Top Ten IDEA KILLERS lurking to destroy you

[robert walker]

Guess what Think Tanks are for? Brainstorming, right? But so many of us Stop the Brainstorm too soon. Look, no idea is born in perfection, no invention, no artwork, no novel or product. So start a new revolution in yourself: GIVE an idea a home; give it a chance to grow. Below are the top ten Idea Killers - responses to an idea that Destroy it at the roots and cut it off at the ankles but rather "live with it for awhile -- the litmus test for any relationship, and be assured that an idea large enough for a novel is a long-term committment:

10. Get a Committee to look into it...

9. You gotta be kidding...

8. We're already overextended (or overexposed).

7. We'll never find the time for that!

6. You don't/can't REALLY mean that...

5. Who's gonna do it? Take the lead?

4. It doesn't fit the system (in publishing: doesn't fit our list)

3. We tried that before & it doesn't work.

2. 'They' will never buy it (no matter who THEY are)

1. It doesn't GRAB me.

I am currently committed to the madcap idea of a novel that rewrites the night the Titanic went down and the real reason that the captaiin and crew saw to it that Titanic must not survive. Crazy idea no publisher will touch? Maybe...but I have 300 pgs. developed from it.

Robert W. Walker

author Children of Salem, Killer Instinct, & 50 other published novels

www.robertwalkerbooks.com

www.acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com

[robert walker]

Just watched Crazy Heart the other night and man, what a soundtrack; Jeff Bridges sounds like a cross between Kris Kristoferson and Gordon Lightfoot. Loved the music and the variety of backup bands Bridges used behind him, and a great story to boot.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

Just watched "Basterds" last night. Loved it.

[robert walker]

Good one, #11 Ben, and Jon...you're so right. When I sat thru Basterds I loved it up to a point...when he succeeded in killing Hitler....I thought it would come out as a Hitler look alike like the way Sadam had look alikes all over the place.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

The dreaded "send it to committee." That's a death sentence for sure.

I'd add an 11th item: "Lay off the reefer."

[Jon Loomis]

Hey, if Tarantino can re-write the history of WWII, I don't see why you can't fiddle with the titanic story.