A Dime a Dozen
The other day, for the umpteenth time, I came across the writing truism that ideas are a dime a dozen and the real action is in slogging through the writing-up of said ideas. This last time I stopped and thought, no!
I have a closet full of ideas, just like the next writer, but they’re not all of equal merit. They’re not all waiting their turn through the text editor. Some ideas are so overwhelming that they write themselves (like “The Dance” did for me) or they hold up otherwise execrable prose (for example, Ringworld). Some have launched entire genres (Lord of the Rings) or given birth to new social phenomena (as Star Trek created media fandom).
So to be brief (because I have one more category of AAA to finish) the idea is the thing. The writing-up is just legwork. You may have a thousand ideas stuffed away in your closet, but when the right one hits you, it’s love at first sight.