Yeah, good idea for plots. But I never liked his work. Not a single space ship, actively employed wizard or other believable supernatural or other worldly character in sight! ::)
If you can game master a D&D campaign without having to slavishly follow the adventure modules every time the characters do something, then you too can be ready to come up with ideas for a book.
Yeah, good idea for plots. But I never liked his work. Not a single space ship, actively employed wizard or other believable supernatural or other worldly character in sight! ::)
Yeah, good idea for plots. But I never liked his work. Not a single space ship, actively employed wizard or other believable supernatural or other worldly character in sight! ::)
Neurovore, I'm going to take a guess that you're, at the very least, occasionally exasperated by David Weber. ;D
I regard him as the proof that there is no setting, no universe, and no genre that a sufficiently determined author can't fold, spindle, and mutilate enough to force it to have Napoleonic-type sea battles or their exact equvalent in.
Why anyone who really wants to write Napoleonic sea battles would not just straightforwardly write Napoleonic naval novels is completely beyond me (well, except for the fact that the standard for comparison for those is Patrick O'Brian, and that would be terrifying because Patrick O'Brian was a genius.)
Perhaps its the desire to both continue advancing and at the same time return to some of the best or at least more exciting 'perceived' times of yester-years gone past?
I regard him as the proof that there is no setting, no universe, and no genre that a sufficiently determined author can't fold, spindle, and mutilate enough to force it to have Napoleonic-type sea battles or their exact equvalent in.
Why anyone who really wants to write Napoleonic sea battles would not just straightforwardly write Napoleonic naval novels is completely beyond me (well, except for the fact that the standard for comparison for those is Patrick O'Brian, and that would be terrifying because Patrick O'Brian was a genius.)
For me, personally, making the future recapitulate the past to that precise degree of specificity kind of breaks my suspension of disbelief in a future.
By drawing on the past you 'can' add to the ability to suspend disbelief. However I do agree with some of the comments here. Weber's gone too far on his scio-political-economical dissertations. Also basically using historical figure's names and plopping them into characters essentially like their name sake does and would ruin a story for me.
I would LOVE to write a story, whether a full length novel or a short story. But I have NO INSPIRATION whatsoever.
Which is kind of okay, thankfully I earn money by doing very boring professional services stuff for clients. A lot of my time is spent writing, reports and letters for the most part for clients, though I'm currently working on a book about tax (I know, tax, yawn!).
Thing is that I really enjoy the process of writing. When I have an idea in my head, I love to write it down and see how it looks. Of course it's easy when it's about something like tax. The subject itself is very dry but I'm on a mission to explain the subject to people in a more accessible manner, lots of practical examples and how it applies to different businesses. So when I come up with a new idea for explaining something difficult in easier terms, I actually get quite excited!
Oh I need to get out more....
But anyway brings me back to my question: where do fiction writers get their ideas from? I'm a middle aged woman and have never had an original idea in my life! I've been reading the posts on the Author Craft board on and off for hte last few months and I'm amazed by the ideas people come up with and their fantastic ideas for plots and characters, but I just can't EVER come up with stuff like this for myself. I really admire Jim and all the wonderful story writers out there for their wonderful creations.
Anyway I'd love some suggestions or even just a bit of that magic to help me get started. And for all of you who post here, I'm sort of in awe at your creativity.
General reminder... criticizing works based on disapproval of their political themes is a No-Go. Touchy Topics are every bit as verbotten lieb as they were in the past. That hasn't changed, it's no different from complaining that a genre or book has too many/too few gays/straights/republicratiarianologists. Socio-political aspects are still not acceptable in this forum. It's fine to criticize things on craftsmanship, originality, technique, creativity and such is pretty much talking politics. For example, the criticism of works that are sci-fi re-enactments of historical periods or incidents is fine... but leave the politics at the door.
Inspiration can occur any time you watch or read something and say "What if?" What if they'd lost/won? What if that plan/treaty/cure worked or didn't work? Look at some basic concept, conflict, or dilemma that caught your attention, that you found evocative, and just noodle on alternate outcomes.