How many of your ideas lead to stories? Is it one shot, one kill? Or do you start a hundred stories, with only a few ever achieved? Is every idea good for something, or do you shelve a lot?
Very few ideas lead to stories. It's more often that stories lead to ideas.
Most stories will start with something more random than coherent, like a single line or perhaps a character. Some ideas bear fruit, some ideas don't. I'd say it splits about 1 out of 3 end up somewhere.
That so, most ideas spurn more ideas. The writing process itself fills out a lot of great ideas or interesting turns. There's the old Quiller-Couch 'kill your darlings' bit, but I find myself transplanting and cross-breeding them more often than outright killing them. This joke is hilarious, but not appropriate here. This character is great, so great that she deserves her own story. I don't know how this story begins and I don't know how this story ends, so I'll just mash 'em together and worry over only a middle.
It's odd to think about sometimes. There's this one play of mine, I think I've never quite gotten together enough to be together and done, but has been the source of three completed one acts, all based off of elements first developed for that play, but that I cut out upon revision as just not appropriate.
Most stories will start with something more random than coherent, like a single line or perhaps a character. Some ideas bear fruit, some ideas don't. I'd say it splits about 1 out of 3 end up somewhere.
That so, most ideas spurn more ideas. The writing process itself fills out a lot of great ideas or interesting turns. There's the old Quiller-Couch 'kill your darlings' bit, but I find myself transplanting and cross-breeding them more often than outright killing them. This joke is hilarious, but not appropriate here. This character is great, so great that she deserves her own story. I don't know how this story begins and I don't know how this story ends, so I'll just mash 'em together and worry over only a middle.
It's odd to think about sometimes. There's this one play of mine, I think I've never quite gotten together enough to be together and done, but has been the source of three completed one acts, all based off of elements first developed for that play, but that I cut out upon revision as just not appropriate.
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