It might sound funny but I really am cornered by dilemma, which keeps on pestering me to delve into the grey matter of J. Archer or Stephen King. But how is that even possible, I mean c'mon those guys are phenomenal, living legends and whatnot. I couldn't help myself thinking- Ideas come to them automatically pr they take a quill and paper and scratch their heads like the rest of us (mind the typos, unable to edit from my mob dev)
My favorite of my ideas usually come to me when I am searching for the answer to a question or the solution to a problem. Even when I do not find the answer/solution I want, I often encounter the answer to a question I have not considered. I often just end up encountering another question. (Genius is asking the right questions; talent is answering questions that have already been asked.)
I've always had what has been charitably called a "very active imagination." getting ideas isn't the problem; turning them into stories is the hard part. I'm currently working on a fanfic based on a dream, another fanfic based on in-game experiences (Skyrim), a novel about werewolves, a novel based on a tabletop role-playing game nobody here has ever heard of, a novel about dinosaurs... those are just the big ones that I currently have plots sketched out for, which I'm working on filling in. I have scores of idea-notes and dozens of ficlets that have never been seen by any other eyes. you want ideas? I can give you ideas. doing anything with them takes a whole lot more work!
He's not being inept, he's just being lazy. It goes with his location. He's being artistic. It's what you get when you go to a writing website sometimes.
Writing it the correct way uses less letters. How is he being lazy, or artistic for that matter? I really can't be arsed with this just now. I simply typed a correction, as I do from time to time, nothing more.
@outsider : The OP said he's having trouble editing typos from his mobile device. We can all stop panicking now @Darkcula : I think some people have more ideas than others. Some people have words come to them more easily. Like when someone is a chatty, incessant talker, same with writing, some people are incessant writers. I see authors that have over a hundred novels to their name, and even through their themes and stories are extremely repetitive, they are never short of pretty ways to say things. They can effortlessly go on and on describing, dialoguing, internalising, plotting and twisting, it never seems to end! I can do that with non-fiction easily, someone can do that with fiction (the likes of King, Koontz, Roberts, Christie etc). Words of fiction come to me at a moderate pace and I can't write every single day. Sometimes I even need a week or a month off. So it's all a combination of factors, I'm sure.
Trying to be back on topic. Some of my ideas definitely come automatically. A basic premise for a story is easy to think of. But random ideas aren't much use on there own. You need lots of specific ideas to glue the random ideas together, ideas to make it all cohesive and logical and have good story flow. Some of them come automatically too, but some of them take a lot more mental effort to take shape.
I still don't see any edit option to correct the 'grammatically inept' content, however, I thank you for anchoring my doomed ship. (Wish you could have spared a little more time in actually answering my question ) Btw, I too am a Skyrim devotee. I wrote a 'Legend of Zelda' fanfic not so long ago, but I am thinking now of starting something for the mature audience. I am confused about the genre though, and got jack squat to start with. *Writer's black hole* @Darkcula : I think some people have more ideas than others. Some people have words come to them more easily. Like when someone is a chatty, incessant talker, same with writing, some people are incessant writers. I see authors that have over a hundred novels to their name, and even through their themes and stories are extremely repetitive, they are never short of pretty ways to say things. They can effortlessly go on and on describing, dialoguing, internalising, plotting and twisting, it never seems to end! I can do that with non-fiction easily, someone can do that with fiction (the likes of King, Koontz, Roberts, Christie etc). Words of fiction come to me at a moderate pace and I can't write every single day. Sometimes I even need a week or a month off. So it's all a combination of factors, I'm sure.[/QUOTE] Right on. I have also observed these things and I can put that self confidence plays a nifty role for them. What say you? Cause of my laziness I never scribbled those ideas into word forms, which I am regretting till date
It could do, certainly. I'm talking about actual writers, people who publish at least something half-decent, not aspiring writers who forever think about it but never actually complete a project or show it to anyone. I also think some people are born with 'gift of the gab' for fiction, an ability to just keep writing prolifically. I know a few such people. They aren't wasting time on forums, blogs or socialising, they are scribbling away all the time, publishing all the time, not terribly concerned about crafting beautiful prose or injecting a lot of meaning, just telling quick, entertaining stories. Others go through different periods in life, when producing words of fiction comes less or more easily to us depending on our situation, mood, weather, places we live in, period in our lives, people we are surrounded by etc. The more prolific a writer is, the less compelling and original are their ideas though, and their narratives are 'less beautiful' because those truly insightful and remarkable bits of prose come more diluted with 'padding' in between. So ultimately, the two extremes amongst published writers are, on one end are those who squeeze out a few masterpieces in their lifetime at enormous personal cost and little financial reward but go down in history as legends, and those who produce two books a year for sixty years, re-telling the same story in a million different ways, but their prose is so flowy and natural their have loads of readers and go down in history as super-rich, massively prolific writers. And then there are those in between.
Don't laugh, but I think best when my mind is on other things. For example if I am having problems remembering something or need an idea, if I go to the bathroom it almost immediately pops into my head. This is not a joke but the absolute truth. When I used to be on a live bar trivia team whenever I needed help finding an answer I knew that I already knew, I would get up and go to the bathroom where almost immediately it would come to mind. I know I joke around a lot but I'm being serious. I know I can't be the only person this works for.
Some times the ideas come automatically and some times I struggle to for ideas, lately I have been struggling a lot.
Fewer* To the OP: Initial ideas come to me very automatically, like the cartridge of ink in the new printer you just bought. And just like that automatically included cartridge, it will last for just a few pages and then I have to go back to Staples and be shocked that a new cartridge costs almost as much as just buying a new printer. I look back and forth, first at the tiny, whoppingly expensive cartridge in my hand, and then over at the new printer that's on special and costs almost the same. Indecision. I go for the cartridge, hoping it will last me long enough to justify its cost. Sometimes it does, often it doesn't. I get the new printer instead the next time around. The old printer sits in the corner of the closet, looking at me every time I go to change my clothes. I feel its resentful and accusatory glare. "You once loved me and thought I was the best thing ever. I was going to make you famous. Now I will never see the light of day again. No, no, it's ok. Go back to your 3 in 1, you whore!"
I'll take that, and raise you the word(?) 'thusly' that was implemented by yourself in the not so recent past. Therein lies the point, none of us are infallible. I personally, would actively encourage the correction of any faux pas I may make. As long as it's neither derisory nor patronising, I see no problem.
I am always overflowing with ideas. I think the key is simply how open and aware you are as a person. The more aware you are, the more connections you will be able to make based on any given stimulus. Maybe I have no clue what I am saying, but I can look at a tree for a minute and come up with the basic premises for a new novel right away. In my mind, I am making all sorts of connections to other things that I have seen and know related to trees, and I let the connections run free until I see a path that I like. Some times it happens so quickly that I do not think about how the idea came to me, but there is always a trigger, which can be anything in my case.
Though I agree absolutely that fallibility is at the very core of the human experience, I defend my use of thusly thusly: Thusly is acceptable as an adverb, though it is often employed in an over-affected manner when thus is the correct form. It should be employed only when modifying a past participle or a verb. Even then, care should be taken to see if a lower register construction is possible. badly broken incredibly frightened sorely mistaken thusly written
I respectfully beg to differ. I think it's a classic case of 'conventions'. That is to say, if a word is implemented enough, then it enters the common vernacular and is thus accepted. I'm a stickler for tradition though.
Idea's come to me all the time. I have a tonne of them everyday, sparked off by the inane boringness of life. I got several idea's on my way to work yesterday and then several more when I met someone I intensely disliked. Funny how the people I like least are more likely to be material to draw upon than my friends. I think it has something to do with seeing them more clearly.
Premises come fairly naturally to me - usually through looking at interesting pictures. However I often struggle to then develop it into a workable story
the fun thing about Skyrim is that there's so many different ways to complete the quests, how you do them gives variance--as well as the random stuff that happens along the way; one of the scenes in my Skyrim fic is from when my character was unexpectedly attacked by two dragons and a gang of bandits at the same time, in the rain, on the road to Markarth. there's also all the little details that never go anywhere--in the ruined castle full of bandits near Whiterun, there's a dead Nord in a cell. I was running around with Brynjolf (yay mods!) and decided the dead Nord was Brynjolf's brother--and that's the first chapter of my fic. another short fic is based on being an Argonian and doing the "Lights out!" quest chain from Solitude--which is masterminded by an Argonian and his sister. how would my character, another Argonian, react to being set up and betrayed that way by one of her own people? now that I think about it, a lot of my ideas come from looking at something and asking questions--specifically, "how did that happen?" what's the story behind the beggar you first meet in Solitude, who used to be a soldier? what happened to him, that basically destroyed his life? what happened to the person who lived in the deserted hut that's now full of skeevers? how did that person with a full set of ebony plate mail end up as a bandit? where do the merchants get all those soulstones? what is it like to be an Altmer who disagrees with the White-Gold Condordant, and the way the Altmer are running things in Skyrim? for that matter, why did your character get arrested in the first place? I'm not familiar with Zelda, but I'm sure there's a lot of similar questions. thinking about where things come from, why they happen the way they do, and how--that's where the ideas happen.
Ideas come when I least suspect them. I don't have to force them but I can if I want. For the sci-fi contest last year I jotted down a list of possibilities a week before the contest was to end. I actually wanted to do a story from the viewpoint of an alien but switched to a robot. That came about just by accident as I was labeling one of my folders ( I like colors ) Pink. The term Not Pink came to my mind and I started writing. Moonshot came from the writing contest theme but I didn't want to go the typical route so I started playing with the words Moonshot. I thought of bloodshot a medical condition and decided to make Moonshot a medical condition - voila. Just days ago an old 80's cartoon has sparked an interesting sci-fi idea that I can't wait to write. All a good idea needs is a what if?
If you're trying to think of ideas to write about, you may be asking yourself, "What shall I write about?" which, to me, is the wrong question. When I started my my story Recovery (which won last years sci-fi contest), I had one idea, which lasted me about a page. Then I had to ask the right questions: "What happens next?", "If I was designing this, how would I arrange it?", "How would people react?", "If I was there, what would catch my eye?", "If I was in that situation, what would I do?". To come up with a story, you might ask, "What problem would there be?", and then, "What solution could be found for it?". I also listen to the voice in my head, which tells me what to write next.
