The Thinker at the Cleveland Museum of Art by Erick Drost

Every writer wants to have a good idea…

No, that’s not quite right. Every writer wants to have a great idea. They want an idea that will knock a reader’s socks off, that will have a reader walking around with their mind’s blown. 

(As a side note: ideas are just the beginning and, to be frank, ideas are a dime a dozen because it’s actually about the execution of an idea, but that’s a whole other blog post.)

Coming up with ideas is one of the main jobs of a writer. We want to write something that’s compelling, unique that engages an audience deeply. And because of that desire for the great idea, it can weigh deeply. The search can feel like a death march because there’s a little voice on the inside that says, nope, that’s not great. In fact, it’s not even good.

We start discarding because of that voice in hopes another idea will roll on up and this one, this time will be the great idea. But the cycle continues, and you toss that one aside and you start again and now you’re hoping for an idea that’s good enough…

Oof.

Friends, let me introduce you to the power of a bad idea.

Light bulb by Haiderrr

Years ago, I was trying to break into TV as a writer and, to do that, you need to be writing original scripts. And you needed to becoming out with a new one regularly, as these scripts get you meetings and those meetings might lead to getting a job. And in those meetings they might ask “So what else are you working on?” Which meant, pitch me an idea.

This meant the idea machine had to be working allllll the time.

On a plane ride back to Los Angeles, needing to start work on a new script, I used the time to think up a new idea. A great idea. An idea that would bowl over a TV exec so much they would pick up the phone and order up five seasons. (That’s not how it works, fyi.) And every idea I was coming up with was met with “Yeah, but it is good enough?”

And that is an impossible question to answer.

Then I had a thought. What if I came up with a truly terrible idea? What if I can up with an idea sooooo bad the exec would call up their friends and say, “OMG, I have to tell you this horrible idea this idiot pitched me…”

And it popped into my head: a former child star who is a private detective.

Y’all, I laughed out loud and thought: it was so cheesy, so 80s, so dumb and so baaaaaad. It was absurd. It was ridiculous. I shook my head, laughed a little more and then turned back to my notebook and my “good ideas.”

But, I couldn’t do it. My imagination would yank my mind back to this idea, adding more and more details. Soon enough, this was the idea. An idea with legs.

And I did not get laughed out of meetings. People leaned in. And now… three books later, people really care about this former child star…

The search for a “good” idea is meaningless.

It’s an impossible standard. What is good? What is great? That’s personal taste. But what’s compelling? What’s an idea you can’t stop thinking about? That’s something you can seize on as a writer. Those feelings are what’s going to keep you in your seat to finish the book.

So free yourself of the pursuit of a good idea, instead, ask yourself, what’s a really bad one?

I invite you to check out one of the worst ideas that I’ve had… You can head over to my book page where you can get your copy today OR even buy direct from me.