So You Have an Idea… Now What?
When people ask me how my novel started, they expect some dramatic story about inspiration striking like lightning or a dream that woke me up in the middle of the night.
The truth? I was sitting in my pajamas on a Saturday morning, sipping coffee and mulling over a vague idea.
That’s it. No outline. No character sketches. No carefully plotted three-act structure. Just me, my laptop, and a story that wouldn’t leave me alone.
The Idea That Started It All
All I had at the beginning were three things:
An eight-year-old girl witnesses a brutal murder.
The killer is a neighbor—the kind of person every neighborhood has. You know the one. The guy who scared you when you were a kid. The house you’d cross the street to avoid—the adult who made your skin crawl for reasons you couldn’t quite name. (I definitely had that neighbor growing up. And in my story, he became the murderer.)
The twist I knew I wanted—this murdered woman was actually the young girl’s mother. But the girl doesn’t know it. Not then. Not for decades.
That was it. That was all I had.
The Question Every Writer Faces
So, what do you do when you have an idea but your mind goes blank?
For me, the answer was simple. Start writing.
No outline. No planning. Just Saturday mornings in my pajamas, fingers on the keyboard, following the story wherever it wanted to go.
Some writers need detailed outlines. They need to know every plot point before they write word one. They’re the architects, building from blueprints,
I discovered I’m a gardener. I plant a seed (the idea) and see what grows.
Both approaches work. You choose which one you are.
The Circle of Trust (Keep It Small)
Before I wrote a single word, I did one smart thing: I tested the idea.
I entrusted a few people.
Note, I said “a few.” Not everyone. Not Facebook. Not any of my circle of friends.
Here’s why that matters. Keep your circle small at first.
Tell one or two people you trust. People who will be honest with you but also supportive. People who won’t steal your ideas (yes, this happens) or tell you the idea has been done before and crush your fragile early enthusiasm.
The two people I told said the same thing: “That’s a great story. You should definitely write it.”
That’s validation. That’s gold. That’s what kept me going through the first messy draft when I had no idea what I was doing.
What I Didn’t Know (And Wish Someone Had Told Me)
Here’s what I didn’t understand when I started:
I didn’t know that having an idea, a beginning, and an ending doesn’t mean you know the middle.
I didn’t know how hard it would be to get from Point A to Point B without the whole thing falling apart.
I didn’t know my first draft would be a disaster—scenes out of order, characters who were too weak for the story, and plots that weren’t strong enough.
But you know what? I wrote anyway.
Some days it flowed. Some days I stared at the screen for an hour and wrote three sentences. Some days I woke up with an idea and wrote twenty pages! And some days, I deleted everything!
By slowly, scene by scene, Saturday by Saturday, the story took shape.
The Brutal Neighbor Becomes Real
That scary neighbor from my childhood? He became Butch Jager in my novel.
The little girl? She became Grace Thomson, a teacher (because you write what you know; I know teachers and classrooms, and what it’s like to build a life around routine and safety).
The murdered woman? She became the mystery woman who would haunt Grace.
And that idea I had sitting in my pajamas on Saturday mornings? It became 80,000 words. A complete manuscript. A story with a beginning, middle, and end.
So…Now What?
If you’re reading this and you have an idea—maybe a vague one, maybe a scene or a character—here’s what I learned.
Test it. Tell a few trusted people (no more than 2 or 3). See if it resonates.
Start Writing. Don’t wait for the perfect outline or the perfect opening line. JUST START.
Permit yourself to be messy. Your first draft is supposed to be terrible. That’s what revision is for.
Write in your pajamas if you want. There‘s no “right” way to do this.
Keep the circle small. Protect your early idea from people who will kill it with criticism or indifference.
And most importantly, believe the idea is worth pursuing.
Because here’s the truth: Every published book you’ve ever read started exactly like this. With someone sitting somewhere, maybe a coffee shop, or a train, or day-dreaming at home, thinking, “I have an idea.”
The only difference between them and you was that you kept going!
Look for the next Diary post soon!
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