>From the rec.arts.sf.composition newsgroup, I wrote..... Charlie Stross wrote:
> Ideas are easy. Fitting them together is the hard bit. OK? I have to agree with this approach. Now if he had said "Original Ideas" the answer might be different. I'm speaking not as a writer, but as a Frankenstein---under the definition of a failed or incomplete writer as David Brin has stated on his website. Ideas are fun. But I don't think I can do very good characters and plots. Take Dr. Brin's Uplift Universe Traeki as an example. A Traeki ring was designed to inflate and raise up a sinking submarine. Carry the idea forward and think of 27 seeminly stupid uses for a living inner tube. 1. Rubber rafts 2. Pontoon bridges 3. Snowboarding 4. Instant dike repair 5. Spare wheel for a g'Kek 6. Dolphin rescue 7. How to give a blabbermouth whale lockjaw 8. The All Traeki Zeppelin Patrol 9. Emergency in the field colonoscopy 10. "Funny. That brick wall wasn't there a minute ago." 11. "Hey Beanpole! Did you see a very fat man run this way?" 12. "Go ahead and jump. It's only three hundred feet down." ...and on and on and on. Now, write a believable plot with believable characters that makes a silly idea logical. That's the hard part. William Taylor -------------------- (Inflationary remarks.) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
