How Do You Know If a Story Idea Is Worth Pursuing?

It becomes a part of you like you’ll never believe.

Do you ever wonder if your ideas suck?

I do all the time.

Even as I’m constantly writing down new thoughts, I wonder if any of them are going to work. Just because they’re an idea doesn’t mean they’ll work out.

But how do we know if an idea sucks or not. Well, we don’t unless we try it out.

However, there’s one technique that has helped realize if an idea works or doesn’t work for me.

So what is it?

An idea is good if it becomes a part of you.

Noah, what the hell are you talking about?

Let me explain.

Always Be Writing Down Ideas

If you’re not constantly witting down new ideas in some form, are you really a writer?

Seriously, writers are:

• Readers
• Observers
• Curious thinkers

Like scientists, a good writer wonders all of the time if an idea will work. So they pursue it and see what happens.

But you can’t do that without ideas.

Ideas are all around us. It’s our to job to notice the world, thus notice the ideas.

Then write them down.

I keep ideas everywhere. Whether it be in the Notes app on my phone or even on notebook paper, I always write down something I think about.

The more ideas I have, the more ideas I can work with for potential stories.

But how do I know if it’s a good idea?

The Idea Never Leaves You

One of the best feelings a writer can get is an idea that will never leave.

No matter what else you think about that idea wants to be heard. It wants to be written down.

When it keeps bugging you all the time, it means that it’s good. It’s meant to be written.

And it’s your job to write it.

I’m a firm believer that our ideas come to us for a reason. They have to. Why else would they?

We’ve put in the work, and we should be rewarded with good ideas. But when one doesn’t want to leave, you have to take advantage of it.

Because it may just be the story that turns your around.

There are many of my story ideas on Medium I had to write before I did anything else. They became a part of me until I wrote them.

Even after I did, they truly never left my mind. I pursued the idea and it was successful.

Because it wanted to be written.

The next time you feel an idea won’t leave your head, roll with it. It may just be your breakthrough.

This Helps Me in Songwriting

As many of you may or may not know, I write songs on acoustic guitar.

Like Medium stories, I’m constantly writing down ideas. But the better ideas are the ones that stay with me.

There are plenty of times when an idea just won’t leave my head. So I write it down and pursue. Then it ends up being a decent song.

It was bound to be written. And I was the one to make that happen.

It’s kind of impossible with only a few story ideas here and there. That’s why it’s crucial to be constantly writing down ideas.

It’s better to choose from countless of them instead of a few. You never know when one will change your writing life.

Closing Thoughts

In some ways, writing ideas is just as important as writing itself, if not more so.

When you’re generating ideas, you’re becoming a better writer. You’re giving yourself more ideas to work with than just one or two.

This way, the process is smoother, and your writing will rock. But you have to put in the work.

Sure, ideas may find you at times. But you have to go find the ideas yourself.

Work for them.

It will only help you grow as a writer.

And we all want to grow as a writer, right?

Noah Nelson is a senior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign majoring in journalism with minors in political science and history. He serves as a senior columnist for The Daily Illini, a writer on Medium and the host of his blog called Nothing But Noah. “Life: A Collection of Short Stories” is his first book available now on Amazon. Like what you read? You can write for Medium too!