I feel like my ideas are way too generic

[Devor]

I'm not sure you're actually disagreeing.

The OP gave a bunch of basic story concepts and expressed concern that they were too generic. But it's my opinion that story concepts don't really have any inherent merit or lack thereof. Hence my post.

What you're saying is that all the subsequent steps in the story development process are also made of ideas. But when we say "story idea," that's not really what we're referring to. What you're referring to would fall under execution imo.

I mean, what about writing *doesn't* fall under a broad interpretation of the word idea?

I'm just going to repeat myself Dragon. Although I will admit that many things are open to more layers of interpretation and "what this phrase means to me" than I can do justice for.

Now it's too easy to say, "Well the two sentences are just a starting point." No, this is the reflection of a philosophy that I believe holds people back. "I've got my idea, what's the next step? Right, characters..." You've now shifted mindsets, you've jumped to the next task, and now you're going to be stuck finding a compelling character because you've got your idea, when you should be looking at ways to continue to develop your idea chain with your character. The character, the plot, the setting - it's all part of that idea, still developing, still percolating.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I'm just going to repeat myself Dragon. Although I will admit that many things are open to more layers of interpretation and "what this phrase means to me" than I can do justice for.

I mean, yes?

The idea chain could proceed in any number of ways, though. That's the point. The starting point doesn't bind you to any particular type of further development.

I think I'm confused.

 

[Firefly]

I can come up with a hundred pitches that could be turned into good stories under the right circumstances in a day. I think the most important thing at that point is figuring out what makes you excited and what makes you want to go further.

Not to mention that more often than not, what you think of as the basic concept often evolves a LOT over time...

This is what's really important, in my opinion. That spark. The "original" comes later, in my experience when you're deep in the weeds of developing your story. Trying to find it this early in the process is futile. Even if you do find something, chances are that it will morph into something else and slip away by the time the story is actually finished. Not that incredibly original big-picture ideas don't exist, but chasing after them when you don't already have one can drive you insane. Originality usually comes from specificity, and it's really hard to be specific in a one-sentence summary.
Wait til after you have a story you want to write, and THEN let yourself think about originality. Ask yourself lots of questions and examine one every piece of your story to see how you can make it more specific, subversive, unexpected, visually interesting... whatever. Generic-ness can be mostly avoided by really thinking things through and fully exploring them. It's when you take something that's been done a million times and leave it as-is that you end up with problems.

 

[Ewolf20]

This is what's really important, in my opinion. That spark. The "original" comes later, in my experience when you're deep in the weeds of developing your story. Trying to find it this early in the process is futile. Even if you do find something, chances are that it will morph into something else and slip away by the time the story is actually finished. Not that incredibly original big-picture ideas don't exist, but chasing after them when you don't already have one can drive you insane. Originality usually comes from specificity, and it's really hard to be specific in a one-sentence summary.
Wait til after you have a story you want to write, and THEN let yourself think about originality. Ask yourself lots of questions and examine one every piece of your story to see how you can make it more specific, subversive, unexpected, visually interesting... whatever. Generic-ness can be mostly avoided by really thinking things through and fully exploring them. It's when you take something that's been done a million times and leave it as-is that you end up with problems.

I can pitch an idea but somehow adding variation to it is kind of unheard of for me. this might get fixed once i develop an idea i think has potential but I just lack the self confidence to do them justice. for one waste the whole leave as is for practice story might prevent that happening.