Idea Generation

[Karlin]

I've heard that "ideas are a dime a dozen", yet I also see many posts here asking for ideas, or ways of generating ideas (Even use of AI to generate ideas).

I think it differs by person. I'm an idea person. Ideas just appear, sometimes quite a flood of them. I know that they are based on combinations of things I already know, but it's intuitive, usually not a cognitive process. So it is hard for me to get into the head of someone who is looking for ways of generating ideas. For me, the ideas are one of the main motivations for writing.

What's your personal experience with idea generation? Do you use tools to help generate ideas?

 

[Penpilot]

It's very-very late right now, so I hope this makes sense.

For me, ideas are like seeds. You plant one and you get at least two back. To me, planting means writing that idea out. As you write, more ideas will sprout from that. Sometimes those ideas relate to the story at hand. Sometimes they don't. And it's another issue completely on how one deals with those ideas that don't relate to the story you're working on right now, especially when the call of that story is very-very loud.

I find a lot of times when people are struggling for ideas, it's because they're looking for answers instead of questions. Knowing the right questions to ask yourself during the different parts of the writing process IMHO is key.

For example, you have people who say they have this cool idea for a character but they have no idea what to do with them. Well, the first question to ask is what does the character want? There's an emotional want/desire and there's a physical want/desire. A physical want generally comes in the form the character wanting to moving from one location to the next for a reason, wanting to acquire an object, or satisfying a physical want like food. An emotional want comes in the form of seeking something to fill an emotion void. Someone may be seeking validation, belonging, or healing an emotional wound.

Knowing these desires creates a tiny engine that drives the character. Depending on the type of story being told, these things may weigh more or less significantly.

This is what I do when I'm trying to find the character.

Now in terms of plot, in my eyes, a story is simply a character with a problem and an obstacle, or obstacles, standing in the way of them overcoming that problem to achieve their goals. If you have the character and their wants as I mentioned above, then to find the basic story, it's simply about finding what's standing in the way of them getting what they want. There can be different levels and layers of obstacles to overcome and obstacles can change.

Once you have the character wants and the initial obstacle standing in the character's way, you plant the seed. You start writing and see what new ideas sprout and branch from that initial start point. Sometimes the new things that sprout replace the old. Sometimes they're duds and need to be pruned away. It's all part of the iterative nature of writing. Sometimes if you don't have the right answer, just try all the wrong ones first until you stumble onto the one you want.

For example, here's a sketch of a familiar story using the elements I described above.

Luke wants to leave the farm to attend the flight academy to become a pilot like his dead father, who he never got to know. He's searching for a familial connection and an understanding, which he's severely lacking. In his way is a gruff uncle, who doesn't want him to leave the farm, and an inner voice that causes him to constantly doubt if he could be anything more than a simple farm boy.

When the uncle no longer stands in Luke's way, a new, larger obstacle appears for him to overcome that flows from the events of the story. And throughout the course of the story he doubts his abilities, but with each obstacle overcome, he builds confidence. Along the way he also finds friends and makes familial connections through found family. And at the end, he not only dons a flight suit and becomes a pilot like his father, he comes to realize he's more than a simple farm boy.

Any ways, hopefully this makes sense.

 

[JLiana]

At the core of my writing is "what do I want to communicate". Life experience and things that matter to me are my driving force, so ideas come pretty naturally to me. I tend to build characters around a theme, and then from there, ask so, so many questions about them, and then decide what story they'll tell. It's very much a snowball process.

I think some people who find it hard to think of ideas maybe fall into the trap of trying to make their narratives 100% original. Which is obviously impossible, and the more important part is how you present your ideas to the reader anyway.

 

[Mad Swede]

I wonder if this depends on what we mean by an idea? Do we mean the idea for a story arc, a character arc or an inciting event?

Sometimes I think we make this more complicated than it needs to be. We talk a lot about characters and conflicts, when perhaps we should just think about how they get involved.

In that sense The Hobbit is a shining example. Gandalf bids Bilbo Baggins a good morning and in the course of the ensuing conversation manages to get Bilbo to invite him for tea. What then happens is that Gandalf sends thirteen dwarfs to Bilbo's home and then turns up himself. Following a long night Bilbo wakes to find that he's been hired to act as a burglar, all as part of an attempt to restore a dwarf kingdom. And off they go...

Or how about The Colour of Magic? Which starts with Rincewind being hired to act as a guide for the tourist Twoflower...

So when I start preparing a story my first thoughts are about how it all starts, closely followed by how the story ends. Then the story and character arcs follow. I'm never concious of generating ideas, the way it works for me is that the story forms from people and places I've seen and things I've done or seen happen. I never find myself needing any form of tool or method to generate ideas, they just turn up.

 

[casval]

Ideas are, to me, the basic materials of building a story, so it's hard to imagine how someone could use a tool - AI or otherwise - to generate a starting idea and still be able to extrapolate on that enough to write a story around it? Every character, scene, line of dialogue - it's ideas all the way down. Even more 'technical' elements of writing require an idea. "This character would tell a joke here," "this prophecy should be more delivered more poetically," "this action scene should be told in clipped, short sentences to make it read faster," are all ideas - you need a few big ones to start a story, or start planning one, but the act of writing is one primarily of generating a thousand ideas and then trying to execute on them.

The hardest part is probably just choosing a few to start with, but honestly, I don't know if a generator is going to be able to pitch me something I feel passionate enough about to write a novel around.

 

[Romy]

I get inspiration/ideas from just the regular world. Trying not to be too negative when taking real world stuff into fantasy forces me to digest reality without throwing stuff at people. Sometimes I vent at AI when reading news, often she goes into safemode - not allowed to answer "you can't think like that", "Get help now!", "dial this number"... but sometimes some insane remark can become useful to make a new character or place.
I'm not an outgoing person and I don't like humans a lot so most of the stuff comes from work, public transport or daily news.

I do have a natural inclination to make a big drama out of trivial stuff (ex classmates from primary school remember me being stung by a bee 30 years after - if you think Cage is bad...) and a brain tuned for weird associations/comparisons which prevents stuff from being too recognizable.

Another bit is the wikipedia frontpage and other 'this day in history' pages. Sometimes that real world has done things you wouldn't believe if you read them in a book

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

I've heard that "ideas are a dime a dozen", yet I also see many posts here asking for ideas, or ways of generating ideas (Even use of AI to generate ideas).

I think it differs by person. I'm an idea person. Ideas just appear, sometimes quite a flood of them. I know that they are based on combinations of things I already know, but it's intuitive, usually not a cognitive process. So it is hard for me to get into the head of someone who is looking for ways of generating ideas. For me, the ideas are one of the main motivations for writing.

What's your personal experience with idea generation? Do you use tools to help generate ideas?

I know this is going to sound silly, but my ideas just kind of poof into my brain.
And I do mean literally, cuz there's really rarely any direct inspiration (Genre aside)
My brain is just like 'hey, so here's a few scenes on repeat, good luck!'

 

[WorldOfScalia]

I've heard that "ideas are a dime a dozen", yet I also see many posts here asking for ideas, or ways of generating ideas (Even use of AI to generate ideas).

I think it differs by person. I'm an idea person. Ideas just appear, sometimes quite a flood of them. I know that they are based on combinations of things I already know, but it's intuitive, usually not a cognitive process. So it is hard for me to get into the head of someone who is looking for ways of generating ideas. For me, the ideas are one of the main motivations for writing.

What's your personal experience with idea generation? Do you use tools to help generate ideas?

I like to use this App called Wispr, where it uses an AI to translate my words, like speaking into a microphone, into copy. It learns the way I talk so that it gets most of the words right and my cadence and stuff.

What I try to do is come up with the concept and ideas from different things I really like and see if I can't combine them. For example, maybe there's a Twilight Zone episode that I really like the concept of, and I'm like, "Hey, how would this concept sit in a medieval framework?" I try to think about characters that I like, and then I try to see what would happen if this character had to deal with this situation. How do you think they would react? I try to build around that.

That's just kind of where I come from, but I do feel like the spoken word is a little bit easier than writing, at least for me. That's why I use that app, and I just kind of brain dump whenever I have a good idea. I do find that most of my good ideas happen while I'm listening to rain sounds on my phone, trying to fall asleep. Every so often, I'll have to open my notes app and take some notes before I go to sleep.

 

[pmmg]

You call it AI, but it sound like Speech to Text, like Dragon Naturally Speaking was the biggest app for.

Meh, I have plenty of ideas. They spring on me out of no where sometimes, but most...I reject. I only have time for so many. I am still working on the big one. Maybe someday....but I dont really think so. The ones I choose to write have to be more than just whims. I have to really want to tell that story.

Idea generator? Imma hold off on my 'like really' face, but...like really?

Ideas are easy, it all the stuff that comes after to make a work that is worthy that where it all sifts out. Without the second, ideas or just dandelions in the wind, fluffy white specs that float on by never to be thought of again.