# Sci fi story idea? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418 "2011-05-10T17:58:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/41 "2011-05-21T21:46:03Z")
No, I mean the version with the gasoline pill. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/42 "2011-05-21T22:30:04Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Happens all the time with formula fiction. > > The [Stratemeyer Syndicate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratemeyer_Syndicate) is probably the most famous and longest lasting. There are variations on it today, in which packagers dream up ideas for series, create the “bible” of characters and stories, and farm them out to writers. I suspect any long series these days does this - the Baby Sitter Club books after the first bunch were not written by Anne Martin (daughter of cartoonist Henry Martin.) And there seemed to be only a few authors for the early Statemeyer Syndicate books. Howard Garris, the author of the Uncle Wiggly books, wrote almost all the early Tom Swift books. There have been a number of books on the real authors of the Nancy Drew books. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/43 "2011-05-22T19:42:17Z")
If you swallowed the gasoline pill, would you fart fire like a flamethrower? … Hmmm, I think I have an idea for a story… ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/44 "2011-05-23T00:13:52Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I > But now I’m curious whether there has ever been a successful writing partnership (in SF or elsewhere) in which one person was primarily the “ideas generator” and the other handled all the technical details of writing. I suppose some books written by a celebrity with an “as told to” cowriter or ghost writer might count. Issac Asimov managed to coauthor a number of novels after he was dead. I also think some James Bond novels were written after Ian Fleming was dead. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/45 "2011-05-23T00:16:13Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Issac Asimov managed to coauthor a number of novels after he was dead. I also think some James Bond novels were written after Ian Fleming was dead. So thaaaath’s why they’re called ghost writers. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/46 "2011-05-23T01:26:39Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Issac Asimov managed to coauthor a number of novels after he was dead. Name one. > [@](#): > > I also think some James Bond novels were written after Ian Fleming was dead. So? Lots of series are continued by other authors, usually after an author is dead, although in some cases the authors’ name is used, which I already cited as sharecropping. No collaboration is implied. Fleming didn’t leave any manuscripts that I’m aware of. All the many authors writing James Bond use original ideas. Just as the many thousands of Sherlock Holmes novels and stories written after Doyle’s death were not collaborations. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/47 "2011-05-23T02:10:24Z")
I don’t know of any posthumous Asimov collaborations, but wasn’t _For Us, the Living_ listed as co-authored by Heinlein and Robinson? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/48 "2011-05-23T02:16:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t know of any posthumous Asimov collaborations, but wasn’t _For Us, the Living_ listed as co-authored by Heinlein and Robinson? Amazon will list the author of an introduction as (author), which may be what you’re thinking of. The [Heinlein Society page](http://www.heinleinsociety.org/newsFUTL.html) says otherwise: > [@](#): > > Virtually no changes have been made to the manuscript from Heinlein’s original draft. The book, Robert James said, was not a first draft but a polished final draft. Only a very few minor edits and spelling corrections were made. There will be a foreword by Spider Robinson and an afterword by Robert James. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/49 "2011-05-23T05:02:31Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Name one. Issac Asimov died in 1992. \*Foundation’s Fear (Second Foundation Trilogy) by Gregory Benford and Isaac Asimov (Mar 1997) It’s Been a Good Life by Isaac Asimov and Janet Jeppson Asimov (Mar 2002) Conversations with Isaac Asimov (Literary Conversations Series) by Isaac Asimov (May 10, 2005) 100 Malicious Little Mysteries (100 Stories) by Martin H. Greenberg, Isaac Asimov and Joseph D. Olander (May 28, 2004) The Return of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov, Charles Ardai and Harlan Ellison (Nov 2003) Timechart Discovery and Invention the Grow by Isaac Asimov (Oct 1, 1999) Norby and the Court Jester by Janet Asimov and Isaac Asimov (Apr 1999)\* I kind of gave up at this point. Amazon lists 1269 titles under his name just in hardback and another 3,655 in paper. I tried to exclude stuff that was obvious reprints of his older work. BTW, favorite title. The Spanish of **I, Robot** titled **Yo, Robot**. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/50 "2011-05-23T05:19:58Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I tried to exclude stuff that was obvious reprints of his older work. Too bad you didn’t exclude stuff that weren’t novels, and stuff that Asimov didn’t actually co-author. Of the titles you listed, that leaves the [Norby](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norby) book, which was from 1991, according to my Wikipedia link. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/51 "2011-05-23T05:29:35Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > Issac Asimov managed to coauthor a number of novels after he was dead. I also think some James Bond novels were written after Ian Fleming was dead. Shall we discuss V.C. Andrews? Was that her name? ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/52 "2011-05-23T05:44:10Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > The best example I can think of is Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Niven, going by his solo works, is a veritable fountain of ideas but does poorly with character development; his books are often very dry. Niven’s collaborations with Pournelle are much better; the characters are much more distinct, interesting, and believable. Niven made a name for himself in SF solo before he worked with Pournelle, though, so it’s not quite the same thing. Pournelle talks about his collaborations with Niven a lot in his blog and it seems to me a lot more equal than you think. Niven created the Moties, but the society, physics and engineering came straight out of a “A Spaceship for the King”. Pournelle is on record as saying he doesn’t find the social systems of “known space” plausible. I notice that didn’t keep him from writing some good stories for the Man-Kzin war series. They seem to spend enough working together, that Pournelle has a computer exclusively for Niven set up at his house. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/53 "2011-05-23T05:48:19Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > I have a great idea that I’ve been wotking on for a story. Mine is about a futuristic amusement park where dinosaurs are brought to life through advanced cloning techniques. I call it “Billy and the Cloneasaurus.” There is _nothing_ I love more than a good Cloneasaurus story! Hang on… let me settle back on the couch, make a movie frame with my fingers… OK… GO! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/54 "2011-05-23T14:45:59Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > > > Name one. > > Issac Asimov died in 1992. > > \*Foundation’s Fear (Second Foundation Trilogy) by Gregory Benford and Isaac Asimov (Mar 1997) > > It’s Been a Good Life by Isaac Asimov and Janet Jeppson Asimov (Mar 2002) > Conversations with Isaac Asimov (Literary Conversations Series) by Isaac Asimov (May 10, 2005) > > 100 Malicious Little Mysteries (100 Stories) by Martin H. Greenberg, Isaac Asimov and Joseph D. Olander (May 28, 2004) > > The Return of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov, Charles Ardai and Harlan Ellison (Nov 2003) > > Timechart Discovery and Invention the Grow by Isaac Asimov (Oct 1, 1999) > > Norby and the Court Jester by Janet Asimov and Isaac Asimov (Apr 1999)\* > > I kind of gave up at this point. Amazon lists 1269 titles under his name just in hardback and another 3,655 in paper. I tried to exclude stuff that was obvious reprints of his older work. > > BTW, favorite title. The Spanish of **I, Robot** titled **Yo, Robot**. Do you not understand the clear meaning of the term “co-author”? Slapping an author’s name on a book does not imply any creative input, especially after his death. To clear up any confusion, the Second Foundation Trilogy was written by Gergory Benford, Greg Bear, and David Brin after Asimov’s death. They are continuations of his work, homages, but independent otherwise. All the Norby titles were written by Janet Asimov, although Isaac may have done a bit of polishing. The one you mention was written before his death, as noted above. Janet did write one more on her own after his death. [The Return of the Black Widowers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Black_Widowers) > [@](#): > > This book is the sixth and last of the six books featuring the Black Widowers. It was assembled and edited after Asimov’s death by Charles Ardai, and collects the last six stories Asimov wrote for the series. These six previously uncollected stories are preceded by an introduction by Harlan Ellison, nine stories selected by the editor as the best from the previous Black Widowers collections, and an homage by William Brittain. They are then followed by a reprinted tale featuring a fictionalized version of Ellison (bringing the reprinted Widowers stories to ten), a new Black Widowers tale by Ardai, and an afterword by Asimov on the creation of the series drawn from his autobiography I, Asimov. The others are not even fiction by Asimov from any time period. You seem to be the perfect audience for this scam. I’m going to put you on all my spam lists and make my fortune. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/55 "2011-05-23T17:42:13Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Do you not understand the clear meaning of the term “co-author”? Slapping an author’s name on a book does not imply any creative input, especially after his death. You appear to be humor impaired. The question I was responding to was how much input would an author have to have to get a co-author credit. My response implies that since Issac Asimov was being listed as a co-author on new books after he died, that the input requirement is pretty close to zero. I was amazed at how many Asimov books are available on Amazon. I wonder how many living authors get as much income as his estate? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/56 "2011-05-23T17:46:08Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > My response implies that since Issac Asimov was being listed as a co-author on new books after he died, that the input requirement is pretty close to zero. Being listed as a (co-)author on Amazon’s listings and being listed as (co-)author on the book itself are two very different things. The Amazon listings for books often fail to distinguish between authors, editors, contributors, translators, introduction writers, narrators, etc. And their DVD listings are even worse. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/57 "2011-05-24T03:28:40Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Being listed as a (co-)author on Amazon’s listings and being listed as (co-)author on the book itself are two very different things. The Amazon listings for books often fail to distinguish between authors, editors, contributors, translators, introduction writers, narrators, etc. And their DVD listings are even worse. I checked and some of the books also listed Asimov as an author or editor on the cover. I also discovered Amazon isn’t great about identifying which books are actually new and which ones are new editions of old books. I had to do some digging to figure out that \*\*100 Malicious Little Mysteries \*\* was originally published in 1992 and **Norby and the Court Jester** in 1991. I was able to filter out most cases, because I’d read the book or even had it in my library. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418/58 "2011-05-24T20:50:35Z")
I was in the library today and noticed that **Towers at Midnight** lists Robert Jordan as the author on the cover with a copyright of 2010 when he died in 2007. [http://www.amazon.com/Towers-Midnight-Wheel-Time-Thirteen/dp/0765325942/ref=sr\_1\_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306269011&sr=1-1](http://www.amazon.com/Towers-Midnight-Wheel-Time-Thirteen/dp/0765325942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306269011&sr=1-1) If you click on _look inside_ and go to page 3 it has Robert Jordan’s **signature** on it. Based on the Wikipedia article it looks like they are generating over 900,000 words based on an outline Jordan wrote for one book. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Wheel\_of\_Time#Author.27s\_death\_and\_final\_book.28s.29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wheel_of_Time#Author.27s_death_and_final_book.28s.29) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-story-idea/581418.md?page=2)