I’ve got an idea. It’s been hammering at me for days, intruding on all sorts of mundane thoughts. There I am, making up shopping lists in my head when BAM! it’s popping up between the veggies and the washing powder. Even more interesting, this is a revamp of an old idea or at least one I’ve been mulling over for some time as the basis for my new adult novel. I’ve already come up with on heck of a premise and sketched it out on paper. Now my brain is filling in the twists and turns that, like the layers of an onion, will wrap around the core of the story, ready to be peeled away by the reader.
As the legendary Darley Anderson once said to me, all the best ideas need to stew like this. It’s that slow simmer in the mind before you so much as hit the keyboard that will turn a book from mundane to great. If an idea isn’t strong enough it won’t survive the process. If, like mine, it just won’t let go then you know you have a winner on your hands. You need to knock it about, question it, hit it from every angle. A good idea will bounce back, growing as it takes shape. And then comes the day when you can resist no longer. You have to get it down before the idea begins to dissipate. Yes, there is a point when this process has reached its peak. Let it stew for too long and it begins to dry out and lose its juice. The art lies in knowing when this happens and capturing it beforehand. I think I’m just about there. Now comes the scary part…
