Ideas are like Popcorn.

Wednesday was a great success for a small but talented group of fiction writers. But six of us got together to go over ideas and explore where we get our ideas and I have to be honest with you, I am always amazed at the imagination of writers who want to tell great stories. Granted every writer was until a great story but some writers just don't have the imagination to bring the reader into fantastic worlds.

The one question that seemed to be most prevalent is "where do you get your ideas?" This truly seems to be the question that everyone in the creative field gets the most. Too many people the process of writing is difficult and when we come up with ideas for our stories are characters movies it seems like we are tapping the something that they don't have

.

People who aren't in the creative field think that ideas just come to us they just spring fully formed in our mind. And sometimes that happens sometimes we went up the middle and night with a great idea or great concept that we follow through on and they become something fantastic. But the truth of the matter is we have to work really hard to get our ideas. And the thing is that it's not just one idea. One idea or concept won't build your world, flesh out your character or complete your plot. 

These are usually starting points.You need many more ideas that complement and enhance your original idea. One of the things I stress and I'll tell people who come to the meetings and the critiques that to be a great writer in your genre you have to read and I mean just read everything you genre I mean read everything. The better read you are the more ideas you have at your disposal. Also reading your genre gives you an insight on what is the current trend, what seems to be selling, and what editors and publishers are looking for currently.

Sometimes the best place to start in your stories is to recycle ideas. We have ideas that we've written and started stories with that time don't pan out, and we put these on the back burner, where sometimes we forget about them. But just because these ideas didn't work in an initial writing doesn't mean they can't be jumping off points for a new story or character.

The one trick I use the most one on developing store ideas for my fantasy world or if I'm developing a science fiction or bio punk or even horror story, is I always ask" what if?" This probably is the best way for me to come up with new ideas. I was asked do I start with a character first or a concept first. And for me I like to develop the concept first but not all the time, sometimes a character would just pop into my head and I will write down notes and over a few days this character will be fleshed out and I have no idea where this characters can lead me. 

If I don't have a concept for where this characters going, I'll just put character away and save it. Usually a few days later story concept will jump to my head and I start building on that and usually dovetail into the character it's hard to explain but that's how it works for me.

Someone once said that when you're creating a concept for a story, a character, a series, or a movie; ideas are like eating popcorn, you grabbed a handful because you can't just eat one.