Wierd title for this one! I have had some experience of writing and have made some money from it in the past but am new to fiction. I've been working on a novel and have started it but only had a rough idea of the direction it was going to go in. I had enough direction to enable me to start as the first few chapters didn't hinge on going straight into any plotline. Despite the idea having been knocking around in my brain for years and starting the writing I still couldn't hammer down a synopsis. I'd written loads of notes / ideas for a plot but none of them felt right but then out of the blue one day the whole plot jumped straight into my head. I started writing it down as fast as possible before it vanished. It was just such a strange feeling as if I didn't think of the plot and someone just "popped" it in my head! Very odd. No doubt it was due to my sub-conscience having been working in the background all along. It just felt odd as if it wasn't my idea if you see what I mean? Just wondered if anyone else has had that or maybe it's just me going a bit mad!?! As I say, I am new to fiction so this may be perfectly normal!
I'm experiencing this right now. I got a couple stories that are constantly developing in the back of my head everyday. I just don't know when to start writing one of those because everyday, the stories in my head keep looking better and better. And it's only a matter of time when I need to stop the development phase.
I also just experienced this! Actually, it was an idea for a completely new novel, not even a story I was struggling with. I was sitting on the couch, just having random thoughts, and BAM! Entire story and plotline just burst into my head. Out of nowhere. There's still some minor things I need to figure out, but for the most part, it appeared fully planned into my brain. The funny thing is, too, that it's a very spiritual story, with a lot of roots in my own personal belief system. So it was weird that such an elaborate idea that I had never even entertained before just came out of nowhere... Sign, maybe?
Those are the best EVERY new idea that I come up with feels like "somebody else's" idea for the first few seconds after I've thought it for the first time, simply because I hadn't thought that idea either just minutes prior. I spend a lot of time playing around in my own head, so I'm always imagining various snippets of possible plots, scenes, characters, conversations, themes etc. I don't generally do anything with any of them, but occasionally I start out with 10 small ideas bouncing around that I think are "interesting," only to then come up with an 11th idea that combines 5 of my "interesting" ideas into a single story arc that I think is "amazing." The first few seconds, seeing something so beautiful before anybody else did knowing - now matter how strongly it feels otherwise - that I'm the one who came up with the connection, are already the most wonderful feeling in the world for me, and once I've gotten that far I need to keeping work through the details until I have something complete enough for everybody else to love as much as I do.
Thanks for your answers Uberwatch, Lea and Simpson! Good to know I haven't gone completely round the bend lol! Simpson - that's it exactly, like "somebody else's idea." It was very strange because in normal life, when I have an idea I am fully aware that it's mine and pretty aware of how it's come about. This felt nothing like that. As you said Lea, a bit of a sign! Uberwatch, you are right about the thinking - I imagine I am using a different part of my brain as fiction is new to me, so maybe I am thinking in a different way too. I'm so glad you guys answered - I had tried looking it up on the internet but couldn't describe it. Makes writing seem quite addictive if this sort of thing can happen
My whole book was like this. It sort of came on slowly, just the edge of an idea, then BAM...it was like watching a movie. I walked around in a daze for two weeks 'thinking' the entire thing--dialogue, scenery, as if I was reading it or acting it out mentally. It sort of just wrote itself, without me really controlling anything. Then I got to the end, and thought, 'now what?' Getting it down in writing correctly was hard to start but then it just flowed. I loved it, the entire experience.
It's not uncommon for writers' ideas to come from nowhere, so don't worry - you're not harbouring any kind of psychosis here. I get ideas completely out of the blue, sometimes whole and complete. It tends to happen when I'm doing some menial task or other like driving or making dinner. The number of story ideas I've had in this way are beyond reckoning. Just a few weeks ago I had an idea for a novel while en-route to do some shopping (driving is such a catalyst for opening the mind to the unconscious). By the time I'd arrived home and had lunch I had a detailed plot outline. I've heard of writers getting ideas in dreams, and while this hasn't happened to me I have on many occasions woken up with the solution to a problem right up front in my head ... almost talking to me. Have you ever had a character start talking and behaving of their own accord? It's almost as though the part of your mind that's responsible for ideas takes on a life of its own at times. If you've never experienced it before it can be very strange ... and disconcerting, too. But one thing is good, and that's your having the presence of mind to get it down on paper immediately. I mean, good ideas have a way of sticking with you but when you get an actual narrative in your head ... well, grab that fruit while it's fresh because it may have a limited shelf-life. Such golden moments are too precious to squander. The more you practise the art the more you'll get these instances of sudden, serendipitous enlightenment. The imagination responds to exercise, just like every other muscle does.
That's going in my signature mate! Also, in reply to the OP - the human brain works in mysterious ways, it is always creating weird and abstract things.
