Comments on: Did You Ever Have One of Those Ideas?

By: Kelly McCullough

Kelly McCullough — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:33:26 +0000

Diana, oh yes, been there a few times. I think some of my best work has started that way.

Elias, What Diana said. If you’ve got a passion for something, write it.

By: simon@kins

simon@kins — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:55:32 +0000

Well, Howard Waldrop is the greatest malaprop short story writer of our time. He said that you should take that idea for a novel and mull it over until it becomes a novella. Then ruminate on it a bit until it becomes a short story. Then chew on the idea till you get the essence and turn it into a short-short. Then he said forget about it and take a nap because a short-short isn’t worth the effort.

Or one could be like Owen Wilson’s character in The Royal Tenenbaums. His charactor, an author named Eli (and not a Tenenbaum), says, “Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this book presupposes is… maybe he didn’t. “

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:15:06 +0000

The idea that kicked me in the head: Fantasy about a dwarf, a three-legged dog and a one-eyed pony. Yeah, their all brothers.

By: heteromeles

heteromeles — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:48:52 +0000

Sure. I’m writing that book right now. I’ll judge the craziness if I can get someone to buy the darn thing.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:28:25 +0000

Hi Diana.

I am not a writer but occasionally I do get ideas, inspirations for novels, stories that I will almost certainly never write (I don’t think I have the fortitude to be a writer).

As a GM for role playing games, though, I sometimes get the darndest ideas for games and game elements in the weirdest places (while exercising for instance). I write it down, and then plan to use it at an appropriate opportunity. My imagination demands that I do so.

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By: Diana Pharaoh Francis

Diana Pharaoh Francis — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:48:42 +0000

My feeling is you write it because that’s your passion and while there are lots of stories where similar things happen, the writing of them is the difference. So write what your heart wants and write it well. Good luck!

By: Elias McClellan

Elias McClellan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:15:07 +0000

You came looking for answers and all I have is more questions. What do you do when you have that ‘idea;’ the one your willing to commit a year or so of your life to writing and it looks like a lot of other stuff out there? Not ‘Twilight,’ as I hate glowing, teenage-angsty-vampires, but similar circumstances.

I’d love to move on to something else. But this idea won’t leave me alone.