elspethcross

In the beginning, the writer had a really cool idea. She decided that it would be a great premise for a novel so she sat down and began writing.  It didn't take her long to realize a simple truth.

An idea is not the same thing as a novel.

An idea is one event, one moment in time.  An idea is a short story.  There is nothing wrong with short stories but they are called "short" for a reason.  Once the idea has been told, it's finished.

When it comes to a novel, an idea is one spark from a campfire, one piece of a puzzle.  It lets you know that you are on the right track and there is something bigger out there for you to find.  For me, a novel is like a good hearty soup.  It must simmer for a while and it needs several ingredients. 

I've learned through painful trial and error that if I start writing with a few ideas, it is truly only three-fifths of what I need.  Do you know what happens when you try to drive with three-fifths of an engine?  You don't get anywhere.  Getting the first three ideas to meld together is easy for me.  It's often a high-octane beginning, a twist in the middle, and the climax.  Sometimes it's a brilliant title, a memorable character, and a unique setting.  Either way, unfortunately, what's holding it together at this point is a whole lot of blank spaces and a ton of magical hand-waving to get to the next part.

When the fourth idea arrives, it's very exciting.  This will work!  It fills in a lot of the blanks.  It provides a framework for the first three ideas that is logical and forward-moving.  It may provide some motivation for some of the characters.  At this point, I could start writing.  It will turn out like a D-grade movie but I could write and finish it.  It would be full of cliches where I couldn't come up with an original idea, populated with cardboard characters that give stereotypes a bad name, and one of those films where at the end you say, "That's two hours of my life I'll never have back."  But I could do it.

Instead, I have learned to wait because that fifth piece is the final idea that will lift it from mediocrity to amazing.  It elevates the novel from something I could write to something I'm excited to write.  The fifth piece is always the foundation of the story.  The rest is a castle in the air, a pleasant dream with no grounding in reality.  It's the motivation that drives the characters, the personalities that breathe life, the event that is universally understood.  That final idea is what brings the entire picture into focus.  Now I know what I'm writing about.

The best thing about an idea is that it will always keep, unless you forget it but in that case it probably wasn't a strong idea anyway.  Keep a journal or an inspiration file or something and write down all your one or two line ideas.  Personally, I have an old recipe box.   Pull it out every now and again to look at.  Sometimes the soup-simmering is sub-conscious.  Two or three ideas that came at different times will suddenly fall together and give you a glance at a bigger picture.  Eventually that glance will combine with a few more and all of a sudden a bunch of individual light-bulb moments will illuminate your mind enough for you to see the whole story.  Then go write it down.

cross-posted to my blog