Hello, I have a question for Mr.Card about ideas. I know he has lots of other things to do, but I need some help. Where do you get your inspiration from, and your ideas? Im not good at thinking of them, but once I get one I expand it a lot. Please help me Mr.Card, thanks a lot.
Ray
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Ideas are cheap. Everybody has hundreds of ideas every day that could be made into stories. My thousand-ideas-in-an-hour sessions make this abundantly clear. You just have to ask yourself lots of why/what result/how/why ELSE questions about things you see or hear or think of, to expand on the idea. Never be satisfied with the first thought that comes to mind in answer to these questions, though you might come BACK to that first thought after having thought of others.
Then you have to be self-knowing enough to recognize which ones you care about and believe in enough to stick with them and keep reinventing them and expanding on them until you have a good story.
Posted by Raylborn (Member # 7344) on :
Wow OSC is actually talking to me I cant believe it hehe. Back to the point... So once I think of an idea then ask myself a lot of why/what result/how/why ELSE questions, but never choose the first idea that comes to mind although if I wanted I could go back to that? Wow, that helps a lot. Would it be OK if I used something that happened to me, in my everyday life and turn it into something different?
Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :
There are no rules abotu what's "okay" and what's "not okay". If it's powerful, interesting, or entertaining, then go for it.
The only thing to stay away from is overtly basing characters on people you know. It's a great way to end friendships Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
Yeah. After OSC based Ferret on me, it was a long time before I could forgive him. Crystal City made up for it, finally.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I was wondering the same. Oh and does Swimming Upstream sound like a good book title?
Posted by definitelynotvichysoisse (Member # 7559) on :
I like Swimming Upstream as a book title. It sounds interesting.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Always steal from reality. Though be prepared for the fact that the stuff that really happened is what readers are likely to say is "completely unbelievable."
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
quote: the stuff that really happened is what readers are likely to say is "completely unbelievable."
Tom Wolfe said something similar years ago. One reason he stuck to non-fiction for so long. About a true celebrity sex scandal, he said "Did the bimbo really have to hail from Babylon, NY? If you put that in a novel no one would believe it."
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Steve, I like Swimming Upstream too. Posted by AntiCool (Member # 7386) on :
Book titles really don't mean much to me. It is very common for me to really love a book, have it become part of my consciousness, but not remember the title of the book.
Posted by Suri-cool (Member # 7599) on :
I have a question on this topic. About like stealing ideas. What is considered going against another books copyright and all. What is the line from taking from another book in writing your own...
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
I usually get my best ideas from dreams, i have alot of freaking weird dreams
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Plagiarism, as a legal term, is copying or paraphrasing someone else's language without attribution.
You can't copyright titles.
You can't copyright ideas.
You can't copyright facts.
That's why mapmakers sometimes include made-up places on their maps, so that when a plagiarist includes that location, they can prove that it was theft instead of independent cartography.
You can't even copyright PLOTS. You might be criticizd for "stealing" somebody's plot, but the fact is we do it all the time and call it "homage" (or the arty frenchism "hommage").
So the resemblance between Jaws and Moby-Dick is "homage" rather than plagiarism.
I tried, in the initial publication of the story "Ender's Game," to credit Ursula K. LeGuin with the invention of the term "ansible," but Ben Bova took out my footnote. His point was that (a) you can't copyright a word, you can only trademark it, and (b) the coolest thing in the world for any writer is to invent a word and have other writers use it so it really becomes part of the language. The way Capek's word "robot" (just Czech for "worker," but used for man-like machines in his play R.U.R.) became the English, and then the worldwide, world for mechanical men.
I mean, we all know what orcs and hobbits are, too, and we don't have to pay a royalty to the Tolkien estate for using them.
Confusion arises with words like jello, kleenex, and aspirin. We all know what they mean, but there are corporations that get really upset when writers use them. THEY want you to replace them with either Jell-O or Kleenex or, preferably, "gelatin dessert" or "facial tissue," in order to protect their trademark (not copyright) investment. What they fear is that their trademarks will end up like Bayer's trademarked word "Aspirin," which is now a common English word, with the trademark revoked because it had fully entered the language.
I think kleenex and jello have entered the language the same way - just like xeroxing, which is a widely recognized verb and preferably to "photocopying." So in my fiction, I absolutely refuse to have characters speak of either "gelatin dessert" or "Jell-O," because what we SAY is "jello" and we apply it as easily to Royal brand products as Jell-O brand ones.
I don't own stock in those companies. They don't pay me anything. So I don't have to pretend that the language doesn't include those words as generics.
People misuse "plagiarism" all the time. Shakespeare NEVER plagiarized anybody - but he did take his stories from other sources, every darn one of them. Why would he plagiarize? He was a better writer than any of his sources. But why shouldn't he use their stories - after all, when HE recounted them on stage, they became immortal. <grin>
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
One of my favorite ways to "steal" ideas happens to be the modernized fairy tales that are currently being written by authors like Jane Yolen, Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, etc. For some reason, recasting old favorites in new clothing enchants me.
Posted by LTC DuBois (Member # 7661) on :
The trademarked words part of Mr. Card's comments makes me think of the sport of ultimate frisbee. Since Frisbee is a trademark of Wham-O, organizations promoting the sport run into problems using the common name for it, and many players scruplously refer the disc instead of calling it a frisbee like an average person would.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Everybody wants to have it both ways: To be so wildly successful that their product's name will be a household word, and then to make everybody STOP using it as a household word so they don't lost their trademark.
I say skwoo 'em. They got all that money, and they didn't share any with me, so what do I owe them? If it's become a word, it's become a word, and we're all entitled to use it.
After all, I invented the word xenocide, and you don't see anybody paying ME a royalty every time they wipe out a species.
[ April 02, 2005, 05:48 AM: Message edited by: Orson Scott Card ]
Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :
<chuckle>
Though isn't against international law nowadays to wipe out a species?
Posted by Sartorius (Member # 7696) on :
You invented "xenocide"? Is it in the dictionaries yet? K, just checked dictionary.com and it's not there. As a word-a-holic, I must consider that the coolest thing you've ever done.
Posted by Crotalus (Member # 7339) on :
I invented a similar word in a short story I wrote. The word is "Retrocide" which means to travel back in time and kill someone. In my usage it specifically means to hire someone to go back and kill you (paradox, I know). The 'doctors' that perform it call it Temporal Euthanasia, as do those who support it. It's actually the opposition to the practice that call it Retrocide. Anywho. No one will probably ever use my word. OH, I forgot. Unless they STEAL it. I wonder if I will get any royalties.
Posted by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Member # 7476) on :
That's great except people have already used the word retrocide. There's even a retrocide website Posted by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Member # 7476) on :
If I were you I'd submit a Wikipedia article as a pre-emptive strike to make retrocide mean what you want it to mean.
Posted by Khavanon (Member # 929) on :
Sometimes those household brand names are so common that they get into other languages. In Chinese, they use Aspirin the same way we do, only they say it A-si-pee-lin. Same universal usage.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Retrocide is a brilliant word and I curse myself that I didn't think of it first and use it in Pastwatch.
I know. I'll recall all the copies out there and change them but not change the copyright date and claim prior usage. Kind of like editing a post AFTER someone has responded to it so their response sounds completely nonsensical.
We'll call that process "retrospeak." Or "prefitti." Or "prediting," and the practitioner is a "preditor."
Posted by estavares (Member # 7170) on :
I invented a couple of words myself:
Throg: To sneeze violently with a powerful noise, as in "A mighty fine throg, fine sir!"
Splent: Having expended one's money in a really foolish, impulsive way, such as "I splent my wad on action figures!"
Neither seem to be catching on though...
Posted by Verai (Member # 7507) on :
I think because there's some sort of implied sexual meaning? Maybe it's just me
"A mighty fine throg, fine sir!"
"I splent my wad on action figures!"
Posted by estavares (Member # 7170) on :
Well SURE, but this is a family-friendly thread. The REAL definitions are found in the little black cover section at the back of the dictionary.
But hey, whatever it takes to become part of the common vocabulary...
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I cant believe it hehe. Back to the point... ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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