Original Ideas?

[CharleyH]

Are there any?

 

[rgraham666]

Of course not. If it's a good idea, someone else thought of it first.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Maybe from you.

Not from me.

 

[3113]

Are there any?

If you write science fiction, then yes, there are. For example, until there WERE computers, there were no ideas about a guy with his brain being plugged into a computer.

Until there were frozen embryos, there were no stories about lawsuits and laws regarding frozen embryos.

Changes in science and technology create new story ideas all the time. Ones that certainly have not been written about before--although some far seeing writers do manage to write about them before they come into being in reality. Heinlein wrote about surrogate moms (women selling out thier wombs for another couple's fertilized egg) back in the 60's.

 

[Guest]

.....

 

[SeaCat]

All ideas are original. We all add our own twist to it, our own interpretation and our own views.

Every one of us can look or read a story and find a way to improve upon it, doesn't that make it original?

Cat

 

[3113]

So you're saying that all Sci-fi is based on emerging technologies?

So how do you explain H.G. Wells?

Um, no, that's not what I'm saying. Sci-Fi is an extremely broad genre that could more rightly be called "Speculative Fiction" that is, speculating on what might be. Including time machines and aliens from outer space.

I was merely pointing out that if a writer is looking for new ideas, then the genre MOST likely to offer them such ideas is science fiction because it often--though not always--does employ emerging science and technology. That is, stuff that never existed before. It speculates on the uses, abuses and reprecussions of that technology on the human condition, the problems such tech and science might create and how those problems might be solved. As this stuff did not exist before, the ideas have likely not occured to writers before either.

Science Fiction, by the way, does distinguish different types of sub-genres within the very large, overall genre. For example, H.G. Wells writes social science fiction. The Time Machine, for example, is Sci-Fi only because the time machine IS a machine. But the main character could have been sent to the future by way of magic without any really changes to the story. The point of the story is to explore where class differences will lead human kind (to elois and morlocks)--not to explore science and technology.

A writer, however, who tells a story of a cyborg by extrapolating in detail from current technology like artifical limbs, robotics, etc., is a Hard Science Fiction writer. The science will be right down to the smallest detail and all that is extrapolated from it will be technically if not currently possible.

Both such stories are science fiction, but I'd argue that H.G. Well's might not have had so original an idea because human beings have always imagined time travel and only making it possible via a machine makes this story idea different. But while ancient human beings might have imagined some magic to capture and hold music, they'd hardly have imagined something like the iTunes Music store created, in part, because people were pirating music.

If a sci-fi writer HAD imagined such a thing (a music pirate) as soon as the digital music revolution arrived it would have been quite an original idea.

 

[Samandiriel]

I'd like to think so...but I also like to see a different perspecitive on old ideas as well.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

If you write science fiction, then yes, there are. For example, until there WERE computers, there were no ideas about a guy with his brain being plugged into a computer.

Until there were frozen embryos, there were no stories about lawsuits and laws regarding frozen embryos.

Changes in science and technology create new story ideas all the time. Ones that certainly have not been written about before--although some far seeing writers do manage to write about them before they come into being in reality. Heinlein wrote about surrogate moms (women selling out thier wombs for another couple's fertilized egg) back in the 60's.

Pardon, 3113
But I taught Sci-Fi Literature and have written a lot of it. That's actually where I've been for the past two years. There was a time when Sci-Fi was on the leading edge. Cyrl Cornbluth, Robert Campbell and a few others were predicting things in the 50's and early 60's that were not even imagined then but that we take for granted today.

Unfortunately, in the 70's Sci-Fi became a "ligitimate form of literature" and those forward thinking predictions just seem to have stopped. Pardon me for saying this but even the great Robert Hinlein ended up plagerizing an idea at one point in the late 70's from Cyrl Cornbluth. ("Cities" became RH's novel "Drifting in Space"- although that title was changed sometime later.)

I don't believe you can look to Sci-Fi for innovative ideas these days.

Just my opinion.

 

[3113]

I don't believe you can look to Sci-Fi for innovative ideas these days.

Just my opinion.

'Fair nough, but I'll disagree to say that while there may not be as many new ideas in sci-fi given the genre's expansion (more writers then there were), and the difficulty with keeping up with modern sciences, I think it still has the potential for new ideas, especially when compared to other genres.

I taught sci-fi literature also. And I write a lot of it and know a lot of sci-fi writers. I was, in fact, a judge for the Philip K. Dick awards at one point. I read a lot of books by authors old and new and you are right that there's a lot of repetition and unimaginative sci-fi out there. But there are still some gems. China Melville (not to my taste, but certainly different), Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, Geoff Ryman's Air, Stephen Baxter and one of my faves, Robert Charles Wilson are all modern sci-fi writers with surprisingly unique ideas. Darwinia by Wilson turns upon the idea of Europe suddenly vanishing to be replaced by and entirely different eco-system.

Honestly, I've NEVER seen that idea done before. Blew me away and what he did with it through 2/3rds of the novel was simply brilliant.

So I wouldn't write off sci-fi yet. It's still a literature of ideas.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

'Fair nough, but I'll disagree to say that while there may not be as many new ideas in sci-fi given the genre's expansion (more writers then there were), and the difficulty with keeping up with modern sciences, I think it still has the potential for new ideas, especially when compared to other genres.

I taught sci-fi literature also. And I write a lot of it and know a lot of sci-fi writers. I was, in fact, a judge for the Philip K. Dick awards at one point. I read a lot of books by authors old and new and you are right that there's a lot of repetition and unimaginative sci-fi out there. But there are still some gems. China Melville (not to my taste, but certainly different), Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, Geoff Ryman's Air, Stephen Baxter and one of my faves, Robert Charles Wilson are all modern sci-fi writers with surprisingly unique ideas. Darwinia by Wilson turns upon the idea of Europe suddenly vanishing to be replaced by and entirely different eco-system.

Honestly, I've NEVER seen that idea done before. Blew me away and what he did with it through 2/3rds of the novel was simply brilliant.

So I wouldn't write off sci-fi yet. It's still a literature of ideas.

Oh yes. The potential is there. With that I agree. But back in the 50's the writers were writing for Fantasy Magazine, Sci-Fi Magazine and so on. There were only a few big names around. When RH began writing (Starship Troopers and so on) in novel form it was a huge leap for SF.

I still think it's sad that there is so much less innovative thinking among those authors than there could be. Just my opinion.

Interesting you mentioned PKD. One of my favorite SF writers. ( Man in the High Castle, Counter Clock World, Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep and the rest.) He was truely one of a kind. I also think it's interesting you did NOT mention Ursula LaGuine D). The great NW Nebula Prize winner. But then she's done no really original thinking since Lathe of Heaven . And I believe that idea was stolen for The Butterfly Effect and some other works.

 

[Liar]

Are there any?

Millions.

Most of them are also pretty bad ideas though.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm quite fond of Neal Stephenson myself.

I thought The Diamond Age was brilliant.

But I find most SF is rather bland. It can be good reads, but I don't find it fires me the way it did when I was younger.

Of course nothing fires me the way it did when I was younger.

 

[AppleBiter]

Are there any?

No.

 

[TxRad]

Original Ideas?
Are there any?

Original Ideas are like orginal Sins.....

There are only so many...

the fun is putting you own twist on them....

 

[FallingToFly]

Original Ideas?
Are there any?

Original Ideas are like orginal Sins.....

There are only so many...

the fun is putting you own twist on them....

*grins*

*applauds*

*walks back out*

 

[Honey123]

Original Ideas

Are there any?

Yes. I believe there are original ideas and like Tx said, you need to put a twist on them to keep them flowing..

Ideas are like a blob of clay...if you don't use your hands (or your mind in this case) to shape it, it will still just be a blob..

 

[ChilledVodkaIV]

Go outside. No, wait til dark. Now go outside. Look up. Count the stars. PM me and let me know how many there are.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

If you write science fiction, then yes, there are. For example, until there WERE computers, there were no ideas about a guy with his brain being plugged into a computer.

Until there were frozen embryos, there were no stories about lawsuits and laws regarding frozen embryos.

Changes in science and technology create new story ideas all the time. Ones that certainly have not been written about before--although some far seeing writers do manage to write about them before they come into being in reality. Heinlein wrote about surrogate moms (women selling out thier wombs for another couple's fertilized egg) back in the 60's.

Yes, but aren't these more or less just details. Original details donot make an original story. The human conflicts have all been done, I would think; details on any level, may make the story more interesting, more ours as a writer, but aren't they still just details, secondary to the human conflict being examined?

Q_C

 

[oggbashan]

The answer

The answer, as with all good questions, is no and yes.

Almost all possible permutations of story-telling have been done before yet authors can and do produce original variations on the classic themes.

Theatrical producers continually attempt to re-interpret Shakespeare's plays. Some of the re-interpretations shed new light on the original, many do not.

It is the same with stories. Different approaches can be invented so that the reader is entertained by a familiar plot.

Yet not all original ideas are worthwhile. Writing a whole novel without using the letter 'a' - it has been done, but was it worth doing?

Originality is not essential.

Og

 

[3113]

Interesting you mentioned PKD. One of my favorite SF writers. ( Man in the High Castle, Counter Clock World, Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep and the rest.) He was truely one of a kind.

Absolutely. He's one of my favorites as well, a true original with amazing ideas or certainly very different takes on the usual ideas of the time (like humanoid robots). What really puts PKD higher than most is that the idea of the book isn't necessarily the real idea. "Man has to hunt down fugitive robots" may be the idea of Electric Sheep but the real idea is questioning what is human and how do we know what human is? This is what sets PKD apart. He takes the sci-fi to the deepest and strangest level it can go.

I also think it's interesting you did NOT mention Ursula LaGuine D). The great NW Nebula Prize winner. But then she's done no really original thinking since Lathe of Heaven .

PBS did a marvelous version of Lathe, which, I agree, is one of LeGuin's best. I didn't mention her because I'm not sure that even at the time when she was writing that her stories were all that original. She certainly explores her ideas as few others have, but much as I love Lathe, it's really just a version of the Monkey's Paw...isn't it?

Dispossessed, my other fave, was about communism, and, again, she gets points for taking it in a new direction, but exploring that kind of society--where everything is shared by everyone--had been examined. I'm not even sure that she was the first to come up with the idea of aliens who can be either male or female (Left Hand). Her originality has never been, I think, in the idea so much as in the execution.

Which earns it's own points, certainly, but the question is are there original ideas out there. I don't think LeGuin was ever interested in finding an original idea so much as exploring old ideas from a different perspective.

I'm not too up on James Tiptree, but I suspect, for the time, that she was more an original-idea-gal.

 

[3113]

Yes, but aren't these more or less just details.

I think you have it backwards. The idea is the SPARK. The details are the STORY.

So, idea: "Man falsely accused of murdering his wife must stay out of police hands while finding the real killer."

That's an idea. It's not original. But it can be done in a dozen different ways. How it's done, the details, make it a story and the story can be very different depending on which person uses that idea. You might get "The Fugitive" or you might get "Frenzy" (which has the same idea there!).

So you CAN have an original idea: "A third of the world vanishes and is replaced by an entirely different ecosystem." That's the idea. And it's original. So, answering the question, YES, there are still some original ideas.

You are, however, half-right. Just because the idea is original doesn't mean that the story will be. How people react to the vanishing world and it's replacement may be decidedly predictable and boring...and unoriginal. An original idea does not guarantee an original story. And an unoriginal idea does not guarantee a boring or unoriginal story--original in the story being, IMHO, unexpected twists, turns and events and results.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I think you have it backwards. The idea is the SPARK. The details are the STORY.

Absolutely. That is the way every single one of my stories began, with an idea. A Bad Day began with a newpaper article about a woman who was raped and robbed. That was the spark. I did some investigating and discovered a few more details about the woman and the incident and did a fictionalization (Details) of the event.

 

[TheEarl]

Are there any?

Mixing marmalade and lemonade and then giving it to a tiger in a kitty-bowl.

The Earl

 

[rgraham666]

Mixing marmalade and lemonade and then giving it to a tiger in a kitty-bowl.

The Earl

I assume you're getting some one else to give said concoction to the tiger?