14
Sifting and Winnowing
A FRIEND OF ours once gave us great advice: “Write drunk,” she said, “edit sober.” It’s time to sober up—but not completely.
If you did a brainstorming session, or if you just gave everyone a period of time to submit ideas, it’s now time to size up everything you’ve got—and sit with it for a while.
As we said before, don’t be in a rush to throw out ideas. Simply tossing aside an entire idea because your initial reaction is negative makes no sense. It’s a lot more valuable to sift and refine. Examine each idea closely, sifting through the essence of the idea for the elements that can work and discarding the elements that are unworkable. You will often find kernels of good ideas hidden within ideas that aren’t feasible ...
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