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Over at our fantastic writers' group, we ran an ideas workshop that was a pretty big hit. We each brought an idea for a story, and then took turns to share the idea and others gave us some feedback, responses, and random thoughts.
It went really well. People shared fascinating ideas, and each opened a lively discussion about possible plot twists, what's the best point-of-view from which to tell the story, when to reveal which twist, what might the character(s) be like, and so on.
I was one of the last ones to share. By the time it was my turn, I was thinking that my idea sucked. All of the other ideas were so much better than mine. But, I already said I'd share, so I did. And people gave me useful and insightful feedback, and there was a discussion that was, at least from where I sat, as lively as the rest of them. And later on, some people came over and told me they loved my idea. Some of those were people whose ideas I was envious of. I came out of that workshop inspired to write up my story.
I think what worked well in our workshop was that our group is diverse, and so just hearing people's first reactions to my idea gave me a multitude of perspectives on it. People came at it from their own relationships, their own writing process, their own feelings about my chosen story-telling method. It was a productive process, and other people told me they share my appreciation for it.
The point is this: we all tell different stories. We all have different ways of telling the same story. If your idea is interesting to you, it would be interesting to other people as well. You just have to tell it your way and let others interact with your story the way they would. Oh, and also, talking to people can come in handy sometimes.
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