative seed. Time to surf the web! Whether it’s a true-crime podcast or a twisted website, something out there will tweak with you.
5. Read in your genre. The simple act of reading provides ideas. Today’s thriller writers didn’t get there without reading yesterday’s bestsellers. Not only does it help you learn the parameters of your genre, it also helps spark new ideas to do it differently.
6. (Fill in your own blanks here...)

None of this is new. But we can assuage our fears about never again having a good idea, and get on with writing the ones we do have to tell the best stories we can.
 
And in the meantime, happy reading!
Joni