I first decided I wanted to make a fiction podcast last year, when I entered the Fiction Podcast competition for Austin Film Festival 2018 and then attended the “Podcast Track” at the festival itself. It was a fantastic experience, and I got to meet some of my very favorite podcasters as well as some lovely fellow aspirants. I can do this, I thought. I think I’d love this.
The problem? I didn’t have an idea I was actually passionate about. The script I entered in the competition was just a back-burner TV pilot I converted into an audio project. It was an interesting story, but it didn’t light me up inside. It wasn’t something I could commit to.
Every now and then you encounter this issue on writing forums and communities. How do you choose an idea? And I get it. Ideas are easy. I’ve written three other TV projects this year and pre-written a few more. I’ve got loads of ideas. But independently producing an entire show is different from just one script or story. You need to pour hours and hours into this, for months or years at a time. It needs to be something you can stand behind.
In a way, it’s like getting married. My mom once said that she knew my dad was The One the day they spent an entire morning catching pigs (they were Montana kids, it’s a whole thing) and then went out to dinner together at night. In the brief time she had to shower and change after pig-wrangling, she realized that even though she’d just spent hours in the mud with my dad, she was still excited to see him that same night. “I didn’t get tired of him,” she said.
A show idea’s got to be like that. It doesn’t need to be your most exciting idea, or even the most original one. It should be the one you’re least likely to tire of.
Another piece of advice, this one from the more practical world. When I was in college, a wise person gave this advice on choosing a major and/or career: “What’s the thing you think about when you have nothing else to think about?”
Is there an idea that pulls at your mind? Something you keep going back to even when you don’t have to? That might just be The One.
This story was that for me. Especially my main character, Lara. I didn’t know that going into it, exactly. But once I started prewriting, outlining, notecarding, drafting, I found myself swept up in this character and her world. I thought about Lara when I was driving, when I was walking, and when I was supposed to be rewriting other projects. My mind just kept wanting to go back. And to my surprise, when I followed that impulse, I didn’t reach the end of the idea. I didn’t get tired of it.
I decided to get into audiodrama in October 2018. I finally found my show in May 2019. Admittedly I worked on lots of other things in between, since I write other things. But still, sometimes it takes time.
So, to dust off some annoying cliches: generate lots of ideas. Put yourself out there! But don’t be afraid to wait for the right one. You’ll know it when you see it.
Further Reading
The Scriptnotes podcast has a great episode on this called “Idea Management.” You can find the episode here or skip straight to the transcript. It’s a screenwriting podcast, so if the business of screenwriting doesn’t appeal to you, skip to about halfway through for the idea management discussion. I found it tremendously helpful.