Write it Down!
The first thing you should do with any idea is write it down. Immediately. Keep a notebook handy if you have to, but get it on paper as soon as possible.
There are several reasons for this:
1. Your first impulse will almost always be your best impulse. Write down the idea exactly as you envisioned it. Be as detailed and specific as possible. If you don't write it down, it's likely that your second or third version will lack the excitement and passion of your first inspiration.
2. You may forget it. Lots of things happen during a typical day that can drive good program ideas out of your head. If you don't write it down immediately, you will find yourself spending lots of time over the next few days trying to recreate the circumstances that led up to your inspiration.
3. Once you write it down, you have some legal protection under current intellectual property law.
Keep your idea to one page -- if you have to go a couple of lines on to page two, that's OK, but in general, one page is better. There will be time later to flesh out the details. It's crucial to preserve the creative impulse, vision and image that excited you in the first place. For example:
Say you had the idea for a show about a varied group of castaways marooned on an island. It could be "Lost," or it could be "Gilligan's Island." Either way, keep it to one page. In the first paragraph, write the basic premise. In the second paragraph, flesh out the characters. In the third and fourth paragraph, explain why people would want to watch this show. Then put it aside for a couple of days. Look at it again. If you still think it's a viable idea, then it's time to go the next step, which will be in further posts.
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