Do we value originality too much? What does it mean to be original, and how can we, as authors, write wonderful things when all of the good ideas have already been used?
Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard brainstorm some fantasy setting elements for you. Need a magic system on the cheap? How about a political power structure?
Andrew P. Mayer joins Howard, Mary, and Dan to talk about taking silly ideas and making seriously awesome stuff out of them.
Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard each crank out the beginnings of a story from the same set of story seeds.
Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary discuss communications technology, and how the ability for characters to communicate is a critical piece of your world-building, whether you’re writing science-fiction, fantasy, or pretty much anything else.
Mary walks Brandon, Dan, and Howard through the Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event (M.I.C.E.) quotient from Orson Scott Card, and then they retell the Billy Goats Gruff four times.
Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mary brainstorm a cyberpunk story using concepts pulled at random from a mythology textbook.
Brandon, Dan, Mary, and Howard take a high-level look at cyberpunk (the literary genre) for writers considering creating something along those lines.
Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard discuss creativity — how to learn it, how to teach it, and how to get better at it.
Kevin J. Anderson discusses author productivity with Brandon, Dan, and Howard.