Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related How do you know if an idea is good or bad?

So, most of us on this board are writers whether it’s writing fics, books, essays for college or writing something for work. But I was wondering how you all deal with figuring out if an idea is good enough to keep writing it. Like do you get to a spot and just erase it all? Or some one who saves it on your computer and go back to it later? Or some body that keeps writing it to the end and just save it and never look at it again? I’m very curious on what everyone says!

Lisa (who is procrastinating on writing and figuring out if the idea is worth the time!) lol

I'm at that spot right now.

I'm ready to delete my Nano fic and never visit it again, but I've poured way to many hours into it now. It may never actually get posted at this rate, but I'm not going to delete it.

However, I don't know that I'm going to finish it either. I'm totally burned out on it and since I'm not posting yet, there's no FDK to help with that [though Alisha's beta comments are most helpful in that regard and the comments from the others who have helped with it have been as well - Missy, Kaylle, Bethy, etc.].

I am working on an HiM rewrite [about half done, maybe a bit more] that had Kaylle giggling a little while ago so maybe that will help get the muse back in working order [she's phoning this rewrite in from the Himalayas - she's climbing Mt. Everest this spring unless I can entice her back].

Okay - kids are not sleeping and since she's just taken me back off hold I better get to it.
Carol

Edit: As to whether something is good or not... right now I think everything's bad .

Yup, that's me. With everything. You don't know when an half written out idea will clip into something else. It's happened to me and it counters the head bashing that comes when I've been previously stuck. Sometimes distance from a project can be the best thing.

I also echo how important comments are. A good beta should be able to let you know whether something is worth pursuing or to caution you on what the possible pitfalls are through the process.

But of course things vary a bit depending on the type of writing.


alcyone (who's procrastinating on her own writing as well because her brain is worthless right now)

I'm firmly of the opinion that no idea isn't worth pursuing.

When writing fanfic, I tend to just start typing and then keep going until the idea or dialogue peters out. When I'm typing it's kind of subconscious - I'm not really thinking about it too much, just in the moment, going with the flow.

Once I've run out of steam, I'll either review what I've written right away and tweak or sometimes let it lie fallow for a few days before going back to it and seeing if it's as good as I remember or if I was delusional at the time and it's utter garbage.

But unless you go with the idea, you'll never find it which it was. So I'd always say go for it. You can't lose if you try it out. You can always hit the delete button at a later date - and you just might end up with something spectacular.

LabRat

I typically go through about a dozen story ideas before I get excited enough about one to actually write it. Most of them die a quick death inside my head when I realize there isn't enough meat on them to keep me excited enough to go through the hours of work to write a 200-400k story.

Occasionally I start trying to write one and after three pages or so it becomes apparent it's not going anywhere. I save it and usually never go back.

Of course, there have been a couple of times I went back. My story Gender Bender, about a Lois and Clark who were each born as people of the opposite sex didn't have enough for me to write a long story. So I went back a year later and wrote a vignette.

Occasionally, some of the ideas can find their ways in as part of other stories.

But that's the way it is for me.

I think everybody has their own way of evaluating whether or not an idea is good enough to run with. Some people keep a journal of plot bunnies which may or may not become incorporated into a longer piece. Many, if not most, of us have ideas and started stories and scenes on their hard drives that will probably never be finished. But I will say, there are no bad ideas - but some ideas simply don't work very well without a lot of work.

I'm of the opinion that most first drafts are very, very bad--with the possible exception of first drafts. It's just a matter of getting the entire thought down on paper from beginning to end and then tweeking it until it's actually good. Remember that a good idea can be poorly written and a bad idea can be written well. It's all a matter of polish.


Elisabeth

It's a good idea if it works. Which probably doesn't help you at all, sorry But I need to have a way to end the thing satisfactorily, and I need interesting things to do along the way, or I really can't write it.

I have a few stories partially written sitting around on my hard drive. More than once, I've come back to an old draft and found a way to finish it, years later. I figure, I've got lots of hard drive space, why get rid of stray ideas?

PJ

I read this ("Things We Never Talk About") today in my daily blogroll and was reminded of this thread. Here's the teaser:

alcyone