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by ehy » Sat Jun 26, 2004 5:25 am
Couldn't hurt. But for me, at least, what stops me from writing more is not any lack of basic ideas, but rather the fact that taking a good idea and actually working out all the necessary details to make it a real STORY is hard work.
For example: I've got a story idea that goes kind of like this: "A single guy dies in an accident or some such, and his family comes to his home to deal with his belongings. Unfortunately, one of his belongings his his android, who's programmed to protect his place from intruders. She doesn't know the family, so she thinks they're intruders. They don't know much about androids, so they don't know how to deactivate her, let alone reprogram her to understand that the guy is dead and she should consider herself owned by his heirs."
Good idea, there, right - it's pretty unique, it's got potential, could get funny or sexy or philosophical, depending. But when I go to write it, I've got to think of all kinds of things before I even begin - what's the guy's name? What's the android's name? What's his home like? What is the android programmed to do when intruders come in? How would a normal person, emotional from grief, deal with that?" And that's just the beginning. Somewhere along the line you have to figure out, "Okay, where does the story go? How will it end? How will I build to that ending?" And every question ultimately has to get down to the level of "Exactly what words does the character speak, and exactly what does he/she do?" THAT is the hard part. When you're in the swing of things, it's also the fun part - but that doesn't make it any less hard to get going.
Other writers - do you find the same to be true of you?