Many years ago, science fiction writer David Gerrold (Star Trek’s The Trouble with Tribbles) wrote a column in which he told of a lady at a SF convention who asked him where SF writers get their crazy ideas. Obviously she wasn’t a serious fan, so he told her ideas come from the Great Science Fiction Writers Idea Book. He proceeded to weave a story about how the Book worked — how to submit ideas, how to apply to write a story using an idea, how some ideas had been tried by other writers before being successfully executed by someone else (he told her that, before Robert Heinlein, two other writers had tried to write Stranger in a Strange Land). His point (though I think she was oblivious) was that he was showing her where writers get their ideas.
Many years ago, science fiction writer David Gerrold (Star Trek’s The Trouble with Tribbles) wrote a column in which he told of a lady at a SF convention who asked him where SF writers get their crazy ideas. Obviously she wasn’t a serious fan, so he told her ideas come from the Great Science Fiction Writers Idea Book. He proceeded to weave a story about how the Book worked — how to submit ideas, how to apply to write a story using an idea, how some ideas had been tried by other writers before being successfully executed by someone else (he told her that, before Robert Heinlein, two other writers had tried to write Stranger in a Strange Land). His point (though I think she was oblivious) was that he was showing her where writers get their ideas.