The Death of an Idea

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” ― Jack London

I constantly chase the inspiration that London speaks of. It gives birth to ideas or varying quality. Some of my ideas don’t make it past my steadily decreasing short term memory. The ones that stick around long enough go onto one of my lists of ideas.

I’ve got book ideas, ideas for first lines, ideas for opening scenes, character ideas and ideas for titles. I also have a fair number of nonfiction article ideas and memoir-type story ideas that have good beginnings, but may never see the light of day. In reality, the number of my ideas that grow into a formed pieces of writing is small.

The ones that I do fully apprehend are nurtured and cared for until they eventually grow up and have a life of their own. They might not necessarily be the cream of the crop, but for better or worse, they are survivors that deserve whatever life they have.

Immature Ideas
However, there are a host of perfectly good ideas that never reach maturity. Typically with these, one of three things happens:

1. I murder the idea promptly and expediently
2. The idea dies a slow death, wasting away until it vanishes
3. It hibernates for years until I decide to wake it and feed it

When I murder an idea, it is usually inferior and never would amount to much anyway. Alternatively, the idea could be too grand for my talent and ability. In this case, I kill it before it can embarrass me.

When an idea dies a slow death, it probably wasn’t very good to start with and probably should have been murdered.

Survivors
However, on occasion, an idea hangs on for dear life, waiting to be revived months or even years later. When I rediscover it and put some meat on its bones, it may turn out to be worth my time. Or I may go back to step one and murder it.

I leave you with this parting shot from Linus Pauling who said, “The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away.”