Keep Revisiting and Reworking Those Ideas

Week of December 4—What Do I Do With All These Ideas?!

Friday, December 9—Keep Revisiting and Reworking Those Ideas

If ideas are a dime a dozen in an era when people are pinching pennies . . . what is the real value of an idea? If ideas really are worth a dime a dozen, then our 30 ideas from PiBoIdMo are only worth 25 cents. Please say it isn’t so.

It isn’t so! Our ideas are valuable. So my advice to you is: Value your ideas.

Just because some of your ideas didn’t make your current top-picks list doesn’t mean they won’t make the list another time. Who knows when one of those ideas you’ve skipped over for the time being will become your next inspiration? Who knows when one of those ideas might inspire another idea? Who knows when an idea you develop later will combine with an idea you had during PiBoIdMo to form a new masterpiece?

I sat in a meeting today and developed the problem to accompany one of my titles that I hadn’t even considered for my top-picks list. Later in the same meeting (yes, I was bored), I outlined another idea I didn’t think had much potential. Both of these ideas need tons of work, but they just might be great picture books one day.

So remember . . .

·        Some of your ideas need more thought.

·        Some of your ideas need room to breathe.

·        Some of your ideas will get better with time.

·        Some of your ideas need more research.

·        Some of your ideas need a problem to solve.

·        Some of your ideas need more brainstorming.

·        Some of your ideas are stinkers, clinkers, and career sinkers!

Give each idea what it needs, when it needs it. And realize that even a stinker might come out smelling like a rose with the right kind of inspiration and hard work.

Good luck my fellow idea hunters and picture book writers!