"I have a great idea for a story. You write it, and we'll split the proceeds 50/50."

What is an idea? Do some people have an idea of what an Idea is, and what it means? What is idea in relationship to story? How do we turn an idea into a story?

#imakeupworlds

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Standard disclaimer: I do not have A Program. There is no Secret Handshake. I'm going to tweet some of my thoughts based on my experiences and my opinion. Not even all of my thoughts! Just some of them!

I'm adding a tweet number for my own convenience. This is threaded.

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"If your ideas are no good, why don't you write MY ideas?"

Here's the idea of an Idea valorized over the work. I know many writers who've had similar experiences with people who think the Idea is the single most important part of a story.

An Idea of itself is not a story.

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Part of the work is how to turn an idea into a story.

Part of the work is understanding that a single "Idea" can be taken by every different writer and turned in a different story because the work of making it into a story "individualizes" the idea as part of that process.

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Ideas are, in their way, cheap. Envisioning how to use an idea combined with execution (often through trial & error, mistakes, rewriting & revision) is the hard part.

Part of it might be instinct--I don't know--but part of it is trained repetition.

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