The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 106 – 5 Book Ideas I WON’T Write!

Welcome to the first episode of 2021. Autumn and Jesper each share 5 book ideas that they won't write.

Some of those ideas are lighthearted - and perhaps outright silly (read: hilarious) - whereas others can prove to be excellent inspiration for your own stories.

As promised here's the link to our new and free course on self-publishing: https://ultimatefantasywritersguide.com/self-publishing-success/  

Tune in for new episodes EVERY single Monday. 

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Read the full transcript below.

(Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Narrator (2s):
You're listening to the Am Writing Fantasy podcast. In today's publishing landscape, you can reach fans all over the world. Query letters are a thing of the past. You don't even need a literary agent. There is nothing standing in the way of making a living from writing. Join two best selling authors who have self published more than 20 books between them. Now onto the show with your hosts, Autumn Birt, and Jesper Schmidt.

Jesper (30s):
Hello, I am Jesper. And I'm Autumn. This is episode 106 of the am writing fantasy podcast. And welcome to 2021. I wish we're actually in 2021 when we're recording this, but that's okay. We're so we're getting close. We're getting very, very close. We, once again cheating with the time-traveling we can do with podcasting.

Autumn (53s):
We are so far future versions could come back, even if it's a dream. So just let me know how you know, the new year's and everything shaping up. That'd be really cool.

Jesper (1m 3s):
Yeah. And maybe, maybe a future selves could tell us a bit about if 2021 already looks better than 2020 or not.

Autumn (1m 12s):
I don't want to know. I just want to assume it's going to be better. And if it's not just don't tell me I can't handle another bad year.

Jesper (1m 21s):
Well, so today we are starting out this 2021 year with a bit of a light hearted and fun topic, because we're going to do an alternating list of five book ideas. I won't write. So this should be fun, Autumn.

Autumn (1m 37s):
I'm looking forward to it. I, like I said, I, I had, I have some comments on it later when we get there, but it was interesting. Cause I really did pull out my file by little folder. It dusted it off of ideas of things I'd picked that. And I have to say, I was like, Oh, I like that one. Ooh, I like that one. Oh, I forgot about that. So that's just home. I actually had a hard time finding five. I went to let go of, so this will be really interesting. And I went a bit of a different direction with my five list. So I just try to find some, some of the most gracious shit you can think of and say, this is definitely never going to be a story to hear what they are. They're going to inspire someone.

Autumn (2m 18s):
So where, which is going to be really awesome. And if they do, if it does, you have to let us know in the comments, if something we give you today, does it inspire something? Just, just let us know because that'd be so much fun.

Jesper (2m 31s):
Absolutely. Yeah. But how are things over at your place then?

Autumn (2m 34s):
Oh, it's pretty good. You know, right now it's December. It's a little snowy for long too, so pretty right now. And I'm still thrilled because I finished that massive website rebuild and I feel like, you know, life is maybe evening out though. I did realize because I kind of, I, you know, I'm writing this series that I'm hoping to release as soon as the first book as, as early or late February in 2021. We're just like, what two months away from when this is released very soon. And I realized like I had a missing piece I wanted to add, I woke up one morning going, Oh, I have, that's what I was missing. I have to add that and did this.

Autumn (3m 15s):
And another extra chapter kind of developed and I'm looking at it going, this is kind of big and this is the last book and I want to finish it by December 31st. So if my future self could come back and let me know if I managed to do that, please let, please do. So because I looked at it today and I'm like, I've got to write a chapter a day again, or I'm not going to finish this and maybe I should just go and edit book. What's actually book two and I don't know what to do, but I really want to finish writing this. And it's, it's definitely, I'm getting close to the climax, that final tension that's building towards a climax and I loving the storyline. I'm loving the characters, so I don't want to stop. No, I'll just finish it, finish it.

Autumn (3m 56s):
And so if I have to not, you know, published book to February, February 28th, I guess I can do that. But I really, really, really, really want to. So I don't know it's a lot going on in my head, but...

Jesper (4m 11s):
At least if you finished, then you can sort of tick that one off the list and then that's done a bit faster or something.

Autumn (4m 22s):
I will keep my fingers crossed. Cause I think that's the best plan and definitely why I've got the momentum going. I want to keep writing. So even if it's not quite a chapter a day, but with the colonies coming up and COVID locked down, I'm not going anywhere. I, you know, maybe my vacation will be writing to chapter. I did that over the weekend. I wrote 5,000 words on Saturday. I was just like, I want to write today. And I just wrote a small storm. So if I had to do that over vacation, you know, maybe that's what will be my holiday spent some time with my husband, go for a walk, write 5,000 words and that'll be my Christmas. Why not? Why not? So things are still exciting on your end. I mean, you've moved and you're with boxes.

Autumn (5m 5s):
How is everything over there?

Jesper (5m 8s):
Yeah, still pretty chaotic to be honest. And it probably will be for a couple of weeks, but I'm going tomorrow to the house to hand over the keys to the new owners. So they are probably very excited about that. I think this past weekend we took a trip. I was about to say was, it's not that far, it's like 15 kilometers. Right? But we went back to the house this weekend from the apartment where we live in now with the kids, just to say goodbye to the house. And the, the oldest suddenly he went around saying goodbye to everything from toilets to cupboards to everything, got a goodbye.

Jesper (5m 48s):
And my wife, she did find it a bit sad. And my youngest, he was just like, he could kill us. He was just walking around. Like he didn't care. He's main concern was the garden where he was like, Oh, I played football here. This is where I learned my tricks and stuff like that. But that was pretty much his only concern. So yeah. So that's going to be the ending of that chapter tomorrow, officially, but otherwise I've just been putting furniture together and the kits were starting to look a bit better now, but the rest of the apartment is still a complete mess.

Jesper (6m 30s):
You know, put some holiday decorations on the boxes and stack them in tree shapes and just go with it. Yeah. Maybe I'll have to do that. We'll see.

Narrator (6m 40s):
A week on the Internet with the Am Writing Fantasy podcast.

Jesper (6m 48s):
I'm quite pleased with the reception of the wealth building course

Autumn (6m 51s):
I am too. This was, I mean, especially we're launching it in 2020, which we already know is the doomed here of the planet. I enjoy talking with our special guest. Who's the interview that when this is released, it'll have been the last episode with Brian Cohen. And when I was talking to him, he called it a generational year. It's like, this is the one we will talk about for our kids. You know, so many people will talk about this year for so long and I'm like, wow, that is so impactful. I hadn't thought of it that way. So yes, we released a course in 2020, and I'm thrilled with how many people are interested in picking it up at the VIP launch.

Autumn (7m 32s):
It's a good feeling.

Jesper (7m 35s):
Yeah, because essentially we only did a very limited launch meaning that we only announced it to the podcast listeners as well to our email list, but that was it. I'm pretty happy to see that there's been quite some interest in a lot of new students joining as well, which I think is very, very good because imagine having spent two years building this course, and then nobody was interested, that would be so horrible.

Autumn (7m 60s):
It would have been the capstone to 2020, but it didn't go that way. So I'm not complaining, especially since the week before we launched the course, I realized that now is the time if there ever was a time to rebuild the website and spending a week doing that right before we launched a course, not one course, but two courses, because we also launched the self publishing success free course at the same time. And yeah, that was a whole, it was also much work for you and I over two years planning this and doing the videos and then building it and then rebuilding the website all of a sudden. So thank you, everyone who picked it up and said that they were interested, or even if they said it was, they were interested in, it's not the right time.

Autumn (8m 43s):
Just feedback. Feedback is just what keeps us going. The bread crumbs that feed us when in the, in these years of trying time.

Jesper (8m 53s):
Yeah. It's very nice to get the occasional emails from people who, who find something we said or wrote or whatever really helped them. So that's wonderful. And we're also starting to see a few signups for, for that free course already. So I'm pleased about that. I can't, I can't remember if it was episode 102 or maybe it was 101, I don't know. You can go back and check that if you missed it. But we did explain in, in a quite recent episode what this recourse entails, but, but don't maybe just as a service, I'll add the link to the free course, once again, in the show notes to this episode. So if you missed it, you can, you can go and check it out.

Jesper (9m 33s):
But

Autumn (9m 34s):
Yeah, it is definitely, I guess the courses, it feels so good to be really close to completing. Like we did in our, a recent, in our 21st on the 21st the podcast we released and we looked at our goals for 2020 and how we did and what we're planning on doing in 2021. And it felt good to not only say we're really close to hitting all of our goals in 2020, but we actually did a couple of other things that we didn't need to dissipate at the time. So it might have been a trying and difficult year, but I think we're coming through it doing pretty good.

Jesper (10m 9s):
Yeah. I don't, I don't think it's too bad. I mean for, well, it depends on how you look at it, right? I mean, from, from the sort of world health perspective and stuff like that, it's a terrible year. But, but I think from the business side of, of what we're doing ourselves, I think it's, it has been pretty good in the sense that we've gotten a lot of that. Well, what you and I, in our internal meetings call the platform building. We've gotten a lot of that sort of this year. So hopefully heading into next year, we can focus on writing.

Autumn (10m 44s):
I'm so excited.

Jesper (10m 50s):
So I, I think first of all, as we get into this, we also have to be honest and say that there are no bad story ideas because is all about execution quite recent. I wrote an email to my, to the email list where I said that, imagine Frank Herbert, so the author of the classic doom. So, but imagine him explaining his story. So he would say something like my story takes place on an alien planet where there are these giant sand worms, and then I've included this awesome drug that allows you to see into the future. And then the hero will unlock genetic memories and acquire all the knowledge of his ancestors.

Jesper (11m 36s):
I mean, that sounds stupid, right?

Autumn (11m 37s):
It sounds like, well, are you marketing to cipher or a new age? Who are you trying to target with this one? So yeah, it it's, you have to have faith in your own story idea. And like in, as you're saying, there's no bad story ideas and there's also no really stealing story ideas. There's a couple here that I'm just, like I mentioned the top of the show, I'm kind of still fond of, but as we've discovered when you were, and I were debating what we were going to write and the series that we're going to be writing together this year is that one of the ideas I actually was using in another story idea and they've come out so different.

Autumn (12m 20s):
I don't think you would ever realize that they sprouted from the same. See they're completely different. So I'm not that worried about giving away these ideas and someone being like writing the exact story that was in my heart and soul, because you just can't do it one, I'm already a little screwed up, but you know how I look at it, the characters I create the world I create, it's going to change any of these stories into something else. So something here is spark something in you, right? Take it, run with it. It'll be that's what 2021 is all about, follow your dreams. We just put a whole heck of a year behind us. So start off with something you're passionate about. If this is what works for you.

Jesper (13m 3s):
Oh yeah. I agree. I mean, just think about Tolkien as well, right. My story is about this little creature called a Hobbit. It carries a ring that has the power to rule the world. That also sounds incredibly stupid. But at the end of the day, that was an Epic tale that came out of that. Right. So, and as you say, if I sit down and write that story based on that, and you do the same or somebody else, I mean, it's going to be different stories, all of them. So

Autumn (13m 26s):
Absolutely. Have I ever told you, speaking of the Hobbit, the, one of my favorite stories about that is I know FA I think a father who wrote, read the story to his kids and he always changed Bilbo to a woman, a female character, because he said it made more sense. She was after this rain, I just died laughing. So there you go. Even while you're reading a classic, I wonder if his, when his kids will realize Bilbo's not a girl, what's she called? Hey, you know, some names are genderless.

Jesper (14m 7s):
Okay. Fair enough. Yeah, no, no. I mean, it is all about execution. So I'm going to make fun of some ideas here in my life, but, but please don't take it as trying to offend anybody. If you have a similar story or, or what do I know or thought about it, then you can certainly execute all my stuff as well. In the, in the manner of that. It'll probably, well, not maybe all of them are that good, but in one way or another anyway, but I think we needed to get that out of the way first.

Autumn (14m 41s):
Yeah, exactly. We are not trying to offend anyone story ideas. We're trying to make you laugh. And that's what I was going to say. Maybe they'll do some ideas here will make you chuckle. Maybe they'll free up in your head and you'll be like, ah, you'll be more willing to experiment with your own ideas. Or maybe it'll be something that just resonates and was the missing piece to a story you want to write. So, you know, we're starting off a new year, let's have some fun and inspire each other and see where it goes.

Jesper (15m 8s):
Yeah. So do you want to start with your number five or one depending on which order we, I, it doesn't matter. Why not?

Autumn (15m 19s):
It's just, it's just ideas. So we'll flip a coin. Do you want me to start with one that's very well developed or one that's pretty much a loose cannon,

Jesper (15m 30s):
A loose cannon first.

Autumn (15m 31s):
All right. So I'm going to start at the back of my list. I'm gonna start at number five and go to number one, which is definitely the most developed. Okay. So here we go. So this is an idea that I really like, but this one I haven't developed much at all. So this is one where you have a hero in, who is ultimately supremely good, like holier than Holy good. And she is up against an evil. That is the ultimate evil. And no matter how much it's tried to end or kill this evil, it can't be until it's realized that the heroin's wonderful goodness is the perfect prison for the ultimate evil. So she becomes his living jail.

Autumn (16m 11s):
And so I like this topic. I mean, I'll have a world setting characters, but I like this one because it explores the idea of what if you are good, but you were suddenly harboring evil inside of you. I mean, how does that affect who you are, how you act, how your friends or your loved ones perceive you. And even more than that, what happens if the evil corrupts you? If you're no longer, perfectly good, can that great evil, you're the prison for escape, but if you've been tainted by evil, hasn't the evil also tainted by good. So not to mention, you've had this guy in your head for like, who knows, how long will you secretly be friends?

Autumn (16m 53s):
Will you maybe be more than the friends when it's another free entity again? So I just think there's so many cool questions with this one that I've played around with it in my head for ages, but it's not gotten any further than those are some really flood funding. Cool questions. Yeah.

Jesper (17m 10s):
Yeah. I was curious. So is that why you put it on the list of things you would not write because you can't figure out what to do with it or what, because at, at the bottom of it, it sounds like a pretty good idea, to be honest,

Autumn (17m 22s):
Hey, believe it or not, it's one I shared when we were debating what to write together, but I just, yeah. I don't know where to go with it. And so someone else will, maybe they'll go somewhere with it. Maybe, you know, if I live forever, I will get to it eventually. But I mean, I have probably four or five that, I mean, we have already together. I have a series I'm writing. I have a series I'm going to write after that. I might write more, write one more series in my elemental fantasy world. So I wouldn't get to this one for probably three or four years. Maybe by then I'll have figured it out. So I'm putting it out there. So if someone else's inspired, let me know. I think it's a fun idea. And I think there's a lot of people who struggle with that idea of, you know, feeling good, but having evil inside of you or vice versa.

Autumn (18m 10s):
And how does that change? Who you are if people knew the secrets you kept inside? I think it's a great story idea. And if someone wants to write it, this is a good setup to try. Yeah.

Jesper (18m 22s):
Yeah. I don't think it's that bad either.

Autumn (18m 25s):
Keep that in mind if something comes to my mind. Yeah.

Jesper (18m 30s):
Okay. Well, I can start my list out very simple before I start going crazy.

Autumn (18m 35s):
Okay. Yeah.

Jesper (18m 38s):
This one is just very simple and straightforward, I guess, but this is like the most cliche-filled story idea I could think of and this is why it's on the list of things I will not write. So this is the heir to a throne who discovers that he is the heir, but his evil uncle wants to prevent him from getting into power and therefore get rid of him. Alright, right. That's it very simple. I mean, this being an heir to a throne stuff, I freaking hate it.

Autumn (19m 13s):
It's just always there. And then I really don't. I don't want to do anything coming up. Yes. I was gonna say, I have two of those coming up. So it's kind of, yeah. It's, it's something that, yeah. Maybe I think if we wrote it together, we'd have to try to find some other aspect of it, but it's well, it's, it's there because it's something that is just, it's a trope that people understand instantly so wrong with it. I suppose you no.

Jesper (19m 43s):
And it might also be that it's just me who is allergic to it, but I don't know about it. I just feel like I've seen it too many times. That it's it's well, like we said before, it's a trope because people like it and that's why it's repeated. But I think this particular one, at least in my mind, and this is only my opinion, of course, but in my mind it is overused. That's why I don't want to do anything with heirs.

Autumn (20m 10s):
It's true though. I mean, I think it's one reason game of Thrones was kind of fun because there were errors, but often the errors didn't end up on the throne, actually, most of the management dead, but all the women ended up claiming Airship and saying, screw you all. This is where I deserve to sit. And so it was a lot more chaotic and fun. And you also could see that there would have been a lot more, a lot less fighting in the world. Maybe if it was more clear who got to be the next ruler and people stopped trying to kill them off. Yeah. But also gamified

Jesper (20m 42s):
Thrones is it's about the politics. It is not about the air realizing, Oh, I'm the air. And I mean, that's a very different story, right? So it's not that you can't have errors in my view. I mean, in game of Thrones, it did not annoy me because that was not what the story was about. It was about the factions fighting each other and stuff like that. It was a war story. Whereas if the story is centered around, Oh, I'm the air. And now I want to take my seat at the power and then somebody tries to stop me or whatever. I mean, I'm already falling asleep. So you better move on before I, before I,

Autumn (21m 21s):
Yeah. Fair enough. That'll be interesting to see what you think of the two that the air is pop-up in on my ideas. Right? All right. So you already from my number four. Okay. All right. So this is one that I actually might use if I continue writing in my world of sun dark, which is where my next series that I'll be writing black throne black blood is set. So this is one about a heroine. You'll notice I have a lot of heroines. I just write that kind of story. But from an earlier time in the world that this is set. So she gets on the wrong side of a more powerful demigod and is accused of betraying him. So her punishment, one of her punishments is to be sent through time to the far future, which lands her in a world where a lot has changed.

Autumn (22m 8s):
She is now the only demigod big from the Dawn time of her world. And all of her friends are now miss and magic is diluted. So she needs to adapt while missing all the things that she once had and feeling unjustly accused of something that she probably, I never figured that out. Didn't do. And she's still constrained by some of the other punishments, which one of them is that she could no longer give her name or access or home. So all of these things that were how she identified herself were stripped from her. So it was kind of goes into the question of how do you seek justice when the one who punished you is long gone, or how do you reclaim a part of who you are that's been taken from you by someone that you can't ask for it to be returned from?

Jesper (22m 58s):
Hmm.

Autumn (22m 60s):
Yeah. You'll see. I like these philosophical questions. I think there's somehow I like they're buried in the heart of your stories.

Jesper (23m 10s):
I liked the kind of stories that also makes you think a bit about something that, you know, it, it has some, something that assess other than just introduce somebody fighting somebody else and then who they want. Right. I mean, I like the, especially like the well in as you know, already, but I like endings where it's a bit gray area, you know, sort of like maybe the hero wins, but then again, there was some stuff that like, yeah, this is not so good. I like those kinds of endings where it's a bit like th it's depends on almost how you see it. Yes. I

Autumn (23m 46s):
Like those kinds of stories. Yes. I mean, I definitely tend to Nobel bright, but I also like those tweaks where it's not perfect. It's not what you expect. There's a little bit of bitterness with the good, because I hate to say it in life. I think if you didn't know a little bit of sadness, you would never appreciate the wonderful, this it's. You got to have a little, you got to have that balance to understand how, when things are good, that they're really good because, you know, you know, it's gotta be good at some point because of some reason. No, I agree. I think for,

Jesper (24m 19s):
In terms of story ideas that you would never ride, you need to up your game a bit here,

Autumn (24m 24s):
You're coming up with good ideas. That was not the point to me. I don't know if I'll ever get to this one because I like the idea, but again, you know, I can only write, so this one would be three, four, five years out there. So I don't mind sharing some good ones. Maybe I misunderstood the concept, but I opened up, like I said, I, I dove into my, my dusty file of topics that I've filed away. And I pulled out ones that I just don't know if I'll get to, but I don't mind sharing. Oh, that's fair. Okay. All right. I want to hear the fun one, right?

Jesper (24m 57s):
So we'd like to have nations at war in our stories, right?

Autumn (25m 1s):
Absolutely. Yeah. So how about this one? This is, this is so stupid. So a story about a war,

Jesper (25m 14s):
The perspective of a mule, which has to pull,

Autumn (25m 22s):
I can already feel the characterization that mule is going to kick people a lot, listen to angry mules thoughts would be a challenge. I, to be at least a good short story, but that'd be really fun. And it's a good idea to just, you know, write a story from a very uncommon perspective that you wouldn't expect. I think it's adorable. Maybe it could be a children's book actually. Yeah. I'm certainly not going to write it, but maybe that could work.

Autumn (26m 4s):
I think so. I think there would definitely be something in it that would be adorable. And you could easily have some kind of redemption for the mule at the end, if it was a children, not quite a sour puss or gets a happy ending on a nice field. So maybe

Jesper (26m 23s):
Does some grandiose deed that the, even the warhorses couldn't manage,

Autumn (26m 27s):
That would be, Ooh, I like that. It seems like it's already a good story idea. I'm not gonna write it. Can I can see it now. So yeah, definitely. If it wasn't pick this one up, you have to let us know in the comments. I want to go read it. It sounds so sweet.

Jesper (26m 50s):
All

Autumn (26m 50s):
Right. You ready for my number three? This is another big one. Okay. Yep. All right. So this one, this is one of my early attempts to write face stories. And I actually wrote a short story called ELLs wood, which is a, it's a free, short story that you can go check out on my website if you wanted to, but maybe it'll see some ideas for you. But I think there's definitely something more that can be developed out of this one. But I doubt I'll ever get back to this one because bits might be pulled into the current story, the face stories I'm writing now in the tainted phase, but it's, I'm done with this one. So this one's free. Go for it. This is about a young girl whose grandmother discovers the garden around her cottage in Maine is actually a Haven for Pixies and fairies.

Autumn (27m 37s):
And the stream on the property actually marks a boundary between our world and the Fe. And that's all well and good until her granddaughter discovers this as well and meets the son of the fake queen. So, you know, afraid that her granddaughter will be stolen away to the world of the Fe. She manages to win a bargain from the queen that her son will never appear to her granddaughter as a young man, as long as she lives. So these two are still, they still managed to be best of friends because he takes the form of a run. And you know how fake promises go, especially considering yours, aren't really that long. So when she inherits the property, Def go have fun with that.

Autumn (28m 20s):
The son of the fake queen and the granddaughter of this old lady who has been secretly harboring ferries in her yard and, and you know,

Jesper (28m 31s):
Well, this is, I don't know why, but my mind always took turns to the dark side. But as soon as you said, as long as he's alive, then my, Oh, okay. Then I started thinking about, okay, well, how can we kill her?

Autumn (28m 46s):
So would it be a little cruel? And I never said if she was light or dark face, so this could totally go the evil step, either evil fade queen, but see, it's already inspired you. I feel very satisfied for SPE sending that one off into the world. I actually, I didn't expect that. I didn't expect to get expired. These kinds of things, but it's a 72 or three times now, already,

Jesper (29m 13s):
So. Okay. That's good. Good, good. Okay. Do you want another number three?

Autumn (29m 18s):
Yes. Let's go for yours.

Jesper (29m 21s):
Probably goes a bit crazy.

Autumn (29m 23s):
I can't wait so more off the rails.

Jesper (29m 28s):
So this is a story about an insane hypnotist. Okay. So stay with me. So this hypnotist is hell bent on mentally crushing the girl. He loves not quite sure why. And then somewhere in here in this story, there was a gigantic kite that is raised to rip the land of an unnatural infestation of birds. How does that sound

Autumn (29m 53s):
Hypnotist? A kite, maybe. I sounds very interesting. This sounds like an improv comedy skit, which Brian Cohen and I got into talking about improv a little bit. So this is definitely something that someone would throw up to you when you're doing improv and you would have to come up with something in five minutes. So I think there's possibilities here. Yeah. Do you know what? I actually have a secret? Oh, really? What,

Jesper (30m 23s):
Because this was a bit of a trick. It is actually a real story.

Autumn (30m 26s):
You're kidding.

Jesper (30m 28s):
No, I'm not. It is. And it's written by the author who more or less created the vampire genre. So maybe, you know, who?

Autumn (30m 37s):
Bram Stoker?

Jesper (30m 39s):
Yes. It is. Isn't that insane? The story is called the Lair of the White Worm and that it is about an incident hypnotist and there is like a gigantic Cate to rip the land of birds. Infestation could sound completely crazy.

Autumn (30m 58s):
Well, that's a good point. I have to go look this up when we're done now. And I, I had a little mouse tell him, tell me I might be getting a Kindle for the holidays for you all. So I will have to go see if I can find it and put it on my possibly future Kindle, even though I'm getting take going. No, no, you're not. That's what I said.

Jesper (31m 18s):
Yeah. I think it needs to go in there with very, very low expectations because this is what always just, it has been slaughtered than it is on list of the worst stories ever and stuff like that. So I think it's very bad.

Autumn (31m 30s):
Oh my goodness. Well, that makes me, you know, if I feel good, if someone like from stroke, Stoker can write a flops,

Jesper (31m 42s):
It should give the rest of us a bit of well hope. Right. Even if we might as well done. Well, the best of them can do that as well. So that's good.

Autumn (31m 56s):
Definitely. All right. So yes, I was, I think we all need to leak, loosen up occasionally, even if it's flash fiction, right. Something totally out there, because it makes you feel, remember writing can be fun and giggly and it doesn't always have to make logical sense. So it doesn't have to be very long go, right. The Jabber walkie, which is one of my favorite poems, by the way. So I used to actually have like half of it memorized. So go write, go write your own version of the Jabber walkie and, and just have fun with the boards for a little while. All right. So we're moving into my, definitely this is one that I actually plotted out kind of love story, but this is one that we mentioned the air.

Autumn (32m 42s):
So this is what you'll have to see how you feel about this one. We ready. So there's a more of a traditional medieval fantasy tale. That's almost our Thorin. And like I said, I picked away and there's actually two short stories. I've written called a bargains price and all his lantern light that are again on my website for free, if you would like to get inspired, feel free. But in this one, a noble has risen up and claimed the thrown away from the legitimate Royal family. The youngest child though, was allowed to live and grow as long as he swore fealty to the new King, which, you know, added legitimacy to his claim of his new throne. But the story really begins when the young Prince and his lover, who is his best friend and another noble household son, they begin to plot it to reclaim the throne that has been stolen.

Autumn (33m 33s):
And so there's, I've got a lots of notes in this one from the noble sons, orchestrated death, where the Prince actually stabs him to make it look real. And this frees the noble from watchful eyes so that he can go and learn to forge a King maker sword to give the Prince. And of course all the problems of loving another man while being the heir to the throne. And you're expected to become the King and marry a woman and produce heirs. So, you know, there's a little bit of a love entanglement that I thought it would be kind of a fresh take on the story. And I love the idea of sort of the Excalibur with the kingmaker store's sword. So it's kind of that kind of story.

Jesper (34m 13s):
Hm. You know what? That could work

Autumn (34m 15s):
Good. Like I said, I was intrigued enough that I wrote two short stories on it, but I haven't gone any further. I just, it didn't have enough magic. I think for me, maybe someone else can take it and add more magic, but I like the characters and that's what kept drawing me back to it. As I kind of really loves the main character is in the, I really actually liked the noble son. And he was really kind of pissed at his lover, the friends for step point so hard. I had that whole, I could hear them having the argument later, once he healed, which took several months, by the way. Right?

Jesper (34m 52s):
Yeah. No, no, no. I can see that. That's not too bad.

Autumn (34m 57s):
You forgive that it's an heir story. Thank you.

Jesper (35m 0s):
Yeah. Maybe we tweak it a bit, but otherwise yeah.

Autumn (35m 5s):
Fair enough. So what's your crazy one before, so I'm not, you know,

Jesper (35m 12s):
In which resources are very scarce, so people will naturally want to protect what they have. Right. Right. So far so good. That's that's sounds pretty normal up until this point. Then I think people are getting got docs to help them. Well, God, however, they probably go overboard in training the docs so that they become very vicious attack docs, all of them. So now you have a city

Autumn (35m 40s):
It's basically dangerous to go outside

Jesper (35m 41s):
Because there's just vicious stocks everywhere. I don't know

Autumn (35m 46s):
If there's really enough meat on that bone to very funny metaphor. I don't know if there's enough to go anywhere with that, to be honest. But I think I could definitely go somewhere. I mean, dog stories, I'd like to dog stories, there was a very good futuristic. One where dogs were intelligent enough that they were nannies, but they were like, you know, they were looking for rights of basically us citizens because they were, their intelligence had been upped that much. So I think there's always room for the people who like me love dogs as you might've heard him bark. And I touched him, sorry.

Autumn (36m 26s):
While we were podcasting. And some of my dogs had a bark at me. He was so indignant that I touched to the Royal hiked that, yeah, this could be a kick-ass world too. It really lives that. What if I tell you that

Jesper (36m 47s):
I was on board panda.com earlier today? I don't know why, but I was on there earlier today. And that was where I got this from.

Autumn (36m 55s):
Oh, this idea from, because it is actively sought. So that in Fort

Jesper (37m 1s):
Thomas, Kentucky is a state

Autumn (37m 2s):
Law that States, the following

Jesper (37m 5s):
Socks are prohibited from chasing people or other animals.

Autumn (37m 11s):
That's most of work. I just don't get it until you get the dog a ticket. If it chases somebody, how are you supposed to

Jesper (37m 20s):
I'll make sure that the dogs are chasing another animal. Don't

Autumn (37m 24s):
It's not just, I don't think I could understand that one. Well, yeah, that would to say my I've got a little small little thing and he used, still goes after squirrels. Like there's no tomorrow. So good luck training a dog, not to chase anything. I mean,

Jesper (37m 41s):
The article on bored Panda, that com is five years old. So I don't know if it's still the law there, but if we have any listeners from Kentucky, can you please let us know one why in the world was this law put in place in the first place?

Autumn (37m 58s):
I don't understand. I not having a dog speak. Cause that's about the only way to keep on that. Yeah. Oh goodness. I can't. Okay. All right. You ready for my final one? All right. So this one I like, but it's more of a space opera, which so even though I really liked the story and the character is I, if I wanted to write a space opera, this is not a Shaundra that I'm quite ready to branch into and I'd have to read a whole bunch of books. And I don't know if I'm going to take the time. I like fantasy space operas. I taught to find a way of putting in galactic dragons or something to make it worth it.

Autumn (38m 42s):
So this was my second air one. And you'll have to see what you think of this one, because it's one where I like to turn the tables on what is the common trope? So the heir of the galactic empire is a young woman, but her father would rather see her younger brother on the throne, but he can just name his son without breaking the hundreds of years of traditions. So officially, no air has been declared, even though it's assumed it will be his a daughter. So this of course leads to a lot of political maneuverings, as well as hurt family feelings, just what you want when you're the galactic empire. So until the daughter and presumed air says to hell with it and leave, she sneaks off, goes to a tiny far-flung world where she's just not known and they don't really care who the empire emperor is at all.

Autumn (39m 33s):
And of course, low, she discovers life without a family name is not as easy as she expected, but she earns a place eventually through probably an entire trilogy and skills and even manages to fall in love, of course, but even that idol can only last so long before the problems of an empire come calling. So this one, I do have, again, a short story written called the lost heir on my website, but I just, I did, I loved Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman did write a whole series. That was a galactic space opera. And it really, I loved it. It was one of my favorite stories for a very long time. And I think that's where the heart of this one comes from is like, I want to do that too, but space opera, star ships and worlds.

Autumn (40m 21s):
I don't know.

Jesper (40m 26s):
Mm yeah. The jury is still out.

Autumn (40m 32s):
I understand. But at least the one world where it's set was going to be more traditional fantasy medieval. And I still, I look at the overall story going. I wonder if I can just get rid of the whole space ship thing, so we'll have to see, and my pop-up someday, but it's so back-burnered, I'd rather write number five first and I'll even have characters or a world for that one.

Jesper (40m 54s):
No. Okay. Yeah. I see. Okay. I have a number five for years.

Autumn (40m 59s):
Will I want to hear this one? This will be fun.

Jesper (41m 2s):
Yeah. I might have been running out of steam here to watch the end. So I went to a plot generator dot Octa, UK, and came up with the most terrible story idea. So I thought I put that one. Yeah.

Autumn (41m 15s):
Excellent. I can't wait to hear it. So yeah,

Jesper (41m 19s):
Just generates a random plot. And this is what it says. So when a plumber from Madrid decides to start eating people, not everybody is supportive. I don't understand that part either. Then it goes on to say wherever his fortunes improve, when he's golf caddy opens the zoo the plumber remembers that he actually killed his golf caddy 10 years previously.

Autumn (41m 56s):
Yeah. Well one thank you for telling me there's plotgenerator.org, which I did not know. And now whenever I am bored is going to totally be there at website. I go and hang out with, but like, it makes no sense at all. Okay. Well, I mean, I guess put it into a fence,

Jesper (42m 16s):
You know, you can get rid of Madrid and then put some fantasy city in there and you can do some other things with the, maybe he's not golfing, he's doing something else, but it's like, first of all, why is people would they consider supporting somebody, eating people? I don't understand. And why is it that he's fortunate to prove because his golf caddy opens the zoo what has that to do?

Autumn (42m 42s):
Well, my mind went through well, he's, he's opening. Yeah. I don't DB. It's another way of eating people know, that's the only reason he'd be happy, easier access to dinner. Tiger. Maybe that's pretty bad. Right.

Jesper (43m 12s):
I also came across a post on Reddit where it was a thread about really bad story ideas. So I was just looking through to see what there was there. And somebody posted something that I read about bad story ideas, where I was like, I'm... I would actually like to read this. I don't think it's a bad idea, but if it was a book about middle earth from perspective, I think that would be cool.

Autumn (43m 42s):
I think it would be really cool too. It's it's the unwritten viewpoint of the entire series. I think that'd be fantastic. Yeah.

Jesper (43m 50s):
I don't know why that was on a list of bad ideas. Sounds cool to me.

Autumn (43m 56s):
I don't know. Maybe assume since it hadn't been written, it was a bad idea. Maybe he wanted someone to tell him that. No, it's actually a good idea because that would be kind of cool.

Jesper (44m 5s):
Yeah. I also find too really weird book titles.

Autumn (44m 9s):
Oh, we want to hear those. Definitely.

Jesper (44m 13s):
So the first one is, "do it yourself coffins!. Why you would do that, but that just really laugh so bad.

Autumn (44m 30s):
Another one. I also don't understand this one is knitting with dog hair. I just asked you, why would you do that?

Jesper (44m 39s):
I have actually seen a dog hair blanket, but I kind of agree. I was not tempted to wrap myself in it. It was one of those little arts craft things where at a, at a main festival that I was like, Oh, that's I hope did you just, you know, sit there and you have a dog that sheds a lot, and this is what your solution, I don't know. But you can't know that. I mean, some of this just made me laugh. So I, like I said, I think we all need to remember that writing. We take it serious. We, it doesn't have to be, we should remember that there are fun things.

Autumn (45m 18s):
You can go and have some fun stories and write to write a fun 500 word story and just be goofy and loose with it. Like I said, right? The Jabber walkie, which is all just nonsensical fun words to say, and clickety clack claws, and go ahead and do all those things that they tell you not to do with like a little ration. And it's not, it's fun. Go sing song with your five-year-old niece and remember languages. Just, you know, it's not all about being serious all the time. No, no, indeed. I mean, the main thing to take away from all of this is really that story ideas. They might sound dumb, but if we do our job as authors, really, really well, we can transform what sounds stupid into something magical, something that will sweep the reader off their feet and carry them into another realm.

Jesper (46m 12s):
So I think that's where we need to keep in mind. And that's really the takeaway from all of this. So I hope we at least let people laugh a bit. At least that was the intention and also inspired a few ideas as well. I don't know. That'd be great. Let us, so next Monday, we are going to share an alternative way to engage with your email list. One that autumn came up with. So see you there.

Narrator (46m 46s):
If you like, what you just heard, there's a few things you can do to support the Am Writing Fantasy podcast. Please tell a fellow author about the show and visit us at Apple podcast and leave a rating and review. You can also join Autumn and Jesper on patreon.com/amwritingfantasy for as little as a dollar a month. You'll get awesome rewards and keep the Am Writing Fantasy podcasts going. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.