For a couple months, I have been floating ideas about a new creative project. In more fertile creative times, I’ll jot down ideas and plot elements in a notebook about the story. (I would like to graduate to using index cards in the future, but right now there is too much of a chance that my 2-year old hijack them.) When I’m struggling to find the time to write–with the notebook peeking from underneath a pile of assignments–I’ll try to keep some part of my brain thinking about the story in an attempt to move it forward.
Yesterday, a starting point for the story hiccuped to the front of my mind, as if my brain had been trying to push through the fog of my recent exhaustion and overwhelm and had finally found a quiet moment to do so. There was clarity in the idea and I realized I need to spend some more time on the formulating story.
I decided to bring the idea into focus by giving myself a structure for organizing and then writing it. Now comes a part of the process I haven’t yet formalized before: auditioning the ideas.
The concept works like this: write your ideas on index cards and then stand (or sit) back and, when re-reading them, sense where you feel the most energy. Which ideas resonate with you? Pick the top three ideas to work with.
I can see where the auditioning is important. Often, we have so many ideas that we tend to overwhelm ourselves (remember I’ve been jotting down ideas in my notebook for a few months…about one story!). Once you feel overwhelmed, you are less likely to focus on an idea, putting off the act–no matter if there is energy you would respond to and be creative about. And remember, if you need to, use auditioning in determining which of several ideas you may want to start with in the first place.
Do you have any ideas you can plan to audition? Let me know how it goes.
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