Another look at dealing with article ideas
As I’ve written in the past coming up with good article ideas can be tough. This blog post offers 12 tips for generating ideas for articles. Even with a good amount of advice, though, there are still problems with ideas.
To be honest, I don’t have trouble getting ideas. As you probably know, and as the post I linked to above demonstrate, ideas are just about everywhere. The problem really lies in the quality of the ideas. Some ideas are good; most are shaky at best.
Searching for gold amongst the grit
The ability to sift through article ideas is a good one to develop. The difficulty here is recognizing whether or not an idea is worth pursuing. Enthusiasm may blind you into believing that an idea is fantastic, when it may in fact be mediocre and not commercial. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve followed through on an idea, only for it drop dead after doing a lot of work to breathe life into it.
That said, there are times when you can massage a less-than-good idea into decent (or better article). That process can be hit and miss, though. Expect to use up a
Recognizing a good idea (or a potentially good one)
That can be very difficult. As I mentioned earlier, your enthusiasm for an idea can fool you into believing that it’s a good one. Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes it isn’t. I still fall into that trap. But when an idea strikes, I ask myself the following questions:
Has someone else tackled this idea, or a variation of it?
If they have, is the time right to revisit the topic?
What are (at least) two markets for which this idea is suitable?
Who will the idea appeal to, other than me? Or is it unique enough to make an editor say I’ll give this a shot?
Sometimes, though, you just need to let an idea sit for a little while. Once your passion has cooled, revisit it. If it still sparks the same emotion then by all means pick up the idea and run with it.
A personal example: a couple of months ago, I came up with an idea for an article on using wikis for project management. I identified three markets for it; two weren’t interested. I didn’t approach the third one because I snagged a gig and pitched it to the editor. He gave me the go-ahead, and I’m working on it now.
Having too many ideas
That’s a risk that you have to deal with. I’ve got notebooks and files on my computer that are packed with ideas. And I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I won’t be tackling them any time in the near future. Why? Many of those ideas just aren’t that great — they seemed good at the time, but on reflection they weren’t all that great. Other ideas are good, but due to my workload I just don’t have the time to tackle them. Maybe one day. Maybe not.
Do you have any techniques or tips about dealing with ideas? Share them by leaving a comment.
Photo from http://www.sxc.hu
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