The Plethora of Ideas...

A thought that never ceases to amaze me: There are ideas everywhere. Literally everywhere. Seriously, look behind you. There's an idea there right now. I wasn't going to say anything, because I didn't want to embarrass you, but... It's been sort of hovering over you for awhile now. Thought you might like to take it and do something with it. Looks kind of like a short story to me, but you may decide to turn it into a novel, or maybe a TV pilot. You could even turn it into a painting, a scientific theorem, or a political speech if you want. Who am I to say? It's your idea, after all. Do what you want with it.

Since there are ideas everywhere you turn, where you get your ideas depends entirely on where you spend your time and what it is you're doing. For myself, I've been writing about air conditioners. I mentioned in my previous blog that some of my research had given me an idea for a murder mystery. Other research has yielded ideas for space travel and superhero stories. About air conditioners. That's just what research does. It sparks creativity and gives you ideas.

But it's not just the research. As I said, I ideas are everywhere. The titles they give me for my articles. The names of the companies I'm writing for. A couple of months ago, there was one called Cypress Creek Air. And I thought, "That's going to be the title of my next play." Why a play? I don't know, just sounds right. What's it going to be about? Haven't a clue. That idea is still out there somewhere.

Which of course raises the issue: There may be ideas everywhere, but are they all GOOD ideas? Well, that's subjective. Ideas themselves are rarely good or bad. What matters is the person having the idea, and what they decide to do with it. In the hands of, say, Ridley Scott instead of Ed Wood, Plan 9 from Outer Space could have been a brilliant sci-fi thriller. Or maybe not.

Same goes for my own ideas. I have high hopes for my air conditioning murder mystery, but I seriously doubt that my Cypress Creek Air stage play will go on to be at all successful or even very good (I started to outline a basic plot; it didn't work). Sometimes (if you have the luxury), you just need to cut your losses on an idea and move on from it. Maybe a few months or a few years down the road, you'll come back to it with a fresh perspective, and everything will start fitting together. Or maybe it won't. But don't worry about it. Something else will jell better, and you'll turn it into something great. After all, there are ideas literally everywhere.

What you DO with those ideas, is up to you.