Every Idea Has Some Amount of Worth

Every Idea Has Some Amount of Worth

By R.C. Gates

            As a creative person, I find myself constantly inspired to create all new ideas, whether that be a full-blown story or even just a digital art project. They can come to me at any point in the day. Watching television? Bam! My brain starts formulating an idea. Listening to a podcast? Bam! Another idea. Lying in bed at 3 in the morning unable to sleep? You guessed it. Another idea. 

       It can sometimes get overwhelming when I try to think of how much time it will take to complete them all, and I know I will not complete one hundred percent of them. The best thing that I can do at that time is to write down as many details about the idea as I possibly can. I have to pick and choose what I feel the most driven to create. However, now I am stuck with all of these ideas that I am not able to finish. At this point, I may not know what to do with them, but I do know what not to do with them. When you have an idea, save it and absolutely do not throw it away.
            Whenever I was in final years of college, I was working on a five-book adventure series about pirates, but I was still having ideas popping into my head. I have had at least thirty different ideas that I have jotted down on paper, just so I can keep them around for later projects. I know I won’t be able to complete them all, and while it may be unfortunate, it is part of the life of a creative person. The incomplete ideas do still have some worth though, even if I am not able to bring them to fruition. The beauty of those ideas is that I still have some sort of reminder of what story I wanted to tell, regardless of what medium it was. With those remnants still in my mind, I can use them to better flesh out my next story or art piece. Do I have a character that I want to base a story around? I will take a look through my notes and see if any of my unused ideas would be a good setting. Got a story that needs some more action injected into it? Add the gruff antihero from that story I never got to complete. One of the current projects that I am working on is a supernatural comic and I was able to pull some creatures from a horror anthology story that never materialized.
            Every idea should have some amount of worth to you, even if you may not know it yet. You may write it down on paper thinking you are going to spend the next couple months or maybe even a year creating and finishing it. Two weeks later, all the interest has dwindled. I have had that same thing happen to me and I am sure many other people like me have experienced the same feeling. However, if you throw away that idea and erase it completely, you may be locking yourself away from even better ideas at later points. When you get stuck five years later at a point in a story where you need to add something to give it the spark you desire, look back through your previous ideas. Maybe the spark of enthusiasm that once existed for those ideas will be able to be molded into the vigor that you hold for your most recent project. There is no guaranteeing that would even be possible if you had tossed those ideas away in the trash. Whether it is days, months, or even years later, those ideas still have some amount of potential and worth to you, and they can be used to help craft the best story that you could ever create.  They may lose their luster to you at first, but like oxygen to a fire, it won’t take much to bring back that flame.

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Follow R.C. Gates on Twitter: @RCGates1994