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Michael wrote: "I have a weird kind-of question:

Are there actually people out there who like to write, but can't think of anything to write about?

My understanding is that everybody has lots of stories to tell,..."

I may need your help. I have a lot of ideas, but may run out eventually. By my calculations, I should have all the ideas in my head written out by 2389. I hope your offer still stands.

No, seriously, that's a nice offer you're giving. I do, ever so often, run across people that say they want to write, but they can't think of anything to write about. Like you it's hard to imagine anyone not being able to come up with things to write about and I wonder if they do have ideas, but lack the confidence in their ideas or in their ability to tell the story they have in mind.

There's also Melissa's thread for prompts. Add something fun there!

/topic/show/...

I used to be worried about not having enough ideas. That fear is long, long gone.

I find ideas everywhere. The littlest thing prompts it from me...like driving and seeing a garbage bag on top of a car. Hmmm...dead body inside...lots of angles to go from there.

Great idea, though. Thanks for throwing it out there:)

I often find that my ideas that I don't pursue (the good ones, anyhow) end up turning into a sort of mulch and help nurture my current project. If I'm lost or unsure of what's coming next, sometimes I find that some idea I had four years ago will pop up (sometimes how I originally saw it, or perhaps in some other varied way) and help me get back on track.

I can't conceive a storyline just for the heck of it. I hope I have something to say that will be alternative and prompt a different way of thinking or perspective. I therefore have to have a concept about which I am passionate and build a story around that basic concept.

I struggle coming up with concepts that I really want to sink myself into. I only have three or four that I'm considering working on right now, but it's just not there yet for most of them. There's some missing angle that I haven't figured out yet.

But what happens when I do write something, is I tend to blend in all the little ideas I had while I was waiting for the big picture to form. A lot of little threads have to come together.

Right now I have something I'm heavily invested in. I'm writing the second book while I'm coming up with ideas for later books in the series. I have seven planned so far, with blurbs for each of them. I pretty much know where I'm going with it at this point, although things change, and little things can have huge effects.

Certain things become sticking points, but it's just a matter of letting them simmer until something comes to me. I get some of my best ideas that way, I think. I did struggle for years for concepts for shorts, trying to come up with something I thought was really worth writing about. (I know, write write write, even if it is garbage.)

I guess my biggest problem is just coming up with something that hasn't been done before, which is basically impossible. So I just have to find new ways to do old things. I have my main project, which is less than a year old. I have other shorts that I'm just waiting for the right mood to strike.

I'm totally in love with my current project, but it took me 10 years to come up with it, ultimately. And then once the light came on, it was just a flood.

Right now I'm hung up on a chapter about a space prison break. I used this for inspiration:



I know what I want to do, and how I want to do it basically, with some things left unexplored for myself. But I really do have to be in the right mood to write it, it is a key chapter that sets off the climaxes in the final act.