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Ideas.
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One thing to get through your head is that ideas are usually cheap.
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Boy, those don't erase real well.
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I'll try using these guys.
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I mean, they do say: Dry erase." They don't say: Permanent, don't put it on anything!
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I should be okay, but...
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One thing to get over is the idea that great ideas make a great book.
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Well, a certain quality of idea is important.
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However, a great writer can take the most basic ideas and make a brilliant novel out of it.
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And a terrible writer will take the best ideas in the world and will turn them into something terrible. Okay?
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Once in a while there is an idea like– you know, I usually refer to Jurassic Park as one of the ideas that I wish I had.
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You know, bring back dinosaurs and make a theme park out of them.
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That is a really great story scene and some are better than others.
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But the thing to teach you is ideas should be cheap.
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You shouldn't have to worry about your ideas.
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You shouldn't coddle your ideas and treat them as sacrosanct.
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You shouldn't thing I have this one novel I have been working on for so long and it's the perfect book
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and I need to just get it done and then everything will be great.
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Instead, you should be thinking, "Boy, that book that I've been working on for ten years that I started, that is my baby, is such a big millstone hung around me.
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I should cast that aside, start fresh with something new,
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write it for a few months, and teach myself to write.
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And then, once I know how to write,
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maybe I can to do justice to that magnificent idea that I have been working on for ten years that now is turning out to be
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you know, I've been churning and working on it for so long that I have even forgotten how many drafts I have done.
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And, you know, this was in one draft
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and this other thing is in another draft, and I forget that I've taken this out, and oh,
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it gets to be a big mess."
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So, for this class, you will have to cast aside anything that you have been working on before,
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unless you come and get specific permission from me.
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Someone who has a book contract has permission to work on, you know, what they have a book contract for.
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Or, I guess you have an agent, but not a contract yet.
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*Yeah, not a contract yet.
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But, for the most part, you should be taking everything–
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anything have written on before–you can take something you have ideas for, something you have planned–
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but anything you have written on before, you should cast aside
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and start fresh from the beginning for this class. Yes.
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*If you have written like an introductory chapter, or like–?
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Yeah, you're fine. You're fine on that.
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Uh, you know, you go with the spirit of the law.
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What are we doing? You are putting this in front. Oh, sure, put the microphone in front of me.
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Make it easy for people to listen. You're going to get a lapel mic for me, right?
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I'm eventually gonna...
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*Yeah. Yeah.
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Then I feel all cool and techy and stuff like that. And so... um.
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Yeah, sorry poeple listening online who might actually be doing it. Hi!
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We are trying something new this year.
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Apparently, we can actually release this online, if we want to.
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So, we're going to. And he's doing a master's degree.
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Bachelor's degree something? Or honors something?
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* Well, I have't even applied for the um. It will be, um, constructional technology.
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Okay, okay. By the way!
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As an aside, I think we have like 5 PhD students in my class.
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Who are the PhD students? I'd love to know.
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There are people...
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Maybe, it just lists PhD if you've like too many credits or something.
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No one is actually in a PhD? Ahh. It said on my class role–
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Okay, you got... You are one.
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*Well, I'm a JD, not a PhD.
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Oh, JD. Oooooh. Hey, an attorney. It's always good to know more attorneys.
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Laughter
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Anyone else, like...
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I assume a few of you are in like that Marriott School, or something like that?
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Yeah, Marriott school? Okay. Because these people can sneak in– You're in the Marriott school too?
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Can sneak in and register very early for the class. And they can get all the spots.
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And it said on my thing that I have like four PhD students, but they must just list that if you have a certain credit threshold.
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Some of you must just be eternal students who are continuing education, who have like, you know, three hundred credits or something.
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And like, they must be at a PhD because otherwise why would they want so many classes.
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But anyway, ideas.
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Ideas should be cheap. You should not treat them as sacrosanct.
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Um, one of my favorite stories, um, you can ask, um,
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You can ask Jim Butcher about this. He shared it before, when he was making this argument on this forum once, before he was published.
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And, um, a certain other person was kind of of the opposite school of thought.
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There's a school of thought that says–and don't write this down because it is wrong–
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"Writing is mystical."
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Right? Writing is about, you know, sitting and the, you know, the muse strikes.
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I assume not the band. Laughter.
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And the muse strikes you and something like pops out of your head like Athena.
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And it's just like BOOM!
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And then BOOK!
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And then, somehow, in between this, it's like you win a Pulitzer!
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I don't know. That's probably not what they give anyway. You know, not a Pulitzer. Laughter.
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A national book award! There you go!
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And you dropped it in basketball team. Laughter.
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And it's wonderful.
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There's this feeling that that's what it is.
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And, um, I don't subscribe to this at all. Okay?
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I really, really don't.
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And that's not to say that sometimes cool inspirations don't hit you, because we all kind of go through that.
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You'll have times when we're like, "I'm just on fire today and I don't know why." And you're riding it and it's great and it's awesome.
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But, the thing to to remember is that for every writer who's a real pro that I talk to,
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they have moments like that, and they have moments where it is pure drudgery.
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Where they sit and... and it's like chopping wood,
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that's how _ puts it. You just hit and you chop the wood and you do what you know you need to do.
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And at the end of the day in the book, I have found that the reader can't tell the difference between these two.
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*Some quiet laughter.* Okay?
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They can't tell the difference. And that's because,
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through the drafting process, you make this one better and you take out all the pretentiousness of this one.
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Because this one had a lot of pretentiousness in it.
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And this one, it will probably be a little dry, but you will have some moments of inspiration where you get connections.
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And this prose will get a little more engaging and this one will get a little less annoying.
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And then they will meet in the center and have your level of writing that is pretty cool.
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Okay? So, anyway, Jim Butcher's arguing with this guy.
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And the guys like, "No, you have to have world class ideas to be a world class writer."
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And Jim's like, "Okay, fine. Give me the...
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Give me the two worst ideas you can come up with, and I will write a book about them and it will be awesome.
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And so the person told him, "Okay, so you're ideas are pokemon and the Lost Roman Legion. *Some quiet laughter.*
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Write about about that." So, he wrote this book called Codex Alera,
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which he eventually sold and became a big, best-selling, epic fantasy series.
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You can go find that story on line. It's a great story and it's true.
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Codex Alera is a cross between pokemon and the Lost Roman Region.
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And Jim, if you are watching this and I am wrong, then why didn't you tell me when I asked you?
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I think he dodged the question when I asked him at first. I can't remember.
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Anyway, ideas are cheap. Okay?