Networking with Writers: Ideas are Worthless

This is an expansion of a piece I wrote out last year to explain why a writing group I was in seemed so inclusive to some new members but so hostile to others. It is based on my experience there, but what happened so regularly there is sadly general behavior, both online and offline.

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Explaining this point should take far fewer words than explaining some of my others. In fact, this one is considered so elementary in many groups that it is rarely explained. If you don't already know that ideas are worthless when you join a writing group, there’s usually no way to correct your delusions without being openly insulting. Since I’m not going to shy away here from sounding insulting, you get your help – but as with other points I've made so far, you won’t like it.

An idea for a story has exactly zero value. If that sounds harsh, too bad. An idea, good or bad, is very nearly nothing, and the less you do to put it into action, the closer to nothing it is. An idea is valuable if it drives positive action, but under no other circumstances.

What has value in a story is the implementation. When you go into writing groups looking for “someone to help you write this idea”, everyone knows that what you’re really asking for is someone to do the part that involves actual work for you, so that you can claim partial credit for a project in which you contributed as close to nothing as you can manage.

Whether you think you’re being clever enough to trick someone into writing a book and putting your name on the cover, or you really do think there are thousands of skilled writers out here who just don’t have any ideas to write, the result - coming off as un-serious and insulting the other creators you are talking with - is the same.

The only way you will get your idea implemented the way you envision it is if you square your shoulders, pour some coffee, and do the hard work yourself. Put some work in, and other aspiring writers - who have to do all that work for their own ideas - will accept you as a peer. When all you have is an idea with no text behind it, many will be understandably reluctant to do so.