When should you start working on your idea?

The instant you have an idea it is time to get to work; there is nothing to be gained by waiting for further inspiration or clarification.  The first step should be to involve your senses in the process of communicating the idea - even if it is to yourself.  Seeing, tasting, hearing, smelling, and feeling your idea will give it momentum.

• Details of a painting will manifest themselves no sooner than when an artist begins to sketch her vision.
• The true form of the code evolves as the programmer is typing, not at the whiteboard.
• A tangible variation of the melody in a composer's head will crystallize only when it is sung or played on an instrument.
• Interesting new questions that beg for answers are only revealed to the researcher through experiment.
• A recipe evolves through tasting, smelling, and refining.
• The characters of a story come to life as the writer lives them out on paper.

A laborer cannot stare at a field and expect it to bear fruit.  Neither can the creative worker expect the seed of an idea to grow without rolling up his sleeves and planting it in its proper medium.

"Vision without execution is hallucination." - Thomas Edison