Comments on: JWAM reader request no. 2: Generating ideas

By: Ask Daphne! Speed Round | kt literary

Ask Daphne! Speed Round | kt literary — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 06:25:17 +0000

[...] her “January is Writing Advice Month.” In terms of finding ideas of your own, she suggests, “take a plot from somewhere else: a fairy tale, a movie, a novel, manga, anime, anywhere at [...]

By: Julia Rios

Julia Rios — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:24:09 +0000

This is great, practical advice. I’ve seen advice from all sorts of people on how to come up with ideas, but never before have I seen a suggestion so concrete and in easy reach of even the newest writer.

By: Dan Goodman

Dan Goodman — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:06:07 +0000

Some other tricks: “Oh, yeah?” It would be horrible if people were brainwashed into loving the spouses assigned to them? Write a story in which this happens, and the couple live happily ever after. (Note: I believe H. G. Wells and John W. Campbell have already used this one.) Make the Orcs the good guys. (Already used by Mary Gentle.)

Turn it around. The disturbing discovery is made that the President of the US is NOT an alien. (Lawrence Watt-Evans used this one.)

By: Green Tee Readings » Links for January 2nd through January 4th

Green Tee Readings » Links for January 2nd through January 4th — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:18:24 +0000

[...] JWAM reader request no. 2 » Justine Larbalestier – That’s true of most things in writing (in life, really) the more you do them (plot, write dialogue, transitions, action scenes etc.), the easier they become, until they’re a habit you couldn’t break if you tried. [...]

By: Travis

Travis — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:38:29 +0000

Thanks a bunch! Now to see if I can come up with something good…

By: Justine

Justine — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:47:49 +0000

rockinlibrarian: How do you convince yourself that all your plot ideas don’t suck?

Ah, well that is a whole other issue. Confidence. I guess it only comes when you start trusting yourself. Quite a few of the people who ask me about ideas never finish anything. I suspect the two are connected. As in once you start finishing things you start learning to trust your ideas.

Good luck!

By: rockinlibrarian

rockinlibrarian — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:46:38 +0000

Ah. Thank you– I am someone with the very same question in my own work. So with that question clarified, I guess for me the question moves on to actually be: “How do you convince yourself that all your plot ideas don’t suck?” I suspect that Travis and I and others like me who keep asking that question of how to come up with ideas are actually trying to get rid of some deeper blocks….

By: S

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:22:33 +0000

This was excellent advice. Thank you!

By: Seth Christenfeld

Seth Christenfeld — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 06:53:02 +0000

does this mean that Warriors is a retread of “Little Red Riding Hood” and not whatever Roman myth the creator claims?

Nope. It means that “Little Red Riding Hood” is actually a ripoff of The Odyssey.