Ideas with Nowhere to Go

Once in a while, I get very excited about an idea only to find out that it has been done before. This has happened enough times that I've taken to doing quick Google searches to see if I'd be breaking new ground or not. Usually, my brilliant ideas (and just as often my stupid ones) have already been capitalized on, by somebody else. It's the more personal ideas that always seem to go somewhere, and ultimately give me more pleasure.

However, just to see how brilliant I could have been if I was first (or how laughable), here is a smattering of my pre-empted projects:

1) The New Testament, Zombie Version: Yes, I know, sacreligious, and I'm sorry about that, but the "resurrection" of Jesus lends itself to zombification. C'mon, what would be better at Easter than to see Jesus and the twelve apostles eating their way through the brains of the Roman legion? Actually, this was such an obvious treatment that a Google search showed me that it had been considered and done...by MANY.

2) Shakespeare as Porn: I have a version of Othello I'm considering putting to pen that actually IS an original concept, and in thinking about that, and particularly the line about "the beast with two backs," I thought, "Wow, what a great concept. People would surely buy Shakespeare in dirty movie form." I thought this despite the fact that I myself could care less about seeing Shakespeare in porn form (I like it just fine as it is), and the other fact that I would be embarrassed to be the progenitor of such pretentious trash while also being the father to a little girl. What drew me to the idea was the thought that it might actually draw in money. "Not to be," as Hamlet might have said, and if you doubt me, see this: http://www.radosh.net/writing/shakespeare.html

3) The Benjamin Franklin Lifestyle: I rarely get excited about non-fiction, but I love good old Ben Franklin. I love him so much, in fact, that I considered using his guide for living from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin as the base for an experiment. I would test myself by following Franklin's thirteen virtues to the letter (Temperance, Silence, Order, etc) and then writing honestly how well I held up. This actually WAS an original idea at first--no other person had taken on this reality-show-like task--but within three months of my starting my experiment, Ben and Me by Canadian lawyer Cameron Gunn was announced and my project ended. This was probably for the best because when I subsequently picked up Ben and Me, I couldnt' actually get into it.

Ultimately, I guess my "brilliant" and "original" ideas are exciting to me not because I actually think they would be fun to write about (or read about), but because I see money coming from them. In these three cases, I don't think the people who actually utilized the ideas actually made much of a profit. Thus, rather than following the money, I'd better just keep writing the stuff that I find personally fulfilling, which in the end is probably more original, and also, I hope, more interesting for readers.

Packing and Writing

At the moment, I'm feeling very much like a college student.

First off, I am totally rushing to meet a deadline. I've got two great stories that will be appearing in a sci-fi/fantasy anthology next month; all they need is to be completed and revised in the next eleven days. That wouldn't necessarily be that difficult, but...

Second off, I am living in a house that is very sparse in terms of furniture. Obviously, there's the laptop, which I'm using now, but my wife and I are rather quickly getting rid of a lot of our possessions. Why? Because we're moving to Washington at the beginning of December. This is a great move. I'm from Washington, and I've always considered myself a Washington writer, but relocating our lives from Atlanta to Seattle in less than a month is a challenge.

Third, I had pizza yesterday. A lot of it. And I loved it. It's the perfect stress food, and having just completed a four-hour garage sale, I needed stress food. I'm just happy that Congress agreed that pizza was a vegetable and therefore good for me. I had no idea I was being so health conscious all those late nights at Washington State University. Now if they could just declare beer a vegetable (hey, hops! barley! wheat!)...

The first blog post

It is 6:21 a.m. on Friday, November 25th, 2011, and I think it's high time I introduce myself to the world.

My name is Daniel Rider, and I am a writer. I'd like to point out that "Rider" is actually my name and not just some cheesy pun on the word "writer." That would be silly, whereas now the last name, being indeed mine, could be called fortuitous, gratifying, even poignant.

The end of 2011 finds me at a crossroads of sorts. I've got all kinds of cool things brewing--a children's book, my first published novel coming out in July, two stories to appear in an upcoming anthology--and this is all great, but the problem with any crossroads, of course, is the fact that a road must be crossed. Road-crossing takes time and there's all kinds of problematic outcomes to said activity: one might be hit by a car, one might cross over and not like where one ended up and even stare across at another part of the crossroads and wish that he had gone there, and one might even trip and sprain an ankle in which case, no matter how great the destination may ultimately be, it will always be enjoyed with a certain amount of discomfort.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm looking forward to finishing up this year and really getting going in 2012. I have so much to share with you--as soon as I cross this six-week road!