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This is my third year devoting January to idea creation as part of Tara Lazar’s #Storystorm challenge. Guest bloggers post practical and inspirational posts to help creators mine at least 30 ideas in 31 days. Seem simple enough?
Organizing Ideas
This year, I’m trying something different for organizing ideas. For ones that are more than just a phrase or image, I’m briefly aiming for three pieces: Title, Premise (one sentence summary of what happens to the main character), and Themes (things that might be hooks for later).
The reason I’m pushing myself to organize ideas some ideas this way is because I have a lot of lists with half formed idea-lings, but most times it isn’t immediately obvious to me what sparked the thought besides = OHH, NEAT.
Why Write Ideas down?
- We forget them. Really. I wrote ideas down this morning and I couldn’t recall them.
- Ideas need to marinate. Ideas are always better in my head. Written down, there’s a part of me that is forced to think more critically and also a part of me that feels free. It may not be fully formed, but it’s a start.
- Ideas collide. Sometimes it really is a word or phrase that changes an entire story I was working on. Those happenings are harder to capture when my idea-o-scope isn’t used to looking for them.