A Great Idea or Just an Idea?

Recently, I've found myself coming up with many ideas, either for music or writing or film. But I've also realized that that begs the question: which ones are great ideas and which ones are just ideas?

To answer that, let's first break down the two concepts, as they are very similar. First, an idea is just that: an idea. You may act on it, but it may just also come and go. It's a fleeting thought that occurs maybe more than once, if you are lucky. But it never stays on your mind, never makes you go "What if?" That is a great idea: the one that sticks with you, the one that festers and grows with every second you spend thinking about it, one that ignites a passion in you.

That is ultimately what separates the two: how passionate you are about them. The more passionate you are about something, the more likely it will be great, and the more likely people will believe in you and invest in you. There was a YouTube video that I will link below this post with Casey Bloys, the chairman and CEO at HBO and HBO Max Content, on Variety's YouTube channel. He talks about what it takes for a show to get greenlit, which is a lot of factors, but basically, it's who is the most passionate about their project that works with the channel's theme.

So, back to what I mentioned at the top: the ideas I've had. Out of the tens and hundreds of ideas I've come up with, only maybe 2-5 of them have been great ideas. They stayed with me and got me excited. I can visualize them and build upon them every time I think about them. I updated my Projects page by adding the ones I am passionate about and eliminating those I am no longer excited by.

Time is another factor in ideas versus great ideas. Many of my ideas I started when I was in college for the first time and just started exploring screenwriting. It's been almost seven years, and when I revisited those projects earlier this year, most of them, I went, "What was I thinking?" or "I don't know where I was going with this." While I believe that you should let the story guide you, for me, I need to know the very beginning and at least an ending. If the story goes another route, the ending may change, but at the beginning of the idea, if I am explaining it to someone, I need to know what the ending could be.

Music, I have found, is different. If I am working on a song, depending on what it is, I just go with what I hear in my head (I'm not crazy. I don't think I am). However, some of my music ideas are based on my stories, so I create them based on the characters and the overall story. In that case, I have to plan the music more than when I hear a random song in my head.

Moral of this post: passion matters the most when determining a great idea from just an idea. If you are passionate, you are golden.

YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28XuDgWmeOU&list=PLd0jV_4kc4Bd9AKvXmsys4M52A5EiV1Nn&index=2