It happens all the time. From out of nowhere, a great story idea hits you. Your mind runs with it, and a world of possibility opens in front of your eyes. Maybe the idea fits into your current work-in-progress or maybe it's so monumental that it needs its own book. Regardless, your excitement is palpable. This is the idea you’ve been waiting for!
That’s when you need to slow down and remember—not all ideas are good ideas.
Ideas may feel like gold, but the truth is, they’re as common as pebbles. There are an endless number of them, and they come and go like leaves in the wind. Ideas are the lifeblood of a story, but they’re also like Marvel’s multiverse, branching out and creating infinite possibilities for the directions you could turn. That’s why it’s important to be an ideas factory, so you can come up with all the wonderful possibilities that your book could become, but then be choosy in your final selection. After all, saying yes to one idea means saying no to countless others. And you’ll say no to more great and valid ideas than you can possibly say yes to in your lifetime. So don’t get attached to every new idea that comes your way. The true cornerstones of your stories will reveal themselves in due time.
I experienced this as I wrote the Amped Up trilogy, my first young adult fantasy series. I had an idea for a twist that seemed brilliant, and I was so excited about it. However, it meant the death of the alternative, which was a cornerstone that the story hinged on. As I outlined it, I realized it brought the series in an entirely different direction. In the end, I nixed the new idea and kept my original one intact. Was my new idea cool? Absolutely. Would it have made the story better overall? No. It would have been different, but not necessarily better, which is why I let it go. In another reality, I could have selected that idea and had a different series—but that’s the thing with ideas. Even the best ones are cheap until selected. Treat them as such.