Ideas At Large

Hello to one and all!  I offer you Toasts And Salutations!

So, when you're making idle chitchat with someone, and they find out you write stories, that's when the usual list of questions comes at you.  What kind of stuff do you write?  Have you been published?  Where?  

And then there's the mother of all questions:  Where do you get your ideas?

This is kind of a silly question, because ideas and inspirations are absolutely everywhere!  Sometimes I think they lay in wait to ambush you as you wander by.  You get ideas from everywhere and everything, usually when you're not actually looking for them.

I've gotten ideas from books, comic books, radio shows, and movies, video games, role playing games, pictures, songs, and toys.  Sometimes you get an idea from some random throw-away comment someone made during a conversation.  

As for stories, it could be as easy as this:  You watch a movie and at some pivotal point in the plot you wonder what the story have turned into if THIS had happened instead of THAT.  And this could drastically change the outcome of the story, perhaps the whole thing if this pivotal point occurs very early in the story.

What if Conan's tribe had defeated Thulsa Doom's thugs?  Conan the Barbarian would've been a very different film.  What if Aunt May had died instead of Uncle Ben?  What sort of a man would Peter Parker have grown into?  They actually had an issue of What If? that explored this possibility.  What if the Darth JarJar theory actually happened in the movies?

All of these stories would have been very different.

Sometimes you only get ideas for moments, or characters, and keep them on file until you find an appropriate story to use them in.  

Then there's another possibility:  suppose you insert a different character in the protagonist's place.  In theory, THIS character would act and react differently than THAT character, and these two characters should react differently when stuck in the same situation; so the story would come out differently.

The story would read much differently whether the hero was a greedy knight or a sentimental archer.  

This, of course, is the most elementary of examples.  The more little changes you make, the more differences there are from story to story.  

But the real point I'm trying to make is that ideas come from everywhere!  And I do mean EVERYWHERE!  It doesn't seem to matter where you go or what you do, inspirations are just lying in wait, ready to pounce upon the unwary creative mind.

They're on All Sides!

All you have to do is be in the right place at the right time to find them.  And then you have to be perceptive enough to know the good ones from the bad ones.  And then to use them when ya need them.  But getting ideas in the first place?  That's the easy part!

There's a good chance we'll talk about this some more in the future.  But that's all for now!  I've got some writing to do!

Good adventuring!

Yours Truly,
Timothy A. Sayell

I Know a Secret

Hey there, Hi there, Ho there!

So, of course, like prety much everyone else, I have man interests.  I like to write, I like to draw, I like to scratch-build models and model terrain.  I have an interest in costumes, and role-playing games, and vaudeville-type variety entertainment.  

I've delved into the history of various subjects and prominent persons in those fields.  And that, my friends, is how I learned... Bum-Bum-BU-UM... The Secret!

What is The Secret?  How did I find it?   Well, keep reading, and I'll tell ya all about it!  Here are a few examples...in chronological order!

Walt Disney.  You heard of him, right?  He's the guy that came up with Mickey Mouse.  Well, he wanted to make a feature length cartoon.  Other folks in the industry thought it was crazy.  They said that NOBODY would go and watch a feature-length cartoon.  But Walt wanted to make one, and he did!  He came out with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and it was a smash success and the beginnings of a multi-media empire!

Chuck Jones.  You heard of him, right?  Sure ya have, he made a bunch of Bugs Bunny cartoons!  Well, he became a cartoon director and studied the minute details of cartoon comedy.  How many frames a gag took up, how many to wait before the next gag to give the audience time to laugh, that sort of thing.  And ya know what?  His cartoons flopped!  His bosses told him to start making funny cartoons or he was gonna get demoted.  In frustration, he threw out all his notes and made a cartoon that HE thought was funny.  Ya know what?  Everyone else thought so, too!  

Stan Lee.  You heard of him, right?  He was the face of Marvel Comics.  Well, before that, Marvel Comics was...Timely Comics (I think) and he was only working there because his uncle had given him a job.  He hated it an wanted to quit.  Now, the story Stan tells is that his wife told him to finally write a comic book the way HE thought they should be.  What was the worst that could happen?  The boss could fire him, he was gonna quit any way!  So he wrote up the Fantastic Four, and guess what?  It was insanely popular, and people demanded more books with similar themes and tones!  Again, the start of something big!

Jim Henson.  You heard of him, he's the Muppet guy!  Well, his puppets had appeared on TV in a couple of different venues, and eventually he wanted tot make a movie.  But he wanted his puppets to exist in the real world, not just stylized studio sets.  All the movie execs he took this idea to told him he was nuts and that it wouldn't work!  Finally, he took it to Lord Grade in England, who let him try it out.  Guess what?  That one worked, too!

One last example:

George Lucas.  You must've heard of him!  That's right, the Star Wars guy!  Lucas is the only movie director I can name where I actually know one of the films he made in film school (THX-1138).  I haven't seen it, but I know it.  He made a film called American Graffiti, and it was a big hit at the time.  He used this success to make his passion project:  a cheesy retro space opera inspired by Flash Gordon.  Everyone in the industry told him not to do it, it wouldn't sell, and nobody would watch it.  But George didn't care, he WANTED to make it, and he did!  And ya know what?  It revolutionized the film industry and indelibly influenced pop culture forever!

What is the point that I'm trying to make?  Look, it doesn't matter if you're writing a book, or a comic book, or making art, or making a cartoon, or making music, or making movies.  Make the book that YOU want to read.  Or the movie that YOU want to watch.  Or whatever product it is...make the one that YOU would buy.

In my case, I'm trying o be a writer.  They say you should write about what you know.  This isn't entirely true.  You should write about what you LIKE.  Why?  Because if you like it, you will have all this enthusiasm and passion to pour into the project, other people will pick up on that and then they will like it too.  THAT, my friends, is The Secret!

I know what you're saying:

That's A Secret?!

Sure, you're right.  Everyone know it, on some level.  But how many people actually, truly, follow it?

Yours Truly,

Timothy A. Sayell