A Call to other Creative Contributors

[KRM398]

Hello all, I was just asked by Mok on the XTU forums to invite as many of you to contribute there as you might want. We are readying a new newsletter there and maybe they need some fiction not written by me...lol.Ok, anyways, anything you might want to do is good, just say I sent you and sign up, then drop your goodies for us to see old, new doesnt matter, ty.

[collins50]

I have tried to Wright a story on a group of pilots that see a need for security service but it has grown beyond that, I find that I have to go back to the game to get more random ideals, I have used some characters from Alpha Man and I have used some of the original characters from X3, were the story will go ? I will keep going till I get stumped, I enjoy feed back, but it is rare. I enjoy the other stories that I have read, It gives me a break from the day to day grind, I hope I have not offended anyone with my story line, New Start

[KRM398]

Collins 50..I think you'll see we are easy to get along with, but I understand..I avoid reading other peoples stuff because I dont want to acidentally get ideas from them. So I can always say my stuff is original as posible.

[SOTS]

Well, being inspired by a story you've read is no bad thing. Outright copying and plagiarism is bad.

You can take ideas from anywhere, really. There's that many stories here, there, and everywhere that pretty much every possible avenue has already been explored by someone, at some point. It's the combination of ideas and plots that makes a story unique.

[The Zig]

Agree with SOTS. No idea comes from nothing. The best way to be original is to read as widely as possible, feed on ideas and inspiration, and let your mind internalise it, let your thoughts and experience work on it, and craft something new.

The less you read, the less resources your mind has to work with, and the more you'll wind up inadvertantly cloning whatever you think is cool at the time.
For example, I used to go through phases where I read everything by a certain writer. Now it's almost embarassing for me to look through my old stories. A rambling Clavell clone. A few Iain Banks-esqua narratives... and there's where I went through my Conan-Doyle phase. An H.G. Wells or two. A Murakami.

I can tell my writing's matured somewhat precisely because it doesn't radically change to sound like whatever cool book I just read.


The more you take in, the more your mind has to work with, and the more your own ideas comes through in shaping and selecting it - the more range your voice has, and the less susceptible you are to a strong external influences.
It's all about recombining knowledge and ideas. Seeing patterns and combinations of concept that no-ones seen before. Our minds don't make anything from nothing.

[SOTS]

I've read most of Orson Scott Card's library, Peter F Hamilton, am currently working my way through Iain M Banks' Culture novels, Arthur C Clarke, and various other works by George Orwell, Joe Haldeman, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Garth Nix, Allison Croggon, Michael Reilly, Fiona MacIntosh, Janny Wurts, Lilith Saintcrow, Philip Pullman, Philip Reeve, Douglas Adams...

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. There's at least twice as many more.

I like to read.

Rather than simply showing the internet my literary whorishness, I was seeking to illustrate The Zig's point: you can't really write especially well if you confine yourself to a small 'idea base.' As one is always absorbing ideas and trends from the world around one subconsciously, trying to come up with an original idea is futile, and will only hamper one's own efforts to write successfully.

I like to think that reading as much as I have (there's rarely been a book out of my hands, if I'm sat still, since I was four) is what's given me the ability to write with my current voice. I'm quite proud of it, but would still like to improve it, and so continue reading. (Hint: for clean, easy-to-read sci-fi goodness, Peter F Hamilton. Epic stories, prosaic style. Plenty of ideas there, too.)

[yourpowersareweakoldman]

I think what SOTS is trying to say is. There are no 'new' stories, but there are stories people haven't heard before.

The job of the writer is not so much to come up with new stories, but to come up with new or refreshing looks at the archetypal stories. Indeed, it need not be so much 'new' as it is 'entertaining'