I learned something very unexpected when I wrote "Ad Asylum". I learned how to tap into the most creative tool I didn't even know I had.
You'll find that if you write a book, everyone has two questions for you.
How long did it take to write, and how did you come up with the idea?
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I'm not sure of the answer to the first one. "Ad Asylum" took six weeks to write and two months to edit and rewrite, but it's based on 25 years of experience. So I'm not sure if it took 6 weeks or 25 years.
How did I come up with the idea? When you're in the thick of writing something, you're not really thinking about how you got the idea. You're just doing it. But after you're done, and people keep asking you the same question, you can think back and try to figure out what you actually did.
Let me begin by saying that I had no intention of writing a book. I used to write plays when I was back in college and years ago I took a stab at screenplays (haven't we all?) But I never thought about writing a book.
I do have an active imagination. I love to daydream. I think daydreams are incredibly powerful. Dreams are really amazing too -- and many people much smarter than I have studied them and tried to figure them out. But we don't control them. It's our subconscious mind running wild, perhaps amuck.
The cool thing about daydreams is that they are self-directed. You're fully conscious. You're the director and the leading man or woman. It's one-hundred percent under your control. Pretty cool.
I think people daydream in several categories. You know how they say there are only seven stories. I think there are about the same number of daydreams. Less, actually.
The first is more often called fantasy. Sexual fantasy, that is. We all do it, it's fun. Whatever it is you're into, it's okay. We're not here to judge. An offshoot of the fantasy is the daydream about finding your soul mate, true love. Personally, I don't much believe in finding a soul mate. We're all human and the whole soul mate thing wears off after a few months and reality sets in.
The second category is what I call 'unrealistic success.' We daydream about being a rock star, or a professional football, basketball, or baseball star. Maybe a movie star. We probably don't have the requisite talent, but it doesn't matter. We're daydreaming, and it sure is fun to daydream about stardom, mansions, Ferraris, adoring fans, and riches beyond our imagination.
The third is what I call 'petty revenge.' We daydream about getting back at those who have slighted us. The friend who stole your girlfriend. Maybe a boss who was an overbearing jerk, or a colleague who screwed you over, stabbed you in the back, or threw you under the bus. You daydream about getting back at them.
The fourth category is one of the most fun. I call it 'shoulda coulda woulda.' It's when we daydream about all of the paths not taken. What would have happened if I had taken that job instead of that one... moved to Chicago instead of New York... gone to law school instead of business school... married my high school sweetheart...
Shoulda coulda woulda is not so much about serious regrets as it's about wondering 'what if.' And again, it's fun. It's a chance to mentally re-invent yourself and explore other roads you could have travelled. Maybe more successful roads. At least in your imagination.
So Ad Asylum grew out of a shoulda coulda woulda daydream. I always wondered how my career would have progressed if I had gone straight to a big ad agency right out of business school. I ended up taking a route down the promotion and then the interactive path. Now I'm in mobile. But I always wondered.
So that wondering turned into a daydream. That's all it was. But it kept getting better -- you know how you'll return to a daydream that's particularly good? So during my commute over the course of a few weeks the daydream about being a new young guy at a big agency who tries to save the day just kept getting better and better.
And then, like most daydreams, it faded away and I didn't think much about it until, for no particular reason, I returned to it and added a cool twist. Which I don't want to explain because it's a spoiler for the story. But it was the cool twist that made me think maybe this could be a good story. A book.
So I sat down and starting writing. And just kept going. And a few months later I held a copy of "Ad Asylum" in my hands.
My point here is that daydreams are very powerful. It's your mind making up stories for your own amusement. You're not trying to please a client or impress anyone. It's for you and you alone.
And therein lies their power. They fulfill dreams. They make you happy. They make you smile. They're what people really want. They can become the basis of books, movies, articles, ad campaigns, and promotions. They're excellent stories.
