Member-only story
When Should You Give Up On A Good Idea?
The answer to every writer’s dilemma
A good idea is like the seed of a rose hip. It must be watered, fed, and nurtured before it flowers. I’ve written over a thousand stories since I started on Medium. I’ve learned an important lesson.
My best stories developed from the intersection of compelling ideas and interesting experiences.
It’s hard to distinguish between the winning and losing ideas. Many of my concepts sound amazing at first but die unceremoniously as I trudge through my writing process.
Good ideas feel different
Sometimes you know you have a great one. That does not guarantee you success. You write, edit and post but nobody gets it. You go back and try and figure out what happened. Distance allows you more objectivity in your evaluation. You tilt your head and narrow your eyes and think, “what the hell did I write.”
The natural course of action is to shrug it off and move onto something else. I do that too, but if I still believe in the idea, I won’t let it die. I put it aside and come back to it a few weeks later.
Writing allows us to crystallize our thinking. The process of thinking about an idea, writing…
