There’s no such thing as a bad idea!

 

One of my old bosses used to say that all the time in strategy meetings. Even then it was self-evidently an incorrect statement. Some ideas (even when you exclude any ideas that are obviously evil) just are not, and never will be, good ideas.

 

I am in a perfect position to attest to this, because as a writer I come up with a dozen bad ideas a day. Sometimes I think the key to being a good writer doesn’t lie in the word craft, important though that is, but in the ability to identify and repent of bad ideas before you’ve committed too much to them. It isn’t always easy though.

 

Otterly Guilty, for example. It was a concept for a light-hearted detective novel about a wayward otter that escapes its enclosure and finds a murder victim…necessitating it’s long-suffering keeper to work together with a detective to stop the murderer from killing the only witness. Otto the Otter.

 

Because that otter would have snitched!

 

That was an idea. Once I left the zoo, got in from the heat, and tried to explain it to a friend’s blankly uncomprehending face…I realised that it wasn’t a GOOD idea. Even though it had otters and murders, two things that improve any book. And, I mean, I’ve seen lifetime movies with a weaker concept, that’s all I’m saying. It couldn’t be a series though. At some point you’d just have to assume that the otter was a serial kipper.

 

Ha!

 

Sorry, that was cheap.

 

Other ideas look remarkably bad, but actually hang together well. Like Year of the Rabbit, my new favorite TV in the world.

 

What’s it about? Well, I’ll let it tell you in it’s own words.

 

Year of the Rabbit follows “a group of Victorian detectives including Detective Inspector Rabbitt, a hardened booze-hound who’s seen it all, and his new, hapless, by-the-books partner. While investigating a local murder, the chief of police’s lewd but insightful adoptive daughter becomes the country’s first female officer. Together, the trio must fight crime while rubbing shoulders with street gangs, crooked politicians, Bulgarian princes, spiritualists, music hall stars and the Elephant Man.”

 

This looks like a quintessential bad idea,but it is actually brilliant (also sweary, very sweary. This is not safe for work or tiny ears). Or, at least, I know of two people who love it.

What is the difference? What makes one idea a great, quirky concept and the other clear evidence that you’ve had too much strawberry lemonade and sunshine? There are a couple of ways to tell, or at least that help me identify the difference between a notion that has legs and one that is best buried in a deep hole. At least when it comes to books!

 

1: Is the concept all you have? This might not work for everyone, but for me a concept isn’t enough to build a book on. I need to have a character and something that character wants to hang the idea off. Sometimes I can start with a concept, but if a character doesn’t organically appear to play Atlas and hold up the world then I usually need to scrap that idea.

 

2: Talk to your friends. A lot of things sound absolutely brilliant in the privacy of your own head. Honestly, you can talk yourself into anything. I mean, it’s OBVIOUSLY not a good idea to drink a travel mug of espresso before you go to a major funding meeting. Yet I still did it.

 

That’s where your friend, beta reader, or easily distracted mailman come in. If you can’t convince them of the validity of the world, if you can’t capture their imagination now when the idea is still alluring and freshly sprung from your brow? In a month’s time when you’ve ground all the new off the idea and are trying to pin it down on the page like a butterfly, you’re going to have a hard time.

 

Also if your friend tells you it is a bad idea, then probably listen. They love you, so they probably have something to back them up.

 

3: After everything, after you’ve admitted the idea is just one big, shiny notion and your friend gave you the most dubious of looks over it, do you still want to write it? Is it still rattling around in your head, the characters mouthing off and the world building itself in fits and starts?

 

Then go for it. That might not be a good idea, but it’s YOUR idea. So stuff what anyone else thinks, let’s see what we can make of this ugly little weevil.

 

*Also, yes I did shoehorn Year of the Rabbit in there a little? But I love it and I want more people to watch it.

TA Moore can be found at @tamoorewrites and www.tamoorewrites.com