Ideas Series – What Is An Idea?

Idea

noun

1. a thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action.

2. the aim or purpose

I googled idea and this popped up. I thought it was fitting to start the first of my ideas project with what an idea is. So here is are a few words that come together when you throw in the first half of Wiki’s page on ideas.

 

While I was reading it, it got me thinking. I did a class last year on creativity and ideas. A lot of it was technical (and I may very well try and dig it up) but it was all really amazing interesting. A lot of it went over my head the first time but the concept behind the class. Wow it was mind blowing and I know a lot of us in the class felt the same way. it was hard and by the end of the four hour class we were all mentally strained, but it was great.

Where do ideas really come from? How do they happen? When do you know you have an idea? It’s all fantastic really, and it’s actually a lot more in depth that I thought I would go. I’m currently debating about how deep I need to go. Show I go all technical and theoretical? Or should I stay with the outline that I have? I’m leaning towards the first, which is actually really odd for me because I’m not a technical or theoretical kind of person.

See that’s the thing about ideas, they start out as an ember and they grow, mould, shape and change with different influences, different thoughts.

How it’ll work:

So my plans for this is to bring out series. I have the process of how a book is written, broken down, and I’m going to publish it in stages so that everyone can see how it works for me and for others. Some of it may be long, some may be short, others might just be a simple diagram or something of the sort. Who knows? I’m winging this and making it up as I go. Today is the start of my Ideas Series. If you’re on this journey with me, let me know. I’d love to find out what you think.

Happy Ideas Series!

Starting at the beginning

A few weeks ago I went to a lunch with some beautiful ladies from the Bright Eyed And Bloghearted course and I was initially very terrified. I didn’t know what to expect and my gut was telling me to pull out because it was afraid, but I went and had a lovely time. All of the ladies I met were beautiful and wonderful. How could I have thought of missing that? We were all chatting one of the lovely ladies gave me the best idea, she had sat down and drafted out like 50 topics she could blog on. I was like “How in the world could you have done that?” And she told me it was easy. She started at the beginning.

It seems like the most logical place to begin, doesn’t it? Yeah. But I was still confused. I was starting at the beginning, but when I grabbed a pen and my trusty notebook (I feel like Blues Clues…) I realised that starting at the beginning meant going right back to the inception of an idea. Then the plotting, characters, world building before all of the writing.

This is where all the magic comes from.

No one believes just how much work goes into a single novel, oh fellow writers do, but the media or the TV watchers and corporate word, just don’t understand it. There is a lot of work, a lot of tossing and froing that no one sees. Which is why I’m here.

I’m going to break it down for you.

All of it. I’m going to start at the ideas point and work forward. I would really love a helping hand from all of you. Let me know about your ideas and how they come to you, what do you do with them? I need your input. Leave me comments and you’ll see the results in future posts.