All You Need is a Good Idea!: How to Create Marketing Messages that Actually Get Results

Chapter 6. WHERE DO YOU FIND A GOOD IDEA?

Look, there's a good idea, next to the lamp. And over there, behind the desk, there's another one. I don't mean that literally. But you will discover that ideas are out there, waiting to be discovered by you, burnished by you, sharpened and shaped by you.

The development of creating good ideas can be broken down into simple, manageable steps. Don't worry if your ideas at first seem, well, familiar, obvious, even, dare we say it, dull! Once you start to jot them down you'll see how other ideas start to flow.

If you apply the guidance from the following chapters, you will see how to improve a run-of-the-mill idea, perk it up, and turn it into something to be proud of.

Keep in mind at some point the creation of the idea will be the most important part of the process, but not yet. The first few attempts will help to get you familiar and comfortable with the process: finding the ideas, writing them down, making them as clear as possible, then as creative as possible. Later we'll worry about using the whole carcass and turning an idea from nice to good, but not yet. As Anne Lamott says in her book on writing (and life), Bird by Bird, "Don't worry about doing it well yet, though. Just start getting it down."

It is natural to feel unprepared and insecure and think that your ideas will never be quite good enough. If all this is new to you, you will undoubtedly be even more anxious. That is what always happens during the creative process, and it's usually ...