When I get a new idea for a fiction story I become obsessed. I am flooded with inspiration, developing the story in my mind while researching online, and rapidly taking notes for a potential plot and characters. I can see a flash of the entire story in my mind like a movie, and I feel the urge to follow this burst of obsessive inspiration to write the story ASAP. Sometimes I do write it right away, while other times I set the notes aside to finish whatever else I was working on at the time (because I am always working on something else). I have found the latter to be more productive for my creative process. It is better to wait and incubate the story for some time rather than rush in prematurely.

I brainstorm and note-take heavily with that initial burst of inspiration, but then I let the story simmer in my subconscious for months, or perhaps years. As I encounter ideas in life (people, places, things) and media (news, books, podcasts, movies), I then filter them through the story ideas I have simmering on the back-burners of my unconscious and add new ideas to those projects. I have dozens of stories in incubation at a time, and every week or so I might pick up a tidbit to add to each. 

It’s worth revisiting those notes occasionally (especially if it’s been years) to refresh yourself of the story, then you’ll likely be struck immediately with new ideas and be more apt to find further inspiration from external sources. Eventually this catalog of random notes will become robust enough that the story is ready to be written.

Almost always, some of the new ideas conceived during this subconscious incubation period change and improve my original conception of the story. I might have come to those same conclusions while writing the story if I jumped into writing it immediately; however, oftentimes when I do that, I’ll get halfway through writing the story then realize I need to change much of what I already wrote. This can become overwhelming and cause writer’s block—not that I don’t know what to do, but I am intimidated by having to go back and do it, knowing it will be tedious and time-consuming. 

This is related to the sunk-cost fallacy of writing. I don’t want to go back and delete/edit all those thousands of words I spent dozens of hours composing, despite the fact I know I could re-write it better. Incubating the story beforehand can help avoid this sunk-cost pitfall. You can iron out the plot, “re-writing” the details in your mind, before going through the effort of setting those ideas to ink. 

This subconscious incubation technique is also similar to the visualization method used by Nikola Tesla. First work out the plot mechanics and character dynamics in your mind where it is all fluid and easily malleable, before committing anything to paper (or a digital document) where making changes becomes much more arduous. By all means jot down notes and ideas so you don’t forget them, but don’t waste time crafting prose until you are ready.

At least this is what works for me. Perhaps you prefer to strike while the iron is hot and pursue a story idea fully when first inspired. The problem for me is that these spurs of inspiration happen while I am in the midst of other projects.¹ Also, starting to write a story too soon often creates plot problems that could have been prevented with longer incubation. Your subconscious is often smarter than you—let it do the work.

1. I have several half-finished stories that I abandoned to start a new one, and years later, I still haven’t gone back to finish them yet.  ↩︎