Internet Idea Ideation

Fun and easy sources of writing challenges abound on the internet. Here’s one method for generating story challenges: news headlines. Usually, when one reads one news article, along the side are three to eight other articles.

Here, for instance, are the Telegraph’s Most Viewed for today:

1. Venezuela`s Hugo Chavez tightens state control of food amid rocketing inflation and food shortages Government price controls on basic goods have been in place, in various forms, since 2003. But the restrictions have forced Venezuela to become increasingly reliant on imports of these products as local farmers will not supply the selected food staples at government prices.Mr Chavez last month won a referendum allowing him to stand indefinitely for re-election.

2. Pink dolphin appears in US lake  “The dolphin appears to be healthy and normal other than its coloration, which is quite beautiful and stunningly pink. The mammal is entirely pink from tip to tail and has reddish eyes indicating it’s albinism. The skin appears smooth, glossy pink and without flaws.”

3. Gordon Brown appeals to US Congress for help to save the world calling on America’s politicians to join him in forging a global agreement

4. Fish with human faces spotted in South Korea
The “humanoid” carp are attracting attention in the town of Chongju in the centre of the country where they live in a small pond….Both fish are females and more than three feet long. They appear to have distinctive human noses, eyes and lips.

“My fish have been getting more and more human for the past couple of years,” the owner said.

5. Max Clifford tells Jade Goody: `enough is enough`A reality television star sold the rights to her wedding for a rumoured £700,000 to OK! magazine and is also being filmed by Living TV dying of cancer.

And the article I was actually reading:

6. Stone Age phrasebook developed by scientists studying oldest words “If a time traveller wanted to go back in time to a specific date, we could probably draw up a little phrasebook of the modern words that are likely to have sounded similar back then.” …Researchers have also identified several words that could die out within 1,000 years because they are likely to evolve into different forms.

(Small town or odd foreign newspapers often have even quirkier headlines!) 

Here’s the challenge. What if all of these events / facts / people were related? I don’t actually have a plot tying in all of these, but if I did, this would be the cover for it.

UPDATE 11:00 AM.

Furthermore, all characters and brand names for imaginary technology will be named after blog comment verification words. So far I have, “Ardef”, “Vizere”, “Tabilizi” and “Noppit.”

Twilight the Musical

An amusing musical Twilight parody.

If We Lived in a Holoworld

A love story on the holodeck, no words.

Sadly, my first thought on seeing this was, in a world of real holodecks, how many ugly holo-sites there would be, designed by incompetant nimcompoops like yours truly.

Imagine the worlds. Orange and pink buildings covered with heart blinkies.

Stone skins that don’t quite reach the edge of the buildings. and roofs that don’t fit.

Of course most of the holo sites would be dedicated to porn. And pop-in naked girls would appear in your holo world trying to get you to visit them. Or sell you viagra, or renew your car warranty.

On the other hand, think of all the new jobs for vitural architects, virtual interior designers and vitural landscapers.

Agents

http://www.pw.org/content/agents_and_editors_qampa_four_young_literary_agents?article_page=4

KLEINMAN: What I hate is when you don’t know if something is out with other people. I had this woman, and I should have known that she had her book out with other agents. I wrote her this nice rejection letter, gave her my comments, and thought I was sort of done. Then she calls me up and we have a conversation about the freaking book. Then we meet at some conference and I talk to her about the book. She implements everything and sends me the book, and a week later I get, “I have an offer of representation.”

ZUCKERBROT: But maybe she was taking comments from a whole bunch of agents.

KLEINMAN: Probably.

ZUCKERBROT: And you could have asked her.

KLEINMAN: Oh, yeah, I totally should have. But I don’t think about it.

BARER: You don’t have to give exclusives to agents, but you have to be up-front and say, “Other people have this.”

ZUCKERBROT: I hate it when I’m in the middle of reading something and somebody e-mails me and says, “I just want to let you know that I’ve received an offer of representation and I’m taking it.”

BARER: Yeah, kiss my ass! Thanks so much for giving me an opportunity! But I think it’s okay to say, “I’ve gotten an offer, I’m considering it, and I’d love for you to read it as soon as possible and let me know.”

ZUCKERBROT: That’s the way to do it.

BARER: There’s no clock on this. If one agent offers you representation, and you have the book out with other people, that offer, if it’s genuine, will not evaporate. Take your time. Ask questions. Give other agents a chance. Don’t jump at the first guy who offers you a ring.

ZUCKERBROT: But they get scared. The other thing to remember is that you’re hiring an agent to work for you. It’s been flipped in such an odd way. You have all these writers who are so desperate. But the truth of the matter is, they’re hiring us to work for them.

KLEINMAN: So much of it’s about responsiveness. My favorite story is about this book I got from a doctor in San Francisco. He’d written this novel. He sent it to me on a Wednesday, and I was doing the whole “I’m going to be an important literary person” thing and I thought, “I’ll read it on my at-home reading day on Friday.” So I took it home on Friday and read the book and totally loved it. I called the author and said, “I would love to represent you.” He said, “Well, Elaine Koster just offered representation, and I’m going to go with her.”

LAZAR: Oh, man.

BARER: Not even a conversation.

KLEINMAN: The book was called The Kite Runner. [Extended whooping and laughter.] And I think he did absolutely the right thing. She was totally on the ball.

LAZAR: You lost The Kite Runner? I lost The Art of Racing in the Rain, but you lost The Kite Runner? That trumps everything.

Why I Shoot an Old Scene from A New Angle

Do you ever re-write the same scene from the PoV of more than one character? Do you include the variation in the novel, or just use it for reference?

I do both.

A lot of my stories play with Point of View. Not everyone in my world sees things the same way — literally, because depending on their powers, they can see some forms of magic (some Chromas) but not others.

So as I comb over my new version of Chapter One, I am examining the meeting between my main character, Dindi, and the arch-nemesis of the whole series, Lady Death.

A bit of my dialogue is overblown and melodramatic, and I don’t want that. Plus, Lady Death knows a great many things Dindi would like to know, but  Lady Death has no intention of revealing them. Accidently, however, Death does let slip out a few clues to her plans — and her vulnerabilities. I have to make sure the secrets and slip-ups make sense from Death’s perspective.

So I am re-writing the meeting scene from Death’s PoV. (In Death’s PoV, she even has a human name, but this is one of the things she will never tell Dindi). This scene, from this PoV, will not appear in any of the books. But it’s useful in showing me where to adjust the dialogue. Ah, now I see, I realize as I re-write, Death is actually thinking this when she says that. But Dindi won’t realize it.

Does anyone else do this?

UPDATE:

I also want to distinguish between writing the same scene from a different PoV to be INCLUDED in the book, and writing a scene from a different PoV solely as character study. I do both.

As an example of a single scene retold from mulitple PoVs, I have a sequence which is told from a son’s PoV and then, in a later book, from his mothers. The action and dialogue is all the same, but in one version we see what the son thinks of his mother (and what he thinks she thinks of him) and in another we see what the mother thinks of her son (and what she thinks he thinks of her).

Neither character would dispute the facts of what they did and said to one another, but hopefully the reader will still see the miscommunication and misconceptions which can arise even between two people who love each other very much.

Poem by Stephen Crane

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter-bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”

-Stephen Crane