What do we do when we lose inspiration for an idea?
Earlier today, I saw a post on Twitter created by @inanimatesheep (linked below), which depicted their struggle where a story they had previously been really inspired to make had lost its inspiration. Instead, it had become the launching point for several different, new stories. They were concerned about what to do with the original, now that the idea had evolved and changed so much.
I originally planned to only write at most two or three sentences in response, but I ended up accidentally writing a 556-word, 4 paragraph, response. It’s not a lot from the perspective of blogging, but in relation to Twitter, it’s quite a lot. And so, I thought I might as well post the response here to make it more accessible and easier to read. I hope you enjoy 🙂
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
@InanimateSheep This is a very real and very relatable problem for storytellers of all types. You want to create, but sometimes our original idea can spark an even better, albeit VASTLY different, idea. The question is what to do now? The goal should be to create and communicate your message in the best way possible. If your new idea helps communicate the same message better than the original, work on expanding this new idea and take inspiration and some of the elements that you like from that original idea and use them kind of as your engine for the new, better idea.
For example, when Eric Kripke was creating the first 5 seasons (it was originally intended to end at the end of the 5th season) of the TV Show Supernatural, he had originally intended for it to be a movie. In 2005, Kripke created a movie titled “Boogeyman,” a story about a young adult who watched their mother die as a young child due to a supernatural horror. You follow this character 16 years later. He goes back to an adventure to looking for answers when his dad suddenly goes missing. After this, Kripke created Supernatural, a story about 2 brothers, who watched their mother die as very young children (dean being 4, Sam being 6 months old) and reunite years later when their Father, who hunts monsters for a living, goes missing. You follow the journey of the brothers reforming their bond with each other as they discover the truths about what happened that horrific night all those years ago. See the similarities? Kripke saw the potential of this story but also knew he could do better. He saw this was lacking a brotherly bond. A father who was around but offscreen. Their father is more of a plot device instead of a call to action now. Use your original work as the engine and ask yourself, “How can I make this better?”
If you are trying to tell a different message and story, you can still use some of the things which gave inspiration from the original, but work on figuring out why this new idea works better for you. Why do you like it more? What is exciting about this new message? How could you communicate this new message in the best way possible? After you’ve gotten done working on and exploring this new message, you can come back to the original story. Perhaps you could take inspiration from the story you’ve just finished working on to help inspire you in a new way in this one.
NOT A GREAT EXAMPLE, but a good example of this is Toy Story. The first draft of Toy Story depicted the main antagonist to be an evil wind-up, “one man band toy,” named Tinny (later changed to Woody). Tinny was an evil bully who emotionally and physically abused the other toys until a resistance built up to stop him. There was lots of backlash from the voice actor and multiple producers at Disney, so much so that the production of the movie was literally SHUT DOWN until a better story was pitched. And so, in 1991, the team came back with an altered story featuring a character named Woody, who was the wise and compassionate leader struggling with pride and identity. USE YOUR FAILURES IN YOUR PREVIOUS WORKS TO ENCOURAGE YOU AND PUSH YOU FORWARD.
The Original Tweet:
https://twitter.com/InanimateSheep/status/1635898039096459267?t=_yXJQO2u_yBPBhZzkhHbpg&s=19
