Over the next couple of weeks, the writers on this blog will be turning their focus to the topic of “Ideas”. I’m kicking things off, so here we go with a few particular things that came to mind on the subject.
My favorite ideas are usually the ones that come at me from the periphery, sneaking in from the side while I’m focused on something else. Perhaps an example would serve to illustrate. Last week I was sitting at Wrigley Field watching the Cubs play the Nationals. Intent on the current inning’s play, I heard one of the concessionaires hawking his goods off to my right and I could have sworn that the item he was selling was “radioactive isotopes”. I immediately envisioned a story featuring a “farmer’s market” for super villains. That one went right into the Moleskine notebook that I carry in my pocket for just such elements.
A lot of my ideas come from exploring the question, “What if?”. I’ll see a reference to something and run it through the what if mill. A historic event… what if it hadn’t happened? A famous person… what if they were an alien or a mechanical construct? You get the idea.
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I like my isotopes withe sauerkraut on top.