My ideas always seem to begin with misconceptions, ideas I have about where stories will go, and then the idea "what if..." To explain, I'm always trying to think ahead and dissect a story as I read through it, not literally noting, but mentally taking guesses about where I'd take the plot if I could. "What if they actually killed off the main character here? Man that'd be groundbreaking..." And then when my expectation is subverted, I get this notion "well what if I did it, how would I do that?" Otherwise, I see things executed that really stick out. Like "wow, that was so well done, I like how they X!" Then I add that to 'original' ideas I got from "I want to subvert this" thoughts. Those things snowball together and I get some sort of chimeric idea that just sort of happens. It's interesting.
Currently, I've found myself writing a story that originally presented its self as the idea of a character's arc. How can someone go against their own morals –– after that, everything kind of fell into place. Other times I've been worldbuilding and found myself creating lore for the fantasy world and going 'hang on, that would make an excellent story' and then writing that.
I like the idea of trying to guess where the plot will go, take it apart a bit. I've done that successfully a few times and others been so woefully off the mark it was embarrassing, which made the book much better with its twists and turns... I've never thought about getting to a point in a book and adding my own bit in, that's a good idea
Can I ask, were you world building for a WIP you had going on and then realised you have ANOTHER good idea, or were you world building for fun with no plot in mind and that then drove a story idea? I had one idea I was working with so was working at the time to build the world I liked/wanted and to then incorporate the two, locations to fit plot etc, but maybe I should look at building a world just for fun with no story behind, and then see if the lore/history etc drives a story idea!
Usually it comes from my feelings and my response to new experiments. The more distressed I am the more inspired, too.
From looking at things in fiction and in real life – and, in the second step, my own previous ideas – and asking myself "how could I make this different?" Especially when I think that a lot of people are wrong about something and that I can show them what actually is.
It depends on how sincere the writer is, in writing his story. In my point of view, frankness in writing a story is the most important thing. Add to that your experiences in life, your knowledge of people, places, traditions, etc...
Where my ideas come from? Interests at the moment, places I've been to(or haven't been to), sometimes dreams, lore and strange things. The list goes on. I don't have to actively search for ideas, ideas pop up all the time, so much so that it's hard to focus on just one story for a longer period of time. Sometimes an intriguing scene can come to mind and I think I can write something off of that, but many times I find it hard to stretch that idea or that scene into a longer story.
For me it's more a question of how to get ideas to SHUT UP. I have millions of ideas, and they come to me from all different sources - watching a TV show and saying, oh, I wish they'd done X; writing my own stories and saying no, I can't do that THIS TIME but it'd be cool to do in the future; reading someone else's work and thinking of how it could be done differently, etc. As far as I can tell, stories beget stories. Like when you're having a conversation with someone and everyone has their own anecdotes to add, and one person's anecdote feeds into the next person's, and on and on...
Two places, really. Fairy tales are big, either by retelling them in modern times or swiping some of the plot, but also simple daydreaming turned up to 11 -- what if I could fly? what if everyone could fly?
The History Channel, and their faux love affair with History. I think the History Channel should be renamed, Alternate History Channel!.. that said, it's become a seriously good place to dig up interesting ideas that at least of a strained connection to real history.
