Unsuccessful Idea: A Guy Who Seems Lucky but it's Actually His Cat

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Key takeaways

Transcript

Episode notes

The speaker has had ideas that they don't develop
One of those ideas was a story about a lucky cat
The lucky cat idea could be an interesting short story or even a series
The speaker's friend thinks the speaker could make the lucky cat story interesting
Hearing about the speaker's bad ideas can be liberating to creative people

Andy Weir is the bestselling author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary. He’s known for weaving deep, carefully researched science into his novels, building intricate sci-fi worlds that have captivated millions of readers. But here’s a plot twist: Andy doesn’t actually love the act of writing itself – so how does he motivate himself to do it anyway? Adam talks with Andy about the creative process, the skills involved in discarding bad ideas, finding joy in worldbuilding and research, and why you should never be writing with a sequel in mind. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts