Just curious, does anyone else believe that the gist of their story actually found them instead of the other way around?
To a degree I think your experiences shape a story and mold it into submission. Ideas are always out there, it just takes a specific mindset to find them. So if that's the case, who's doing the finding? I try to remind myself that I am the master of my creativity, not the other way around.
I think that when there are things that you care for, that you unconsciously look out for resonating ideas. So no, I am not surprised that I get to write the story I do.
Yes, sometimes ideas present themselves. But it's me who recognizes it as a story. I spent the majority of my relatively short life not writing. I bet thousands of great ideas screamed at me and I just never noticed. I am the deciding factor in whether or not a story is viable for me. Not the idea. ETA: It's easy to believe the opposite. I find myself falling into the mindset that I can't produce because I don't have any good ideas. It's bullshit. It's my inherent laziness unwilling to accept the reality that creation involves hard work. Not only hard work, but perseverance.
I work hard to track down the story. It involves writing the story - at least the first draft. When the first draft is done (actually, usually before the first draft is done), I know what the story is and what the themes are. It just remains to tell it properly - that's what the second (and possibly subsequent) drafts are for. The story itself has no agency. It cannot come and find me. I hunt it down wherever it is, bag it, and bring it home.
It has happened, yes. I like those ideas best because I usually finish at least one full draft before losing interest.
The initial idea might find me. Even that is questionable though - you could say I know how to recognize a good idea. But the story, I create that, I write it. I find it.
Its hard to say really. For me I don't ever try to get inspired, sometimes things inspire me but im not actively seeking story ideas. From one short story i wrote, i was inspired after driving through the hudson valley and seeing this house I always pass every time on my way from Toronto to New Jersey. Generally stories find me at the weirdest times. I could be in the show and then boom a story idea pops into my head or I could be ironing a shirt. I never say to myself "so what should i write about next." Because if a story doesn't find me then i don't write a new book. ETA: But once I have the story idea then I actively work on mapping it out in my head.
