We’ve already talked about capturing your ideas and random thoughts on the page so you can work with them more easily. Today I want to talk about the relationship between ideas and time, because it’s a precarious one.
Ideas are needy. They’re like flowers that cannot be rushed from seed to bloom. Like a flower needs good soil, sun, water and time, ideas need imagination, nourishment, and to exist in the real world on a page or screen. They also need time.
The more time we can give an idea, the more connections our brains are able to make and the richer our plots will be. Granted added time may not make a bad idea good, but it might make an okay idea better and a good idea great. The one thing it won’t do is make an idea worse.
Whenever I come up with an idea, I always let it sit before I begin writing (after capturing it on the page, of course). This waiting period lets me work on the idea in my subconscious before picking up my pen. It’s funny what can happen in the background of our lives if we allow our ideas to marinate. For longer projects, like novels or film scripts, the waiting period is typically longer than for shorter pieces, like these blogs. The point is to let your ideas breathe a bit before tying them down. Let them be free to form and reform as new versions of themselves, taking notes along the way.
Brains are fascinating. They take input and immediately begin looking for connections and related ideas. Then those ideas spark the imagination, spawning more ideas. But it doesn’t work instantaneously. It takes time.
Deadlines aside, it pays to slow down. I find giving myself more time in the beginning of a project helps me write faster in the end. This is important when doing client work or freelance assignments where deadlines are real and absolute. In my entire career, I have never missed a deadline. I’ve crunched a few to the last moment, but never missed one, mostly because I took the time to figure out where I was going before I began.
Having a strong plot or outline is the key to meeting deadlines. I build in extra time in the beginning to figure out my path (which I refer to as pre-production) and then do what I must to finish the writing portion of the project, even pulling all-nighters when needed. I’d rather do that than stumble through a project wasting time going down the wrong path.
I’ve also found that undeveloped ideas have a way of withering on the page. There have been times I tried to take a shortcut and get to the writing phase with only a hint of an idea. It’s rarely worked out for me. I end up writing in circles or going down dead ends, finding that my “idea” was unsustainable or unsupported and have to start again.
Now I’m sure some of you are protesting about now, mostly the “pantsers” among you. I know “pantsing” is a valid approach, but it too has a time component attached. In my experience, the shorter the planning, the longer the writing and editing.
My best advice when it comes to pre-production or pre-writing is to slow down. Let ideas percolate. Work with them on the page. Explore different methods to capture your ideas. Research to spark ideas. Focus on the details. Play with various scenarios. Write random scenes. Write backstory. Do what you must to find the through-line of your work so you can build a workable plot or outline. Know where you are headed and how you are going to get there. Now this doesn’t have to mean a detailed plot or outline, but it should be a clear through-line and approach.
Try not to be in a rush with your writing or with judging your ideas. It’s easy to dismiss an idea as a bad one too quickly, before it’s had a chance to develop into something viable. If you come across an idea that is not ready yet, put it aside. Give it space to grow. This could be in a writer’s journal, on a notecard, in an idea folder on your laptop or anywhere you’ll find it again. Have a place for baby ideas, a nursery of story seeds.
Trust in time. It is your friend, except when your editor is calling. Then it’s a cruel taskmaster.