{"id":119,"date":"2012-10-02T08:56:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T12:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/2\/?p=119"},"modified":"2012-10-02T17:26:41","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T21:26:41","slug":"the-larry-allen-patent-pending-idea-o-matic-idea-generator-dead-tree-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/?p=119","title":{"rendered":"The Larry Allen Patent-Pending Idea-O-Matic\u2122 Idea Generator (dead tree edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I think every aspiring writer has at one time or another wondered where to get ideas for his stories. I read somewhere that this was a question Harlan Ellison was asked regularly enough that he had a pat answer: &#8220;A little idea factory in Schenectady.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The place must have closed. An extensive web search yielded neither a phone number nor an email address. Pity.<\/p>\n<p>So I thought &#8220;Hell, I&#8217;m an engineer, I&#8217;ll build an idea generator!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The technology proved to be remarkably simple. At first I was thinking of software, but I realized that even that offered more sophistication that was needed.<\/p>\n<p>The key ingredient was a package of Avery microperforated business card stock, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Avery-Business-Cards-Microperforated-Inches\/dp\/B00006HQU9\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1349182086&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=08471+avery\"># 08471<\/a>. Afer a few hours on the computer and a few minutes with the laser printer, I was equipped with a stack of about fifty cards, each with a classic science fiction theme or idea printed on it, i.e. Artificial Intelligence, On The Moon, Flying Cars, etc.<\/p>\n<p>I shuffled the deck and dealt three cards face up:<br \/>\n<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spaceships\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Time Travel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Drug with side effects<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hmm. Star Trek, The Original Series. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">City on the Edge of Forever<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Wow, this thing really works. Lets try it again:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Child with special powers\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Alien invasion\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t a simulation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Orson Scott Card. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ender&#8217;s Game<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Yikes! This is amazing! Eat your heart out, Harlan. Schenectady, indeed. Harrumph!<\/p>\n<p>Oops, gotta go now, I just got an idea for a story!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think every aspiring writer has at one time or another wondered where to get ideas for his stories. I read somewhere that this was a question Harlan Ellison was asked regularly enough that he had a pat answer: &#8220;A little idea factory in Schenectady.&#8221; The place must have closed. An extensive web search yielded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larryallenonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}