Where Ideas Come From by Warren Ellis

The documents below have been slowly collected since the late 90’s. Some of them I typed in by hand from much loved original sources, others I simply copied from somewhere online. All of them are here because at the moment I read them, they struck a chord within me.

Initially I saved bookmarks to my favourite writings, but over the years I discovered that links don’t last. More often then not when I went reread a story, or send a link to a friend, I found that it was no longer available.

Eventually I decided that if I wanted long term access to these writings, I had to keep copies of them myself. It didn’t take long to realise that if I was going to do that, I may as well share them with others.

Nearly all documents have been copied without permission and all of them remain under the copyright of the original author. Where I was able I have included attribution to the original author and site.

If any of these writings belong to you, and you would like them removed or the attribution changed, please let me know.

I still get asked with appalling regularity "where my ideas come from."

Here's the deal. I flood my poor ageing head with information. Any information. Lots of it. And I let it all slosh around in the back of my brain, in the part normal people use for remembering bills, thinking about sex and making appointments to wash the dishes.

Eventually, you get a critical mass of information. Datum 1 plugs into Datum 3 which connects to Datum 3 and Data 4 and 5 stick to it and you've got a chain reaction. A bunch of stuff knits together and lights up and you've got what's called "an idea".

And for that brief moment where it's all flaring and welding together, you are Holy. You can't be touched. Something impossible and brilliant has happened and suddenly you understand what it would be like if Einstein's brain was placed into the body of a young tyrannosaur, stuffed full of amphetamines and suffused with Sex Radiation.

That is what has happened to me tonight. I am beaming Sex Rays across the world and my brain is all lit up with Holy Fire.

FROM MY CHAIR.

See, this is the good bit about writing. It's what keeps you going. It's the wild rush of "shit, did I think of that?" with all kinds of weird chemicals shunting around your brain and ideas and images and moments and storyforms all opening up snapsnapsnap in your mind, a mass of new and unrealised possibilities.

It's ten past two in the morning, and I'm completely wired, caught up in the new thing, shivering and laughing and glowing in the dark. Just as well it's the middle of the night. No-one would be safe from me right now. I could read their minds and take over their heartbeats with a glare.

Faster than the speed of anyone.

That's how it works.

Source: diepunyhumans.com

Where Ideas Come From by Warren Ellis

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