Writing Excuses Transcripts

Episode Two of Writing Excuses: Blending the familiar and the original

From over at http://www.writingexcuses.com/

This was kind of hard to summarize - lots of great ideas and interplay. So this is rough notes, not a nice transcript or summary, but I think it gives an impression of the episode.

Key Points: First, some discussion about what is meant by combining an ordinary idea and an extraordinary idea to make something unique. Then some discussion of how this juxtaposition changes. Postponed discussion of writing the story you want to write for another time as a can of worms. Third was some talk about keeping up with trends and anticipating them.
( Lots of stuff . . . )
Parting thoughts that were excellent: Don't just stand on the shoulders of giants and look around at the view, look far out and take a leap! To improve a book explain the heck out of one unimportant thing, then don't explain some important thing at all. Make sure your original is really original -- if you have a strong familiar, you can probably take a few more steps with your originality.