If I had a penny every time someone pitched an idea at me to ask if I thought it had legs, I’d still not have enough to buy a soda (curse you, inflation!), but I’d still have a big mess of pennies to fit up and cram into a coin purse.
First, let’s rephrase this to the things people are actually asking.
-Is your story idea good enough that the idea alone will be enough to sell the book and make you a fortune and make everyone think you’re brilliant and wonderful?
No. Sorry, but books need more than just a really good premise, pitch, or tagline.
-Is your story idea good enough to be worth writing?
Yes, provided you’re willing to put in the work to MAKE the idea work, and put in the work to turn the idea into a good book.
-How do you tell if a story idea is good enough to write?
You don’t “tell” if it is good enough or not. Instead, you play with the idea and develop it and strengthen it until you have something solid, real, and “worthy” or “good enough” or whathaveyou. Start with what draws you to the idea, what you find most interesting about it. Have *fun* with your story!
What’s fun for you will be how you connect with other people who will be able to have fun reading it eventually! And if it’s not fun for you to write it, do you think people will find your labor fun to read?
“Is my story idea good enough?” is actually a bad, dangerous question because of the baggage it carries—that ideas are either pass or fail intrinsically, that one idea is enough to carry an entire book, that genius emerges from the ether fully formed and ready to go, and anything else isn’t worth doing.
If you internalize *any* of those beliefs, you’re setting yourself up for failure and for a lifetime spent thinking up ideas and then instantly dismissing them.
Instead, take your idea and figure out why it isn’t a “good” idea. What’s the plot hole, the problem, the difficulty that makes it a “bad” idea?
Brainstorm, and *fix* that problem. Put in the work to beat your idea’s rough points into submission (or, become a stage magician and come up with enough shiny distractions for your audience that they won’t care about the weaknesses’ of your idea, they’ll be too overwhelmed by the same strengths that appealed to you enough to invent the idea in the first place).
“Is my story idea good enough?” kills ideas in their infancy, smothers them to death in their cribs—and it gives people an excuse *not* to take the risk of writing a story.
If you find yourself asking that question, first take a look at yourself and honestly ask: “Am I looking for feedback, validation, or a short-cut to success?”
- If you’re looking for a short-cut to success, go find something that isn’t so hypercompetitive to succeed in!
- If you’re looking for validation, knock that off! It’s unhealthy.
- If you’re looking for feedback, either work with your idea more, or start asking better, more useful questions—ask what specifically is or isn’t working for the idea, where the challenges are, what possible solutions there are for the challenges.
In the end, any idea can be *made* to work if you are willing to *put in enough work.* Yeah, some of these ideas will take more time and effort than others. But if it is an idea you’re enjoying, and you put in the effort to develop it, yes, it will eventually be good enough.
