So, sometimes a funny idea pops into your head. That’s fine. It’s ok to laugh at it, maybe share it with whoever is closest, and simply move on....
Off-brand gods: When an Idea is So Bad That It’s…Bad
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My Author Scrapheap
It’s that time again, where I dredge up old story ideas from my scrapheap and delve into why they’ve never happened. Those who’ve heard me talk about my writing process before might have remembered that I keep a vast archive of story ideas in varying states of coherence. Some are a single line. Some are a few paragraphs. Some are scifi, some fantasy, and a few are just plain oddballs.
Chess: Good Game, Bad Plot
Chess is having something of a minor resurgence these days (all things being relative, it’s probably still less popular than the average pay-to-win...
What Has Nine Lives and Is Stuck in a Loop?
A premise does not a story make. This one comes up time and again in Author Scrapheap. A lot of times I come up with a story idea that’s really just...
Endless Blanket Fort
Who doesn't love a blanket fort? …maybe when it's like Labyrinth meets Coraline. So, I’ve always loved the notion of the "X wishes" story. You’ve...
Who remembers A Pilot’s Pilot? …this was the prologue…
I realize that most, if not all, of you are here because you’re Black Ocean readers (for those who aren’t yet, it’s never too late!). So most of you...
Last Angel has Fallen – Why I scrapped my take on an unanticipated apocalyptic failure
Armageddon has come, the demons won…but the last humans are looking for a rematch OK, I talk a lot about stuff I decided not to write because it was...
Want to hear my dream plot for “Starcraft 3”?
Who is ready for the next Starcraft game? I dreamt I wrote it.. I never really went through a fanfic stage as a writer. Apparently, as author origin...
Wizard’s Wishes – Could a cop show with criminal wizards really work?
One of the key quirks that made the early seasons of the X-Files great was the Mulder/Scully dynamic, where he came up with these wild,...
Sidekick Powers
Can A Good Pun Become A Great Book? I no longer recall where or when this idea originated, just that it came from not paying attention. I probably...
Some topics you just don’t touch
Sometimes an idea comes to you. It’s dark yet compelling from a storytelling perspective. And yet, an integral part of that idea is just too...
A Premise Without a Plot
I have ideas in my scrapheap that aren’t exactly the worst notions in the world. In fact, some of them might turn into something great someday–but...
Is stubbornness a virtue?
Sometimes an idea is vast and complicated, sometimes it’s not. And often, that’s the problem keeping a concept from getting off the ground. There’s...
Soldiers on Ice
Sometimes ideas come to us at the weirdest times. The middle of the night is all too common. In my house, we refer to a shower as "Brain Rain" for a...
Fun idea, wrong outlet
Time to dust another idea off from the old scrap heap and take a look at why it’s still there. Our latest autopsy subject: Master of the Clouds.What...
“What If…?” but for Star Wars
OK, so all of us have some free time on our hands now and then. Even before “What If…?” became a big thing on Disney+, I’d had a version in my mind...
A License to Spoof
When Author Scrapheap comes around, you’re often subjected to half-baked or off-kilter ideas that had little hope of turning into anything...
The One That Almost Made It
It's time once again to sift through the flotsam of my TBW pile (To Be Written) and share why one of them has failed to climb its way out. This...
No Robot Uprising in 2020
Not sure what my Author Scrapheap is? I introduce the idea on the Author Scrapheap archive page. This time diving into my Author Scrapheap, we're...
Henchmen can be heroes too
Not sure what my Author Scrapheap is? I introduce the idea on the Author Scrapheap archive page. This edition hearkens back to some of my earliest...
NASA TV
Not sure what my Author Scrapheap is? I introduce the idea on the Author Scrapheap archive page. With SpaceX making news recently, I thought it was...
An idea that conquered itself
Not sure what my Author Scrapheap is? I introduce the idea on the Author Scrapheap archive page. Idea: A Conqueror's Tale (2 Books) Premise: Both...