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| Plot Bunny! |
The topic this week is how we decide what’s a good idea to
pursue when we’re ready to write a new book or story.
First I’d have to define what ‘good’ means to me in this
context because as others have said, I have ideas ALL the time. Plot bunnies
abound everywhere. I have a dream, or read the news or someone tells me a funny
anecdote from their own daily life or I’m perusing a magazine at the dentist’s
office and WOW POP ZOWIE, there’s the kernel of a great idea. Typically I
scribble down enough notes on it to remind myself later what I’d thought was so
cool and stuff it into a bulging purple folder of similar ideas. If the thought
prompt was for a nifty detail inside some other story I’ve already been playing
around with telling, then I’ll give it a cryptic label. As an example, for
literally years I collected details
for a story about an interstellar fashion designer, which I eventually wrote (Star Survivor). I probably didn’t use
1/100th of the stuff I’d collected but it all built up in my head
over time to give me a picture of the world she lived in and what I might write
about her.
I still have notes from junior high school actually,
relevant to the series I was doing then, which had a vaguely Tom Corbett Space
Cadet feel to it, but with romance. I’m not planning to pursue those plot
bunnies any further though!
That does point up the problem I have, which is when I’m
feeling motivated and energized to tell a new story, it’s rarely something drawn
from all those files stored in the spare room. More often my Muse is attracted
to a shiny new idea and off I go to write that story.
With that background established, what qualifies as a ‘good’
idea to me is one that makes me excited to sit and write, to tell the story. I
have energy for the situation and the characters and I can’t wait to get those
words on the paper (by typing into the laptop) and share the tale with my
readers.
That’s it. My sole criteria. Does this idea have kinetic
force for me and spark the irresistible urge to spin a story?
If yes, then hey, Houston, we’re go to launch the writing process.
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