ARCHIVED TOPIC:
[ Line of Sight ]
DATE: July 25, 2002

A Dime a Dozen Is Cheap!

I've written in the past about where I get my ideas and about the notion that ideas are a dime a dozen. You've heard it all before: "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration," or "Ideas are a dime a dozen -- it's hard work that's rare!"

While I understand the point, it's far overstated. Good ideas are valuable. They are tiny little treasures. When I think of something cool and subsequently forget it, I feel a real loss. That's why, if you were to go through my desk, you would find it literally filled with tiny little pieces of paper, each with a note to myself scrawled on it for some new scene, a creature, or whatever. You'd find that I have two whole file cabinets filled with notebooks and sketches. You'd find old campaign notes and things I've written in the past (often badly) that still contain good ideas. Lists of character names. Lists of cool color combinations. Lists of weird things to find in a medieval city. About six beginnings to novels and short stories. All sorts of strange notes and ideas.

You never know when an idea will come. It's usually when you least expect it. Often, it's sitting in the car, or in a restaurant, or lying in bed. If you're like me, you've got to be ready. That's why I often carry around a little notebook that will fit in my pocket (although the notes I have scribbled on Post-Its, receipts, and in the margins of other papers show that I don't carry one around enough).

Of course, the ideas sometimes -- but not always -- come when I'm seated in front of my computer. I rarely suffer from writer's block, but I do sometimes suffer from writer's malaise. I'll just not be in the right mood to write. Rather than suffer -- since I'm not an employee chained to my desk -- I'll often get up and go do something else. Paint a miniature, read a book, or sometimes I'll stay at the computer and do something else, like surf the Net or play a computer game. When I do this, I'll occasionally feel Sue's eyes upon me, as if she's wondering, "Shouldn't you be working?" (She denies that she is thinking this, by the way.) [Hotly deny! --Ed.]

One thing I learned from science fiction author Greg Bear, however, is that when I go off and do that, I am working. He says that the mind has a lot of levels -- just because I'm not consciously thinking about my work doesn't mean that some level of my mind isn't coming up with ideas. Often, after a "break" of doing something else, I'll sit down at the computer and my fingers can't type fast enough to keep up with all the ideas that spill out.

The other factor is just simply the time of day. Only rarely can I work in the morning. Usually, the morning is when I'll check my email and look around on the Web (including my own message boards). I'll admit it, though, I'm not a morning person. More conventional people just cannot understand that Sue and I regularly sleep until 10 o'clock in the morning or later. Then, we work most of the day and into the evening, but often stay up until 2 or 3 a.m. I'm amazed, however, at the number of people who assume that since we do this, we are somehow lazy, or that it is for some reason wrong. We don't sleep more than other people (in fact, we probably sleep less than average). We just keep slightly different hours. I've spoken with people who are astonished -- even offended -- when I tell them not to call before 10 in the morning, though. They certainly wouldn't want me to call them at 1 a.m., I'll bet.

I simply work better at night. By that time, my mind has had the full day to get going, and I'm usually full of energy and ideas. I don't really "get going" until 4 or 5 in the afternoon some days, at least as far as writing goes. It's also cooler, quieter and more relaxing at night. The phone rings less. There are no errands that need running, and dinner doesn't need to be made. It really makes logical sense, if you think about it.

So even though I've created a lifestyle for myself centered around the best time for me to create, and even though I try as hard as I can to write down my ideas (sometime I'll do a whole column just on how amazingly forgetful I am), I still lose ideas and I still have periods where I get stuck on whatever it is I'm working on. If I could pay a dime for 12 of the ideas that I've lost, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Particularly if I can do it in one of my "stuck" moments. As someone who comes up with ideas for a living, who writes new ideas on a daily basis, I've got to tell you: 10 cents for 12 good ideas is darn cheap. Inflation should have raised that price considerably by now.

Attention cynical people: From now on, the saying will go: "Ideas are three for a dollar." Whattaya say?

Back to Line of Sight Archive Page / Back to Monte's Home Page