 Fantasy: January 19, 2011 Issue [#4191] |
  Fantasy
This week: In The Beginning Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
-Oscar Wilde
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
-Howard Aiken
Everyone is in love with his own ideas
-Carl Jung |
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Ideas
For a while there, the most-asked question of science fiction and fantasy writers was, "Where do you get your ideas?"
Some authors tried to answer honestly. Others made up stuff. I think it was Barry Longyear who said, "Schenectady."
I often wondered if he was punning on "synechdoche," a literary term for when part of something is used to refer to the whole, or, in one of those rare cases where a word is its own antonym, when the whole is used to refer to a part. Like when you call a car "wheels," or when you say "The government screwed me out of my tax refund" when what you mean is "some flunkie working for the government..."
More likely, it's just a fun city to say. Say it. Schenectady.
But I digress. What I mean to point out here is that a) all stories start with an idea and b) some people think they "come from" somewhere, like illegal aliens.
The thing is, for me at least, ideas don't just pop into my head from nowhere (or some city in New York); they are the result of something else that happens. Like I'm watching my cat play with something and going, "Wow... if cats had opposable thumbs like us, it'd be all over." Usually, it's not just one thing, either. It's a synthesis of several different things, like when I'm walking down the street and I hear a siren and someone's playing the bagpipes - my first thought is, "Yes, please, arrest the bagpipe player."
But however it happens, there you are, with an idea. That's important. It's not the most important thing - that would be editing - but it's important. There's a reason why the universal comic symbol for the idea is the  lightbulb: One minute it's dark; the next, it's on. In a flash of inspiration.
If you're lucky, you'll remember to say "lightbulb" like Gru from Despicable Me. If you're even luckier, you'll remember the idea, and you can write it down and expand on it, later. Combine it with other ideas, because just one idea doesn't usually cut it.
Next thing you know, you have the beginnings of a story.
But you don't stop looking for new ideas. |
All of these, I'm sure, started out as an idea...
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