As promised, here it is. And, as a bonus, it includes homework!

Where do ideas come from?

I don’t know if this question was posed to the staff at Palladium Books, or if editor Alex Marciniszyn was graced by the muse of the Blogosphere, but either way it touched off a lengthy Murmur from Al, followed by one from my esteemed publisher, Kevin Siembieda. Both of their responses set my mind to whirring on exactly how my own process works and how it might differ from other authors.

Each made excellent points. Al talked a good deal about the influence of literature, cinema, popular culture, and the media. It’s true that all of those have an incredible impact on anyone who sets out to write anything; after all, we are saturated with these stimuli during our every waking moment. Our history with these mediums affect us even more, in my opinion, because things that we read, view, or observe in our youth becomes a part of who we are.

I know that I was certainly impacted by my exposure to books and movies, and my life would today be somehow fundamentally different if my dad hadn’t sat up with me while I had an ear infection as a kid, reading my first ever Hardy Boys story, The Short Wave Mystery, a musty old brown hardback with his name scrawled inside the front cover in his handwriting from thirty years before, but still so much the same. I don’t know how much different I would be today had my grandmother not checked out a copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe from the library while I was visiting one summer, leading me to devour my first helping of the fantastic series that I would read and re-read more often than any other work of literature, even into my adulthood. Despite the damage I’m sure that I received to my precious eyesight, I know that I still bear the reverberations of daily viewing The Empire Strikes Back, a movie that I demanded so often that my dad borrowed a second gigantic circa 1985 VCR to make a copy of a rented cassette to save he and my mom from having to rent it over and over again. With my own copy I could sit at the coffee table every afternoon and pause my favorite scenes to capture the epic battles in Crayola and construction paper.

So here I am, decades later, building worlds for adventure gaming for Palladium or creating works of fiction that are entirely my own, doing my best to make a living at creating stories that hopefully affect the lives of others. Any short story, role-playing supplement, or even a series of novels can have its origins boiled down to one single little nugget of an idea, the seed from which sprouted the larger work. An idea can come from anything at all. I have had ideas for projects while talking over politics with friends, while standing in line to get ice cream at a restaurant, while commuting to work, or while watching television. Sometimes the ideas stem from something specific that I see or hear, while other ideas slowly creep up from that amalgam of my life experiences dwelling somewhere down in my soul. These ideas are nurtured with other ideas, encouraged and expanded and transformed through research and introspection, trial and error. An instant thought in a moment’s panic can be built up into just about anything given the proper care. Some of my best work issues from a nothing, throw-away tidbit included on a scrap piece of paper that was later served as the core for a larger and larger work until it was the centerpiece for a major project.

I’ve told this story before, but the basic concept that became my first book, Arzno - Vampire Incursion, was the throwaway reference to a city called Arzno. In a role-playing game played years before, this small town in what was once Arizona was a central part of an adventure for my character. When I needed a location for some later work, I used Arzno. Eventually around that name and the basic concept of the frontier city, I built an entire game setting, and then an entire sourcebook, filled with businesses and places of interest and the people that brought it all to life.

I don’t know that this resolves any great mysteries, but I suppose that my point is that big things can be built from even little ideas, and that even little ideas can grown into something big.

I’d continue, but I’ve gone on long enough for now. Next week I’ll answer a question of my own: “What makes an idea good?”

Homework:

Ideas can bear big fruit even if they are caused by the tiniest little thing, but that can take practice. Give it a try by selecting something at random and using it to build a short story, game setting, adventure idea, etc. Open to a random page in the newspaper and blindly pick a story, click the “Random Article” button on Wikipedia, select some mundane item of technology and make it the centerpiece of the story, etc. See how big a concept you can create from a little speck of information.

When you’re done, throw it up on your Myspace blog or use it in your next gaming session, but don’t let it just sit in a notebook or on your hard drive. Even if it just means sharing it with a roommate, sibling, or coworker, try putting it out there and see what happens. Naturally, I’d love to check it out as well, so feel free to send me what you come up with.

Website Wednesday not forgotten!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Finally, back online.
Monday, June 18, 2007

Moving has taken its toll on me in many ways, but by far the most ridiculous is how much hassle it was to get service here at the house. I haven't been able to update, and for a few days I even let the account lapse (thanks for letting me know, Nimmy). But now I'm back online and the website should get some updates in the very near future. News, product information, and I think some new layout and other cool updates here and there. Bear with me a few more days, but if you need anything be sure to drop me an email at jason@jasonrichards.net.

Off to the Palladium Open House!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Buy a cool new t-shirt, win a free signed book!
Saturday, March 17, 2007

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone out there!

It's just about that time again... time to break out your travelling dice and bookbag to head out to the biggest and best conventions of the year. Whether you're hitting Gen Con Indy, your local toy, sci-fi, or anime con, or trekking to Michigan for the second annual Palladium Open House, you had better dress the part. What better way to hit the road in style than your very own brand-new t-shirt from www.jasonrichards.net? Well, seven varieties are now available here courtesy of CafePress. There's something here for every taste and budget, so check in out. Here's a preview of the design:

Starting the New Year out right!
Thursday, January 11, 2007

Just a quick update for now, with more coming this week (hopefully). I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and that things are starting off well for you in 2007. I certainly can't complain, as yet another title will soon be at the printers for you all to enjoy. I'm especially excited about this one, which I've talked about a little bit in the past: World Book 30: Rifts D-Bees of North America. It's a joint effort by all of my fellow freelancers to produce new material for Rifts in the form of playable character races. Over 30 new races available (around 100 total, almost all of which have new illustrations), all centered on North America. The newly-released cover pretty much says it all: