Top Ten IDEA KILLERS lurking to destroy you

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

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Comment by robert walker on April 25, 2010 at 2:48pm
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.
Comment by Benjamin Sobieck on April 25, 2010 at 2:30pm
Just watched "Basterds" last night. Loved it.
Comment by robert walker on April 24, 2010 at 9:51am
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.
Comment by Benjamin Sobieck on April 24, 2010 at 2:06am
The dreaded "send it to committee." That's a death sentence for sure.

I'd add an 11th item: "Lay off the reefer."
Comment by Jon Loomis on April 24, 2010 at 1:49am
Hey, if Tarantino can re-write the history of WWII, I don't see why you can't fiddle with the titanic story.

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