Where Does A Good Idea Come From?

Yes, the Universal question.

I'm sitting in my office and I'm looking at everything on and near my desk:

• My index cards
• the ones filled out with notes on my desk
• the ones filled out with notes on my cork board
• the blank cards
• the blank cards in unopened packages of 100 each
• Books
• Books for research
• the projects I'm working on now
• the projects I hope to work on
• the projects I know I have to research a shit ton before I'm ready to write anything
• Books for inspiration
• books about the creative process
• bios/memoirs of people I admire
• Plays
• Ones I've read
• Ones I hope to read
• Ones that just make me look smart
• Food
• Post It Reminders of things I need to Do
• My Dry Erase Board
• It's Blank.  A virgin.  Unused.
• My Computer
• Endless possibilities
• Distraction
• Information

Do those things lead to good ideas?

I go on at least one walk a day.  To get food.  To clear my head.  To have a smoke (when I'm feeling naughty/at my wits end).

So outside is important too.  I had David here yesterday working with me and we were talking through an idea he had for a pilot.  He's writing up a pitch document for a script he already wrote.  And as he was explaining the idea and as I had questions, I remember asking him about the idea.  For the record, I do think it's a good idea.

Why do you like it?

What made you want to write about this?

What's the personal story here?

We talked about this idea on our way to get coffee and on our way back.  But we both needed to clear our heads from what we were working on.  He also listened to me talk through my idea.

I am coordinating a TV/Film writing challenge for the playwrights group I belong to  called The Playwrights Union.  We're writing scripts in October, but right now we're trying to decide on an idea.

Then we have to figure out if that idea makes a good series.

Then we need to figure out a few seasons worth of story arcs/possibilities.

Then we have to have compelling characters.

We need a "hook."  Just like a good song.

And it needs to be something we would be compelled to watch week to week.  Right?  It has to have that watchability factor.  

Are those components of a good idea?

I recently pitched nine ideas to my best friend for a pilot we want to work on together as a potential vehicle for her.  She had just gotten off a three season run of a cable show.  And this conversation happened in the short window before she just got a series regular on another cable show.  So now I think I'm going to write the script anyway.

But the point is that I had come up with nine fresh IDEAS.

What was my criteria?

• female centric
• 
  
• half hour comedy (mainly)

Then I kind of went all over the map.  I was able to do this largely because I know what she is capable of and what I would like to see her do (selfishly).  So that criteria expanded:

• what haven't I seen on TV
• funny worlds
• a great character
• books I've read recently or read about
• personal interests

For me, an idea originates because it's something I am interested in.  And it works best if it's something I'm obsessed with or can't stop thinking about. 

• research

If I'm researching the fuck out of something, then I know it's a good idea.  Well, I know at least that I'm interested.  And I like fun places to be.  I like to inhabit a world that seems interesting.

Then the next questions tend to be:

• Is this going to be interesting to anyone else?
• What's interesting to me?
• How can I translate this to be interesting period?

Because this is the problem I run into with a "great" idea.  I could research for years. I could read and watch documentaries about this subject forever.  But where do I want to focus?  I'm someone who can get lost in all of the work.  But at a certain point, I need to make a decision.  David and I talked about this yesterday about his idea.  It all sounds like a great subject.  But where do we jump in?

I only had questions for him because these are the same questions I ask of myself.  So once I have the stacks of note cards with questions or research or ideas for scenes or whatever I've brainstormed…I start to narrow my focus:

• Who are these PEOPLE?
• Do I have a great lead character?
• Are we following him/her?
• Is this world the interesting part?
• What's the most interesting?
• Who inhabits the world?
• What's interesting about them?

It's best if I'm not inventing drama.  If the needs, wants, conflicts come from the world organically, and they're INTERESTING, then I feel I'm in good shape.  That was the problem with a certain TV show about a niche section of show business that ran for two seasons…it started inventing drama (or more accurately melodrama in the bastardized sense of the word).  It didn't have enough stuff.  Or it didn't trust the stuff it had.

I like ideas to marinate.

I started keeping an accordion file of ideas.  Woody Allen has a drawer full of scraps of paper.  Some people have shoe boxes.  I like something that looks like a file.  Tabs.  I like tabs.  And I like a clasp that makes sure those ideas don't fall out.  And I like rectangle index cards of the same size.  Uniformity.  I like things to look organized.  Then that means that they look professional.  Then that seems serious or impressive in some way and it adds authority or prestige or purpose to what that germ of a fragile idea is.

I'm bullshitting myself.  Every day.

I need that bullshit.  I need to feel smart.  I need as much resolve and as much chutzpah and guts (mainly self created) going in because I am responsible for putting together a whole world from soup to nuts of something that's interesting and compelling and worthy of large sums of money that forge a commitment between two business entities.  I have to act like a corporation in my writing factory in order to stand toe to toe with a more obvious, public corporation that employs thousands (sometimes even tens of thousands).  

Some people would say it's not bullshit.  It's whatever gets you to the desk.  It's whatever gets the ideas out.  It's whatever gets you out the door.  It's whatever you need to call it.

So I don't exactly know where a good idea comes from.  Or I don't know how to answer that question. But like James Lipton asked Robin Williams once on Inside the Actors Studio…where does comedy come from?  Or where does the inspiration come from?

He did a five minute routine using a pashmina.  And when he finished using that pashmina in every which way he could, he sat down.  "I can't explain it, but I can show you."  I'm paraphrasing.  

But that's what I can do.  I can show a little bit.  I can't begin to break it down in a formula.  I just know what works for me and what feels good.  Our brains adapt to what we respond to.  And usually what we respond to is what feels good.  So the index cards feel good to me.  Organization feels good to me.  Talking a lot feels good to me.  Eating feels good to me.  Grandiosity feels good to me.  Sometimes.  Big ideas.  Funneling into human interaction.  All of that feels good to me.  So that's how I work.

Where does Good Idea Come From?

It comes from what feels good.  Then figuring out how to fit that on to living, breathing human beings that only live and breathe in your head.  And those facsimiles need to hold your interest (first) for a long time.

Then you know you've got a good idea….?

I am grateful that I was able to type for that long and consistently.

I am grateful for so many thoughts.

I am grateful for friends who I watch work bravely.

I am grateful for ideas.  All kinds.