Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

Getting an Idea: Blank Pages and Sail Boats

November 12, 2009 at 3:23 pm 1000chimps Leave a comment

Publishing a book is a long and complicated process, and it seems everyone has advice along the way.  There are articles and instructions on writing, editing, publishing, marketing – a complete confusion of advice and how-to’s to get you through.  But before any of that, before the first word appears on the page, there is a very critical step that stymies many writers:

Getting an idea.

This very elementary necessity has put some of the best authors into a complete panic.  The great American journalist and author Gene Fowler decided “Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead”.  But personally, I think there might be some other (maybe less painful) ways to get ideas.

1. Write down an idea as soon as you get it.  I have a good friend who composes music, and he is constantly being teased for the random scraps of napkins, envelopes or illegible bits of paper that fall out of his pockets whenever he reaches for his keys.  When an idea strikes him, he just grabs whatever’s handy and jots it down.  But he is a very successful composer and taught me a valuable lesson.  A “mental note” just doesn’t sustain a good idea (or even a bad one!).  Write it down in the moment and you at least have something to work with later.
2. Don’t throw old ideas away.  Some ideas are garbage, there’s no avoiding that.  But some bad ideas are really great ones, just at the wrong time or approached from the wrong direction.  Scott Adams, who writes the Dilbert cartoons, understood this principle well: “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep”.  If it doesn’t sound good now, or you’re busy with other things, hang onto it.  Some other time when you hit a dry spell you will have a well to pull from, and things can look completely different after a little time.
3. Make time to try.  Gene Fowler’s approach may sound painful, but it does work for a lot of writers (maybe without the bleeding).  I have used this technique myself, and although I hate to admit it, it did work.  Set aside a certain amount of time with no distractions (for me, that included unplugging my internet cable), open up your word processor, and force yourself to stay there until the time is up.  You may not believe it until you try it, but the human mind will come up with all kinds of interesting ideas simply to escape boredom and desperation.
4. Surround yourself with interesting people and situations.  The poet Raymond Carter believed “There are significant moments in everyone’s day that can make literature. That’s what you ought to write about”.  Although this is very true, if all you did that day was wash the dishes and walk the dog you might find it difficult to find your inspiration.  Go to places that fascinate or stimulate you – museums, coffee shops, forests, homeless shelters – the world is an incredibly interesting place, but we have to get out into it. 
5. For lack of a good idea, try a bad one.  This piece of wisdom was an accidental discovery in my life, a little miracle like penicillin or sticky notes (well, maybe littler).  I was given an assignment with a topic that was just horrible.  It was the last possible thing I, or any of my readers, would have found interesting.  I tried every way I could think of to get out of it, but nothing worked.  I started working with that topic, and it led me to something else, which led me to a very interesting person, which led me to a fantastic idea that turned into a fascinating article.  It could have gone differently, of course;  I’ve had other bad ideas that no amount of reworking could make into decent ones.  But if nothing else presents itself, at least you’re working, and you might just get lucky!

A great idea is the wind in the sails of a writer, that force that propels us through the fear of failure or embarrassment and the tedious hours of reworking, proofing and editing (and this sentence was the idea that started this whole blog).  Although none of the techniques I’ve mentioned are miracle workers or magic spells, maybe at the very least they inspired you to close your browser and go back to your blank page.  Even Nobel Prize winner Andre Gile admitted “I have never produced anything good except by a long succession of slight efforts”.

- Beth Ludema

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