Don’t Ask Me Where I Get My Ideas
Posted March 25th, 2010 by Howard TaylerAnytime people ask me where I get my ideas (and it happens all the time) I immediately jump up on a soapbox and explain to them that they’re asking the wrong question. My ideas, your ideas, and everybody’s ideas have no intrinsic value, so it doesn’t matter where I get them. They are not currency, they cannot be bought or sold, they are, in market terms, worthless.
Worthless, that is, until somebody does something with them.
Right now I have several ideas percolating for scripts I should be writing. Those ideas have no value until I actually write the scripts. And in truth, the scripts themselves have limited value until I draw on them, and Travis colors them, and we put them on the web. Eventually those ideas become a product that I can sell, and then they have value.
I have no shortage of ideas. They are like dewdrops, distilling from the atmosphere onto my leafy green brain each morning. I’m fairly sure your brain is the same way. If you don’t think you have any ideas, you probably just need to know how to look for the dewdrops. They’re tiny, they’re fleeting, but they glisten.
I’ve been asked time and again how to protect an idea. The answer? Build something with it. Then anybody who wants to steal your idea (note: nobody wants to steal your idea) would have to steal what you built, and that’s harder to do.
I realize that aspiring writers, game designers, songwriters, inventors, and entrepreneurs do not want to be told their ideas have no value, but the fact of the matter is that until somebody is willing to pay for something, its market value is zero. I’m not saying this to be hurtful. If you have a great idea, that’s very nice. I’m happy for you. It’s a good feeling to have a great idea.
Turn it into something valuable. Write the manuscript, design the game, sing the song, build the invention, start the business, but above all stop thinking that this idea is going to change the world.
Your idea is not going to change the world. You are going to change the world when you take your idea and do something wonderful with it.
Hopefully now you have enough information to ask the right question.
Explore posts in the same categories: Cartooning, Public Service
March 25th, 2010 at 11:44 am
THANK YOU for writing this. Sometimes Opportunity only knocks once; it seems that this time Opportunity knocked once, then wandered off and came back with a flock of Epiphanies, and THEY BROUGHT A BATTERING RAM.
I’ve been afraid of running with my ideas because coming up with world-changing ideas seems like it should be really hard. It turns out? World-changing ideas are just regular ideas. Get your ideas out into the world and let them do the rest of the work of changing the world.
March 25th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I want to steal your idea about glistening dewdrops ideas. Can I paint it Howard? Pretty please?
March 25th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Go for it, Jessica. Just be sure to give me a print when it’s done.
March 25th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
> I’ve been asked time and again how to protect an idea. The
> answer? Build something with it. Then anybody who wants
> to steal your idea (note: nobody wants to steal your idea)
> would have to steal what you built, and that’s harder to do.
If only everyone understood this, we wouldn’t have so many people idly hoarding technology patents against the chance that someone worth suing tries to build something related…
March 25th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I agree that it is more useful to get your ideas out into the world than hoard them in your brain. But I disagree that ideas are completely valueless, or even devoid of market value. A tree growing in a forrest cannot itself be sold, but having the tree is a prerequisite to having lumber, or apples (if it’s an apple tree) or paper, or what have you. Trees are the raw materials from which those things are made. Ideas are the raw materials from which other things are made. I may not be able to sell an idea, but I also can’t do anything with an idea that I don’t have, and I can do no good with a bad idea.
People asking you where you get your ideas are admiring your creativity. It’s all well and good for you to think they should be admiring your industriousness instead, or your entrepreneurial spirit, but there are people out there that are bad at being creative. Just like there are people out there who are bad at math. Or bad at learning new languages. Or bad at speaking in public. These are things that can be taught but that are easier for some of us than for others.
The reason that “where do you get your ideas” is the “wrong question” isn’t because ideas are worthless, but rather because no one else can get their ideas the same place you do. If everyone had your leafy green brain, then everyone would be full of creative ideas, and they wouldn’t be asking you where you got yours. They’d be asking you where you find the energy and the drive to turn your ideas into something marketable.
March 25th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
The difference between an idea and a tree is the difference between the idea of a tree and a an actual tree. The idea of a tree is a seed, but an actual tree has years and years of execution behind it.
You need a better metaphor to make your point. I see what you’re trying to say — ideas are the building blocks of any creative endeavor, and without them such endeavors could not exist, so they MUST have value, right?
WRONG.
You can’t sell them. You can sell execution on them, but you can’t sell the ideas themselves. When an aspiring novelist (or game designer, or cartoonist) approaches a publisher with a “pitch” for a novel/game/comic/whatever the publisher is not going to part with money. They’re not going to buy the idea. EVER. Why not? Because there’s no execution. It has no value.
“But wait” you insist, “what about celebrities who sell book rights to their exploits, or established novelists who sign publishing deals for unwritten manuscripts?” Indeed. What makes them different?
EXECUTION.
They’ve already demonstrated that they can deliver the goods, whether by being on the news, or by successfully writing other books. Their publishers are not buying an idea. They’re buying the promise that a particular known quantity (celebrity, author, whatever) will execute on an idea. They are hoping that past performance is indicative of future results.
Of course I do see the OTHER point you’re making, about how fans (as opposed to aspirants) admire creativity, and are attracted to the mystique. And I suppose it’s a bit dangerous for me to strip away the mystique and point out that the ideas themselves are not the tricky bit. The last thing I want to do is appear ungrateful for the attention (which I love) or the opportunity to create (which I also love.) But I also want to avoid misleading the aspirants who so often mistake a seed for a tree, and wish to build a set of cabinets after having collected some pine cones.
March 25th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Oh, and I should point out that the RIGHT questions for aspiring writers look a lot like this:
1) How do I vet my ideas so I’m only executing on the best ones?
2) How important is a completely original idea, and how can I make an unoriginal idea (let’s say “vampire detective”) worth executing on?
3) I can’t find dewdrops in my leafy green brain. Can you help me raise the relative humidity in my skull?
(That last question is not “where do you get your ideas?” It’s “I feel like I need more ideas. How can I get some?” The distinction is a subtle but important one.)
March 25th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
“but there are people out there that are bad at being creative.”
This statement assumes that creativity is something that one has or does not have. I prefer to believe that creativity can be learned by anyone. I’ll grant that it comes much more naturally to some people than others.
However I am now looking at the “Where do you get your ideas” question in a new light. Ideally it is a request for help practicing creativity. Unfortunately the same words are just as often used by people looking for a secret easy path to some special repository filled with good ideas.
So the first step in practicing creativity is trying to find a more specific question. Think of a character or plot arc that fascinates you, then ask where the pieces of that story originated and how they evolved as the story developed.
March 25th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Oops. Crossposted with Howard.
March 25th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
A good quote from Howard Aiken (inventor of the Harvard Mark I, first automatic computer circa 1939): “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”
Then there’s from Neil Gaiman, ala http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/01/mostly-mailbag.html which goes:
There is a hunted expression you can see on the faces of writers. All
you ever have to do, if you want to see it, is to walk over to a writer of
fiction and say, “You know, I have an idea for a story. I’ll tell it to you
and you can write it and we’ll split the money fifty-fifty.” You will watch
their smiles glaze over and watch them back away. Because no matter
how good the idea, the execution is everything. And the real work is
done at the keyboard or huddled over the notebook, putting one word
down after another.
March 25th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Sandra gets points for brevity. I lose points for shouting.
March 25th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
I applaud your decrying laziness (both intellectual and and practical),but I can imagine wanting to know where your ideas come from, without being very interested in trying to do what you do. I was interested to know that the creator of the Simpsons felt he was influenced by Rocky and Bullwinkle (I was also not surprised). It was extremely helpful that John Ringo let people know that it was your universe that he used as the basis for Live Free or Die (given the time spent Schlock I sometime wonder how thankful I should be;-). I do think it is questionable to say an idea has no value because it has no market. The idea of dong something nice for my wife, and for that matter the execution has no market value, but I value it highly. On the other hand things which cost real resources, for example automobiles, are probably better off being measured in the market.
March 25th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Writers, especially SF/Fantasy writers, get that “where do you get your ideas” question a *lot*. So much so that there is a standard answer. “Schenectady. There is a little old lady who runs a newsletter and for a fee, she sends you a monthly list of ideas. It’s great!”
Neil Gaiman’s comment is exactly right, and I’m sorry to say he didn’t make that situation up. There seems to be this magical aura that surrounds the concept of “idea”, that completely leaves out the hard work parts. Kind of like all those complicated diets that swear if you just eat grapefruit and left-handed butternut squash you don’t have to exercise.
March 25th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
I shall cheerfully concede the point that things, and yes, even lonely, unexecuted-upon ideas can have value without having cash value. If a mere thought makes you happy, that joy is valuable. Treasure it.
But don’t expect to be able to sell it.
March 25th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
OK, where do I get MY ideas?
(has nothing to do with orifices)
March 25th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Out of your thin air, of course.
March 25th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Moses is Lawrence of Arabia is Paul Atreides.
Lord of the Rings is Star Wars is Forbidden Fortress.
How many times have aliens invaded the Earth? While 12 bar blues played in the background?
Execution, execution, execution.
March 25th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
@MikeWilliamson?
Isn’t that what the French guillotine operator told his apprentice?
March 25th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
In the second year of business school (almost over!), I started the Entrepreneurship Program to learn the considerations of starting a new business. This was exactly the first lecture. We all came because we had ideas, and most of us had several, of things we could do to help others (and for which they would be suitably grateful, with nice green certificates). Until you get something down in a business plan (a work of fiction, we were assured; that’s one of the reason I started listening to Writing Excuses. :) ), we had nothing of value, and even that wasn’t very much until we started the actual business itself and got it to a place where it was really running.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Ed Catmull, the founder of Pixar, agrees with Howard: “If you have a good idea and you give it to a mediocre group, they’ll screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a good group, they’ll fix it, or they’ll throw it away and come up with something else.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc (Stanford Graduate School of Business, Jan 31 2007)
That quote is at 22:00, but the whole presentation is worth watching. Twice. Then once more while taking notes. Then bookmark it so you can watch it again in a month or so.
-Peter
March 25th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Actually, I “get my ideas” by listening. A turn of phrase and a poem comes to mind. A word picture and a story begins to take shape. In my (admittely humble) opinion, the reaping of the dewdrops from your own leafy green brain begins with the art of listening. To words. To phrases. To the music instead of the lyrics (or vice-versa). Step outside yourself. Let your brain out of that box (well, the left-brainers should, right brainers don’t even know where the box IS!) See with your ears. Listen with your sense of smell. Smell with your sense of touch.
Ideas come from everywhere! (Jess got one from Howard!)
March 25th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
Howard you have made into my quote-book with that, right next to Einstein and Heinlein. More profound words were never spoken, typed or smoke signaled at least for today that is.
March 26th, 2010 at 5:02 am
Who does your hair?
March 26th, 2010 at 5:06 am
Better yet, What were you thinking?
March 26th, 2010 at 5:07 am
I:
I get my ideas anywhere.
I know a guy who gets his ideas in the shower.
Howard, where do you get your ideas?
II:
Ideas have value for the same reason air has value. We would have died out without either.
Ideas have no value for the same reason air has no value. Massive oversupply.
III:
I’ve seen cats act on ideas that they clearly came up with on their own, so someone with no ideas is less creative than a cat.
Exercise for the reader: Compare the size of your brain to the size of a cat’s entire head.
IV:
Howard, you do realise that the idea you gave Jess your permission to paint involves a leafy green brain, right?
V:
I’m not kidding about the guy who gets his ideas in the shower. I learned that fact about him when he complained that water restrictions had made him dumber.
March 26th, 2010 at 5:14 am
[...] Don’t Ask Me Where I Get My Ideas — Howard Tayler explains it all for you as cogently as I’ve ever seen it done. Plus he’s the Schlock Mercenary guy, which makes him doubly cool. Some of the best long-form SF out there. Buy the books, or hit the Web archives from strip number one. Absolutely worth your time. [...]
March 26th, 2010 at 5:27 am
[...] ideas, scarcity and plenitude: two viewpoints, from Howard Tayler and Olaf Moriarty Solstrand. Tayler’s taking exception to the most common question that [...]
March 26th, 2010 at 5:42 am
@Sam: I, too, have ideas in the shower. But that’s not usually where I get the big ideas. That’s where the finer points of plot are often distilled into dialog.
Dialog which, freshly showered, I should be writing instead of posting here. EXECUTION.
March 26th, 2010 at 7:31 am
@peterguy – thanks. I don’t have time to look at it now, but I bookmarked it for later. ;)
@Blueeyedfriend – sez you. But then, I use *both* halves of my brain….
and last but never least – @Howard: At least *you* remember them. If I don’t write down an idea (or a poem) right away, it’s like in one ear & out the other. Do you know how many poems I’ve lost simply ’cause I was in the Shower? AUGH!
March 26th, 2010 at 7:41 am
Oh, come on, Howard…you get your ideas from the same place we all do, by sending a bottle of Tully and a SASE to Uncle Seamus, at PO Box 381, Schenectady, NY (meaty thud) *aaaaghhh!* (sound of body being dragged off and stuffed into trash compactor)
March 26th, 2010 at 10:59 am
[...] in Webcomics World, and in his latest update he mentions this blog. Awesome! But he also linked to a very interesting blog post by Howard Tayler (of Schlock Mercenary) about where ideas come from. The whole idea of his post is [...]
March 26th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
@ArdRhi ~~~ you need to listen to Jeanne Robertson, a humor speaker (who was also Miss North Carolina 40+ years ago). She explains the whole left brain/right brain thing quite wonderfully (her husband is a left brain). You can find her on ITunes or google her and buy from her web site. She’ll have you in stitches in no time (which is another way to get ideas…. notice I don’t say *good* ideas! ~snerk~)
March 26th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
2) How important is a completely original idea, and how can I make an unoriginal idea (let’s say “vampire detective”) worth executing on?
How did you know about the story I’m writing? You ARE trying to steal my ideas!
:-P
Kidding aside, I agree that the proper questions are vetting ideas, the importance of originality, and raising the humidity of the brain. I once went to an Arlo Guthrie concert where he claimed song ideas are like fishing. You have to be ready to catch whatever idea comes by.
He also mentioned that one should never fish downstream from Bob Dylan.
March 26th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Now if you want to discuss the value of ideas in business that is a very different discounted cash flow. In a start-up (I’m on my sixth) ideas can actually have negative value. Boards/Venture Capitalists correctly preach focus. Pick an idea that has a big market and focus. Every “good idea” after that is a distraction, which divides our resources and management attention.
March 26th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
@Ketira: Most hiking stores carry water resistant notebooks/pens these days. If not, a diving shop might. Let water be no barrier to scribblies!
March 27th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
@sam I mean it might be a leafy green brain. Picture a lettuce headed Howard? Yeah!
But it WAS a good demonstration of exactly what howard means by ideas are a dime a dozen, it’s the execution that counts. Howard let out a flippant comment that *he* might not have seen as an idea to paint, but I did. It’s all about what resonates with you as a person. The ideas are everywhere, and Howard could never in a million years tell me how to come up with the crazy things he does, but by the same token.. I couldn’t tell him how I come up with what I do.
And yes Howard, I will totally give you a print, if not the original. We’ll see how good it comes out, you know how fickle I am.
March 27th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
I don’t know, Howard. After seeing some of the crazy plot elements lately, what people may really be asking is, “What are you smoking, and where can I get some?” ;-)
But more seriously, as someone who’s worked on both sides of the invent/develop divide, I agree that ideas come frequently, but they’re worthless unless you develop them into something (even if it’s ‘only’ a small proof of concept).
March 28th, 2010 at 3:22 am
I wish it was that easy for every type of business; where ideas get executed but often not used because of misunderstanding or just plain ignorance….
One example is the music and programming business, where you get executed as artist, if you don’t follow the ideas of the company; where Ignorance rules above ideas and execution, changing them often to bad chimera.
I guess, true and unique ideas are coming from those who think/act free and stay free, out of the grasp of those who cannot understand the value of an idea towards execution.
I get my ideas from signals of the world, everything around me, to create a song, is for me a combination between reality and imagination. Life imitates art and art imitates life.
I am not fully convinced an idea is worth nothing; an idea is worth dozens of other ideas and often adds experience towards new ideas, as long as you know your own ideas are worth silver and execution of those ideas is worth gold. Ideas hook up creativity in a way that it’ll never be stopped …
.. Mind in motion .. peace out!
ps: Great topic btw … this is my first post since I discovered schlock yeaaaaars ago … Howard, please keep them ideas coming, since they are making us all wait on the tip of our chair for the next cartoon to come ;)
March 28th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
I agree with Howard. Ideas are a dime a dozen. At any given time, I have a quarter’s worth of ideas percolating. This one goes into a novel, that one would make a fine short story, another I’d have to save for a novel I’ll write someday, once I’ve done the research. Then there are those that I don’t know what to do with, so I just let them percolate until they come to something, or not, as the case may be. Coming up with ideas is easy, making them into something worthwhile is hard.
March 29th, 2010 at 5:03 am
[...] Mercenary creator Howard Tayler points out that the important thing isn’t so much to have great ideas as to do something with [...]
March 29th, 2010 at 5:27 am
@Blueeyedfriend: I took your advice and listened to some. Funny lady. I love the story about the 7-up cakes. Don’t see what she has to do with my post.
Come on, has no one ever heard that classic Harlan Ellison story? Geez, you’re making me feel old. I mean, Peter David even quotes it in the first chapter of his book “Writing for Comics with Peter David”. When asked, Harlan said “A post office box in Schenectady. You send in two dollars and a self-addressed stamped envelope and they send you back an idea.”
Barry B. Longyear has a website devoted to the tale called “It Came from Schenectady” http://www.sff.net/people/bblongyear/ItSchenectady.html
March 29th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
ArdRhi ~ sorry, it was a long day and I *meant* to point my post at Ketira, not you, but yes, Jeanne is a VERY funny lady! And, yes, the 7-Up cakes nicely illustrates the left-brain/right-brain connumdrum. I think those who use *both* sides of their brain (like Ketira) probably have it kick in even more frequently than normal (kidding, Ketira! Kidding!)
(teeeeeny li’l voice) sorry, again, about the mix up ArdRhi! (eep!)
March 29th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
….aaaaaaand I can’t spell on Mondays!
connumdrum = conundrum
March 29th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
mbarker Says:
March 25th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
> Isn’t that what the French guillotine operator told his apprentice?
Leave me out of this. :)
Quick Study of How An Idea Is Created: This past weekend, I attended the local Gaming Con. Whilst wandering the floor, I saw a game titled _Washington’s War_ (American Revolution, of course). My gaze next fell upon a _Warhammer 40K_ game with Orks in it.
This led inexorably to “the little-known Ork nation-builder, George Waaaghshington”.
I am now under sentence of death from at least three WH40K groups…. :)
March 29th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
csadn: And now I’m imagining British troops shouting “For the Emperor!”
March 30th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Sam: And Banastre Tarleton as Abbadon.
(Actually, that’s not *too* far off…. :) )
Ketira: Get yourself one of those tablets divers use to scribble on while they’re underwater — then you won’t lose poetry to Fast-Flowing Water.
(Does that mean your poetry career is Going Down The Drain? ;) )
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:54 pm
[...] Blógünder Schlock » Blog Archive » Don’t Ask Me Where I Get My Ideas (Writing, Idea, WhereDoYo… [...]
April 18th, 2010 at 4:19 am
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