Writing Rule #5: Borrowing

5.    No one person can fill a world all alone. Listen to the world around you, to your friends and your family, and use their stories as much as your own. A lot of people have ideas, but very few can do anything with them.

Chances are that your entire family is not full of writers. Even if they are, the chance still exists that they're not the same type of writer as you. I have an aunt who is a prolific journalist, but my topics never coincide with hers because I write fiction. Thus, even though our families share many of the same stories and experiences, they're open game for me to exploit and draw inspiration from.

My best friend has provided me with countless stories, characters and concepts because he has amazing ideas but doesn't really feel like doing anything with them. Well, until a company realized how amazing his ideas were and hired him to think and write for them. But before that I had 15 years or uninterrupted gold for free.

The moral is, people love to give you ideas. They generally find it exciting that something that happened in their lives is entertaining enough to be used in a novel. And chances are that you'll use their experiences in ways no one will even recognize.
Topics: Writing , Author , Novel , Authorship , Creativity