Collect All Story Ideas – Especially the Bad Ones

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I keep a swipe file on my computer, and I have physical notebooks scattered everywhere. I even keep one next to my bed in case an idea hits me right after waking up.

My swipe file has grown to more than 300 story ideas by now. I’ll never be able to work on all of them—and to be honest, some of them aren’t even worth developing. But I still collect every single one.

There’s a good reason for that: over the years, I’ve realized that different parts of my mind seem to wake up depending on which stage of writing I’m in. To make the part I currently need work best, I have to quiet down all the others.

For example: The most creative part is needed for generating new ideas. But during editing, I need a completely different mindset, because the creative side is terrible at judging what I’ve written. Outlining requires yet another area—a blend of creativity and critical thinking.

When I don’t let one specific part take over, they all start talking over each other. And when that happens, nothing works: idea generation, outlining, editing… everything just falls apart. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

That’s why I collect ideas without judging them at all. I don’t rate them or evaluate them—I just write them down.

Only later, once I’ve finished a book and I’m deciding what to work on next, do I go through my swipe file and rate the ideas.

I’m convinced that if I tried to generate and judge ideas at the same time, I would discard most of them, assuming they weren’t good enough. Eventually, I’d end up with no ideas at all, because the constant cycle of generating an idea, rating it poorly, and throwing it away would discourage the creative part of my mind from offering ideas in the first place.

By making it a habit to let ideas emerge freely and uncritically—and by writing them down no matter how good or bad they seem—I’ve allowed the creative part of my brain to express itself without hesitation.

Of course, everyone works differently. But if you’re thinking about writing your own stories, I recommend trying this approach: Keep a notebook with you at all times and jot down whatever comes to mind while watching a movie, reading a book, daydreaming, waiting at the doctor’s office, or listening to music. I’m pretty sure that when you look back over your notes after a month, you’ll find at least one idea in your swipe file that’s worth developing.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (Books to Read #7)

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This novel is often cited as one of the major inspirations for Orwell’s 1984. It was written during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, which ultimately led to the communist takeover. We depicts a collectivist future where a totalitarian state controls every aspect of human life. Conformity and mass surveillance define this world. Individuals no longer have names; instead, they are assigned numbers, like the protagonist D-503.

When D-503 meets I-330, a member of a revolutionary group, he begins to question his existence in the One State. Meanwhile, the regime attempts to eliminate imagination and emotion from the human mind through a newly invented psycho-surgical procedure called the “Great Operation.”

The book can be a bit challenging to read, as it’s written in the form of a journal. Whether due to the translation or the era in which it was written, the prose doesn’t always flow smoothly.

If We did inspire Orwell, it did so in the best possible way. Orwell didn’t merely adopt Zamyatin’s ideas and steal his vision—he instead added layer upon layer of new concepts. In the end, only the dystopian setting and the idea of a man rebelling against collectivism because of his fascination with a woman remain similar.

If you enjoy dystopias, We is a must-read. If you don’t, start with 1984 or Brave New World first—and pick up We only if you enjoyed those two.

Btw, you can read it for free at the Project Gutenberg here.

SEO Basics: Improve Page Loading Speed

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One of the most important things to check when you’re not getting any traffic is your page’s loading speed.

I once read that most people won’t wait longer than three seconds for a site to load. I’m not sure if that number is exact, but I know I don’t wait long myself. Especially, when I visit a new site for the first time, my patience is limited—and I assume most internet users feel the same way.

To make sure your page loads quickly:

  • Choose a reliable hosting plan
  • Use a professional theme
  • Avoid unnecessary plug-ins
  • Upload images at the smallest size you actually need
  • Use a plug-in designed to speed up your site

These are the key steps. A high-quality hosting plan is usually the most significant factor—although also the most expensive. A professional theme is next; it’s typically affordable and a one-time purchase.

The more plug-ins you install, the slower your site becomes, so only use the ones that are truly necessary. Some plug-ins help clean up your cache and improve overall performance, though, such as LiteSpeed Cache.

When it comes to images, avoid uploading them at full resolution. Think about the size at which the image will appear on your site, resize it accordingly, and reduce the file size. You can also compress your images to size the file down further:

  1. Use GIMP (a free Photoshop alternative) to resize images
  2. Use this free compressor to reduce file size

If you want to test your page loading speed, you can use free tools such as: Page Speed Insights

Not All Traffic Is Good Traffic

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The spammers and scammers are back. For the last few days, I’ve been getting a flood of comments linking to gaming websites. It’s all generic nonsense like, “What a great article. I had a blast reading it.”

It looks like they’re running bots that spam the internet with this meaningless garbage just to plant links that redirect users to their shady gambling sites and help them rank higher in Google.

It’s a mess.

The early days of the internet wasn’t free of scams either. I remember the first “chain emails” that were sent around to everyone. Sometimes it was about a Nigerian prince who needed two thousand dollars to regain access to his account—once he had the money, he would supposedly send you back $20,000. What a deal. Another chain email I remember receiving as a kid claimed you’d be cursed if you didn’t forward the message to at least five people in your contacts. Sometimes a virus was attached to it, other times it was just about a link in the mail they wanted you to click on.

Despite such scams, back then you could at least now that when someone left a comment on your content, it was a real person. Nowadays, most comments are automated bot messages sent from entire farms in India.

The more the internet gets flooded with automated content, the more the metrics for a successful online platform shift from raw numbers to the quality of your traffic.

What’s better? 1 million views a month? Or 1,000 real readers a year?

Obviously, it’s the latter. And the more these ridiculous sites use bots to promote their low-effort content, the more people will focus on the quality of their audience rather than just the number of views.

Alien: Earth (Movie/Show Review #8)

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I’m a fan of the Alien franchise. Sure, it’s been a bit repetitive since the first sequel, but the second and third movies still added a lot to the lore. I also appreciated Prometheus as an ambitious attempt to provide a deeper backstory as well.

When they announced a show as the next installment, I was a little excited to watch it — though it took me months to finally find the time. But here we are.

Alien: Earth sticks to the dirty, realistic future style established by James Cameron, and it gives us another xenomorph running amok. But that’s basically where the similarities end. Narratively, the show goes in a completely new direction.

As much as you could criticize the repetitiveness of, for example, Alien: Romulus, you could now also criticize Earth for straying so far from its origins. It’s tricky to critique Earth for trying something new while also criticizing Romulus for not doing anything new at all.

But halfway through, I found myself asking: would I enjoy watching this if it wasn’t part of the Alien franchise? The answer I came up with was… maybe not.

The production quality is excellent. The xenomorph and other monster animations are fantastic, and I appreciated that the show didn’t tone down the horror or gore to make it more family-friendly.

But the storyline sidelines the alien in favor of a group of synthetic kids turning against humanity. Again, I can’t fault the show for trying something new while criticizing Alien: Romulus for sticking too closely to old ideas. Still, it sometimes feels like someone wrote a story that had little to do with the original Alien, then realized it might not attract viewers without the franchise name attached.

I’d still rate it 6 out of 10. I enjoy sci-fi and robot stories, and there’s at least one episode that feels like classic Alien. But for a show called Alien, I expected more.