"How do you get your ideas?"

[deathpixie]

Something I was thinking about today - how do other writing people get their ideas? Not the actual idea for a story; I mean to process after, the process of elaborating and expanding that initial "Hey, wouldn't this make a good story".

What prompted it was I had another one of my flashes this morning - those sudden intuitive leaps that connect one part of a story with another, in a way that you've apparently been leading up to all the time, without realising it. It's how I plot; I get the initial idea, construct a rough plot around it (kind of a Start and End, with various scenes I want in the Middle), and then start writing. The bits in the middle are filled in with these starburst flashes, where I've obviously been thinking about various problems with the plot in some forgotten corner of my brain, and then when I have the answer, it leaps out at me. Usually when I'm just waking up or in the shower or riding into work.

So, now I'm curious (and bored - I ran out of work and my inbox is empty) - how do you write?

Comments

[ex-thissuga.livejournal.com]

as I've tried to explain to Alicia often and failed (*grin*), I always end up writing in chunks and pieces. like, if a story has an actual plot-plot, I'll write crucial plot points out of order (like for instance, so and so dies) and then have to somehow frame the actual story around random events that need to make sense. if it's just a wackiness ensues kind of plot, it usually ends up being all those random scenes tacked together in a row, with maybe a few edits here and there.

it's weird though, now that I've started thinking about it, I've started writing a lot more linear-ly and a lot less organically lately. like, starting at the beginning and working my way to the end. huh.

but mostly, yeah. random scenes that then need to be sorted out and plotted, not the other way around. it's kind of fun, finding that perfect scene you wrote first, that needs to go near the end - and trying to figure out how to *get* to that point from your beginning. A to F to X to M to G to N to B to W. very non-linear, ninety percent of the time. I don't even THINK out the plot before I write it out of order; it's all random.

of course Alicia's called me insane and she may well be right. ;)