Don't think of ideas as sacred

Yesterday, I wrote about an idea I thought about for more than 18 months. I wasn't thinking about it every day, but it came up now and again. It was one of the first things I wanted to write about, but failed at. I failed at it, because I didn't write it. And I didn't write it, because turning your ideas into reality is scary.

Let's assume you have an idea for a novel. With a bit of introspection, you will see whom this idea is influenced by the most. Let's say it's Terry Pratchett. If that's the case, you don't just think "That's a cool idea I might want to work on." It probably sounds more like "This is a cool idea. I wonder how the novel Terry Pratchett would have written about it would look like."

It's easy to see ideas as something sacred. That's what makes writing scary. The reason we see ideas this way is because we associate them with the imaginary execution we think one of our biggest influences might make of it. I can't think of any way to create higher expectations. But it also means that ideas don't matter. Given any idea, what you think Terry Pratchett (or any other idol you have) might have written based on it, will be way better than what you are able to do (yet). But if that's the case for any idea, it means that the idea in itself doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is its execution.

At some point during my 100 days project I stopped thinking about how good my writing is. I don't think I have the expertise to evaluate it (yet). The way you get better at writing is through writing. I heard somewhere that it takes ten years to become a good writer. So I will just write for ten years, a lot, and badly. But if you force yourself to turn an idea into reality every day, it's no longer possible to think about them as sacred.