Creative Paralysis: part 2–Idea paralysis

The Curse of too many, too few, no ideas. And once you have the ideas, which is the ... you know ... the one?

Had to get this bag of coffee from Bones Coffee. That Mustache is like looking into a mirror.

Hello friends. Hope y’all are doing well and moving forward on your projects. Last time I talked about Perfection Paralysis and how that can be a road block to starting a project. But, now that I’m in between projects, edits are in my agents hands, about to send a sequel of ‘Will You Still Love Me If I Become Someone Else?’ to beta-readers, and as I wait for feedback and direction on these projects I do what any writer should be doing in the waiting periods, marketing/networking, reading and writing new stuff.

I want to put a pin in marketing/networking, and reading for later episodes, because I already started digging in on creative paralysis (seems like a series is happening, LOL). But, as I think about the process to get writing, every new piece is like starting over. And, I know, starting over with anything is hard and being a creative means coming up with ideas. And this is where “idea-paralysis” can rear its head in the creative paralysis cycle.

“A WRITER’S NOTEBOOK IS THE BEST WAY IN THE WORLD TO IMMORTALIZE BAD IDEAS. MY IDEA ABOUT A GOOD IDEA IS ONE THAT STICKS AROUND AND STICKS AROUND AND STICKS AROUND.”

— Stephen King

Idea Paralysis ... what the heck is that?

So, initially I defined idea paralysis as having too many ideas. But, after chatting with fellow creative Georgia Geis (atomicnumber14, writer and printmaker), she pointed out that idea paralysis could be having no unique ideas. This led me to a third definition, ideas that feel derivative of your pervious work or others—the ideas where you think, “Someone did this already.”

The definition from Macmillan of “having an idea” is:to be fairly certain about something, but not completely certain.

This sound a lot like the scrap wood piles I have. I’m fairly certain I can use these scraps for another project, but I’m not sure.

Look at all the ideas in my wood scraps

Let’s tackle the no ideas-paralysis

If you have no ideas of what to create next, I’m going to tell you to do an internet search for “creative prompts.” These prompts are lifesavers, just pick one and start writing. Remember you are not striving for perfection, just getting words, or brush strokes down.

If you don’t like using prompts, you can read a favorite author and rift off of their story (like a fan fiction), or create a new song from a favorite riff, or draw a favorite character, or ... you get the idea, piggyback off a favorite creative to kickstart your own creative juices and the flow of ideas.

But, someone else is using these prompts or did something sorta-similar to what I’m thinking.

As a creative this is the biggest trap to fall into. The biggest killer of ideas. What’s the point of moving forward? someone else already did it. Back to the notebook—Stop it. No one has done what you are thinking. Even if it sounds familiar, even if the piece was drawn, written by your identical twin. Trust me, just start creating.

Your creativity is influenced by your experiences and perspective. This is the mysterious thing they call, “Your Voice!” (We’ll go down the rabbit hole of voice in another episode). If I asked all of you to write a story about an overturned bowl of fruit on the dining room table. Think of all the Points of View (POV): a hurried parent, a sloppy kid, an angry cat, zombies, time travelers, vampires, 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person, multiple-POV, whatever... okay I hear ya, what if we pick the same perspective, there is genre, horror, rom-com, sci-if, literary fiction, police procedural, whatever ... I’ve seen the number of genres and subgenres as high as 144!

Let’s say we pick the same perspective, genre, etc, all these will be funneled through our voice (here’s this voice talk again). Voice = Our personal experiences + the message of our art.

If you are still not convinced that you shouldn’t limit yourself to what you think is unique and has never been done. Let’s pick a story or art work, how many stories about time travelers are there? Movies about weather disasters? How many paintings of fruit bowls fill museums? And how many writers have reimagined Spiderman?

There are only seven basic narrative plots, and 3 plot structures, explained by Robert McKee; Arc plot, mini-plot, and anti-plot.

I point all this out so you can say, “SO WHAT?” So, what someone did something similar to what you are thinking. SO WHAT?

No one has done your idea, because they are not you. Not you on a genetic level. They haven’t been nurtured like you, nor have they walked any steps in your shoes. So, stop holding yourself back with the excuse that it’s been done before. NO it hasn’t. Repeat after me, “SO, WHAT?” So, just start creating.

Great, I have been freed from thinking I have to have unique ideas—but now I have too many ideas.

I’ve been here. I am here. My digital notebook is filled with ideas. So many unoriginal ideas (strike that—see above). I mean so many ideas waiting for my unique perspective and voice. So many ideas abandoned and forgotten because they weren’t original enough. So, many wonderful ideas, full of potential.

Okay, so how do I deal with this idea paralysis, which feeds my perfection paralysis. I just start to write. Seriously.

I start writing the pitch (query letter), synopsis and chapter outlines. And before any of y’all start commenting at me, let me squash the plotter bs pantser argument.

Like Jacquelyn Mitchard at the Chicago Writers Association conference said about this topic, “... you don’t take a road trip without a destination in mind and a map...”

You can think of your story like a trip, you are starting some place and ending in another. So, write that down. You have stops along the trip, like your story has scenes where things need to happen to keep the plot going. So, write these down.

Boom—you got the beginnings of your query/pitch, synopsis and chapter outlines. (This is my process, do what works for you, but do something!)

So, why go through this process of writing out the query/pitch, synopsis and chapter outlines, and not just winging-it and writing chapter 27, because what can happen is you’ll write a few thousand words and then what—you get stuck—and then you chastise yourself for screwing up the perfect idea—you then spin your wheels trying to make this imperfect idea, perfect, and you want to give up but you cannot because you have those thousands of precious perfect words.

Ah—you are caught in a paralysis cycle, where completion and progress doesn’t exist only giving up—don’t do it. Break the cycle. Like Ivan Vanko said in Iron Man 2, “Don’t get too attached to things. Learn to let go.”

Just let those ideas go, it’s okay to switch projects. It’s okay to take a break from your WIP. It’s okay to experiment on something different. It’s okay to go after the Purple Cow. It’s okay to fail. It’s okay to succeed.

I have the idea I want to work on, but what if I mess it up?

Oh no, the paralysis cycle rears its ugly head. I did an episode in perfection paralysis. Shove that voice (how many times have I said voice in this episode)... please ignore that voice and just start creating. I give you permission to screw it up. Remember this is what all those rounds of editing are for. And remember the most expensive part of creating is often our time (which as creatives we are never fully compensated for—but that’s another episode). So, if you , I mean spend your time learning, mastering and, dare I say, perfecting your art, you will find joy even in these shelved projects.

So, think about what’s stoping you from creating and push that crap aside and act like a sneaker shoe and just do it!

A little personal update

I’ll be at two events next month-mark your calendars,

1. The Blue Island Brewery Mai Fest 2023; May 13th

2. The Creative Art Summit; May 20th

I got edits back from my agent, and the big news—I finally got my office reorganized! Still filling the walls up with stuff, but now I have no excuse to not be creating, but what if I don’t have time—Looks like we need a part three to this series—Time Paralysis—

New office finally reorganized! Time to get back to work.

Okay, that’s it for now, but you can always email and let me know about your process to overcome idea paralysis (I do answer back) or follow me online for real time tracking. Or hit those buttons below to comment or share my newsletter!