Ideas!

Let me tell you a story about a young writer named Emily.

Okay, you got me. The writer’s me. Well, anyway, when I first started my WIP, it…sucked, basically. I was angry at the time and it was a product of that anger, as well as some crazy attempt to write like somebody else. Almost more of a memoir than a novel, and I’d created such a Mary Sue that I couldn’t distinguish myself from my protagonist.

Case in point: I don’t recommend this.

So anyway, I didn’t even really have an idea. It was more just blurting out my anger onto paper, but eventually it grew into something more than that. After a while, my angry ramblings changed, until I had a real storyline. I discovered a girl called Thea who is blind (and named after the goddess of sight – yeah, I’m mean), her sister Kylie and a whole host of other things. I’d created something different to what I intended.

My story changed, and so did my characters. I think that’s very important, because a lot of the time we don’t start writing because we don’t have a good idea. Here’s the news: you don’t need a good idea. The Catcher in the Rye, in its most basic form, is a guy getting kicked out of school. That’s not exactly revolutionary, and yet Catcher is one of the great pieces of modern literature.

Write. Just start writing, and soon enough your story will take shape. The more you write about your characters and what happens to them, the more you get to explore what you’re actually writing about.

I don’t know what I wanted to write about when I first started my WIP. I really don’t. But I do know that what started as an idea to spew out the giant squid of anger within me…well, that changed into something that can actually be classified as an idea.

So next time you’re sitting in front of your computer or your typewriter or your notebook (what? I’m sure people still use typewriters) remind yourself that you don’t need a good idea. You need good characters and good writing.

A good idea will come later.