I have all these ideas in my head, all these conflicts, all these characters, all these worlds, all these creatures, all these cultures, do many ideas. Yet I do not know what to do with them. As I am writing this blog, I am contemplating a struggle, a question, or a motivation which would allow me to express these concepts and world. At the moment all I have is a very basic plot (and this just came as typing that top paragraph) where a writer (in a time smilar to ours, yet more art-centric and hipster like) writes and writes and writes. He is a fantasy writer, and his work and poetry is much appreciated by the small niche at which he has moulded from his questionable works. They all marvel at his imagination: "How do you think of these things?" some may say. And when presented with that very question, he can never find an answer. Thinking, he realizes all his ideas came from an unseen muse, like when he was sleeping, or sitting at a coffee shop. He concludes that this must be the universe speaking to him. And eventually, he stumbles across one of his creations, but here comes the irl problem. How would he do such a thing, how would he be transported to an alternate world, planet, or something similar, only to find out that they are communicating to him the secrets of the universe, the reason for human exsitence (thats what he finds out anyway) How would he get to an alternate universe, or how would one of his creatures approach him. Any books where a similar instance has occurred? Any advice?
you can avoid the cliche by making your character an schizophrenic like the dude in ''A beautiful Mind'' or in ''K-PAX.''
you are the writer... you can make these things happen any way you want... if you want to be a serious writer, you won't 'write by committee' but will let your own imagination supply you with the answers to these questions...
Since you write fiction it could be a stress ball talking to him in his sleep for all we know, it all depends on what YOU think happens as you are the writer of this story. You can ask if an idea seems far-fetched or thin or inconsistent but not for the idea itself, what will you contribute then?
The possibilities are limitless. You could make it a worm hole, time travel, glimpse into an alternate universe, madness, magic, mysticism...wherever you want to go with it. Pick an angle and just go with it.
You say you are overwhelmed by your invented worlds, characters, creatures, and so on, but they are not the important part of your novel. Work out what your central plot is (see Cogito's excellent link), and limit yourself to having a HERO + 2-4 MAIN CHARACTERS (depending on the estimated length of your work. You can have several bit players if you want). Work out the characters' aims and conflicts. Try to make most of the events and conflicts happen because of some decision/mistake/impulse/misundertanding of your main characters, not because of fait accompli or invasions, earthquakes etc. Also, study good epic stories to see how it's done.
