We really don't, I just wanted to say that.
Question(s):
Where do you guys get your story ideas from? I am itching to start a new book, and I have a few ideas, I am just not sure about them....I think I am getting weighed down with the feeling that it has be groundbreaking, or amazing which then of course I argue myself out of. Maybe I am too hard on myself? When guys and gals get an idea do you just go with it?
Go with it. Explore your characters and their situations, and their interactions. Go with it.
Always go with it. I've never written a novel, but I'm waiting for something that I know will keep my attention for a few months. Instead, I write copious amounts of short stories. Sometimes characters from one story will pop up in a new one. I feel like I'm slowly discovering a world. I'm sure these recurring characters will end up being the cast of my first novel.
I think, as long as you're writing, you're doing just fine.
And I think groundbreaking/amazing comes from the way you tell a story, not neccessarily the idea of the story itself. So, get writing!
I get ideas from all over. I sort of have a crazy imagination. I see things the way they could be and write about it.
I'll be the voice of dissent. Do not just go with it. Write and keep writing, yes. As far as a novel goes, wait just a bit. Because there is a lot of stuff you should know, or have an idea of, before you begin. Specifically your characters. You should have a good idea who they are, individually and down to some pretty personal details. And setting. Etc. Basically, before you begin a novel it's a good idea to have the details of your setting and characters down, because those are going to direct your flow of action and conflict.
Don't get me wrong and think that I mean you should know the sequence of all the tiniest things that happen. But you should have a definite idea of who, what, and how everything is at the beginning. And maybe (if you work this way) a rough outline of what happens to whom, when. Otherwise you'll bounce all over the place like a kid on Mountain Dew and your rough is going to be such a mess you'll either get lost in it or just never get down to revising it.
"You should have a good idea who they are, individually and down to some pretty personal details."
I think that is the most important. If you know them well enough, then you will know what they would do. Then you aren't forcing them to do things. I don't know if that makes sense or not.
Your characters should be schizophrenic voices in your head. Distinct and recognizable.
Ideas: I started putting together a very much more organized and conceptualized Prompt Library for myself. It is full of lots of different things and is more just a consolidation of lists I used to jot down for myself, a lot of various excercises discussed from this board. It makes it really easy for when I'm creatively stumped to take a handful of influences and juxtapoze them against eachother and see what plops out. It also really helps me to look at where my writing has been going lately and try to write to my own genres and themes, that clears my head up a lot when I'm frustrated with current stories.
There is this troll who lives under a bridge and he sells me ideas in a little baggie. I snort the magic dust and ideas pop into my brain.
I usually get loaded up on caffeine, sleep deprivation, and music. This usually helps.
Perhaps this will help. Also, it may be mentioned in Richard's article but I like to flip through a dictionary and find words I'm unfamiliar with. This gets the motor going for all sorts of things: character descriptions, settings, etc.
http://litreactor.com/columns/storyville-where-do-you-get-your-ideas
I drink, then text my exes. Then I make that happen to a character.
Among other things.
It's what I do to get some emotive juices flowing into othwerwise robotic and clinical prose.
Exercises in writing.
I usually just take turns petting my pet unicorns until something comes.
Petting my unicorn is generally a severe distraction from writing, and is labor intensive.
If you point the tip onto paper before they go it turns distraction into production.