Member-only story
Is It the Idea, or the Idea of the Idea You Love?
There is a difference between being rooted in an idea and stuck in an idea.
For all the stories I have started and finished over the years, there are probably an equal number of unfinished stories.
I get an idea. It starts to take form. I begin to work with it. And then — it goes nowhere. Or I find that there is this one sticking point and I can’t get past it.
This is where it’s important to see if the idea has anywhere to go or if it has reached its conclusion. My fantasy series, The Source Chronicles, almost totally stalled out in book 1, Seeker, because I hit a major snag. The original idea of one of my characters had been more-or-less eliminated as I got deeper and deeper into the story. In fact, it utterly messed with and wrecked a major plot point.
Fortunately, a conversation with a friend untangled the snag and I was able to move on, repair the character flaw, and finish the book.
This is an example of being rooted in an idea versus stuck in an idea. It comes down to recognizing that the fundamental notion is workable.
What does that even mean?
