The Power of Dinner Chat

Some of the best ideas come while eating.

Over the years, I've probably started two or three projects that never would've existed had I not met up with some friends for dinner on a Tuesday night. Often the conversations begins with "Wouldn't it be cool if..." or "I'd love to see..."

For five years, I participated in a traveling Ghostbusters "Tribute" Show...a sort of messed-up business seminar where some buddies and I tried to "sell" Ghostbuster Franchises to unwitting participants. It was a comedy stage show, not a real attempt at selling a business, and it was a hit where ever we showed it. And it came from an innocent dinner with a few buddies.

We were talking about things that would be fun to see at some of the conventions we attended. We'd just returned from Star Wars Celebration 3 in Indiana where we'd seen a "Star Wars in Thirty Minutes" play that was hilarious. A small con in Oklahoma needed entertainment for a dinner show, so my friend Rick volunteered us...even though we had no idea what we would do. We tried to put together our own version of the Star Wars play, but with Ghostbusters. The thirty minute adaptation didn't work, but soon the idea for our misguided business seminar was born. What followed was a sold out dinner show and then five years of touring the south and Midwest as our idea entertained untold thousands (or hundreds...or maybe dozens). All from a shared meal.

I know I've talked about collaboration before, but dinner chat is different. Shooting the breeze with friends, we've come up with ideas for our own conventions, solutions to political stalemates, solved world hunger...you get the idea. Most of these 'what ifs" drift off in the wind, no more substantial than the breath used to voice the thought. However, every so often there is the seed of an idea that yields greater fruit than dinner-time conversation. Collaboration happens on a more structured level; meal generated ideas are much looser than collaboration and have fewer penalties.

If an idea is fun, we expand on it. If it is lame, we move on. No one is afraid of speaking up, because if a suggestion does not seem worthwhile, it may lead to something that is. If you're trying to come up with new ideas for a story, try inviting a friend to lunch. Don't be afraid to ask what sort of story they'd like to read. You might be out $15 for lunch, but you could walk away with a best-seller book idea.