ParanetOnline
McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: The Observer on August 29, 2010, 11:47:40 PM
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So I have a lot of ideas that never make it down on paper - they're too stupid/plagarized/just not all that good to do anything but fester in my imagination. I'm sure you guys have had similar ideas. (I remember I had one made up world when I was younger, it was epic. I had let 15 different story arcs planned out, but it was all basically ripped off from marvel comics so obviously it could never be published. I still loved it)
Anyway...
I recently had an idea that actually might have some merit as a series of novellas/short stories. I'm just not sure how people would react, so I wanted to run this by a few people. Basically, it's set up like this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WorldOfHam (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WorldOfHam)
Yeah.
The protagonist and his friends have ridiculous powers for unexplained reasons (as does basically everyone else), and basically go around and fight people in the most ridiculously awesome ways possible. Obviously it would be comedic, with plenty of lampshading and "wait a second how is he doing that" moments. But it would be fun, at least for me.
Thoughts?
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If you feel the need to tell the story than go ahead, write it and have fun. Worry about things like "marketability" later.
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I second that! I bet Ben Edlund (creator of The Tick) didn't worry about marketability at first, but it has a heck of a following. And what is the one about the aardvark?
Anyway, write and see what happens later. :)
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I second that! I bet Ben Edlund (creator of The Tick) didn't worry about marketability at first, but it has a heck of a following. And what is the one about the aardvark?
Anyway, write and see what happens later. :)
Look at Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles which was brought on by, I believe, no sleep, a Leave It to Beaver marathon, and a surfeit of pizza. Who'd a thunk it would be so popular.
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Worry less about the ideas you're starting out with, and more with your skill at developing it. In other words...write write write, throw stuff out, try again, edit, revise, and write write write.
A skilled writer can take the "worst" idea, the idea that everyone says is horrible, can never work, is full of stupidity...and make it work anyhow. Example: Jim Butcher => Harry Dresden riding a undead dino through Chicago.
A bad writer can take the BEST. IDEA. EVAR. and make it suck donkey rocks.
Most people get too hung up on trying to identify if their idea is "good" or "bad" and never try to run with it and see what happens.
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Actually, yeah... at D*Con Jim talked about how Codex Alera came about (a series I liked, though the ending was unsatisfactory):
Basically he said it was a bet with someone online. They were talking about bad story ideas. The bet started off with "I'll give you a terrible start and you see if you can make it into something publishable."
Jim was given "the lost Roman legion" (a starter that has been done several times). Apparently Jim said something along the lines of "I'll go you one better - give me two bad ideas!" So the second was Pokemon.
Insert a bunch of research into both concepts, twist up a lot, write, and you get the Codex Alera.