Where do your story ideas start?

[Imstillfun]

For me, I get a scene in my head and then write a whole story trying to get to that scene. For example, my latest story is about having sex with an inappropriate person. The idea came from another story where the woman said she had sex with someone inappropriate, in that case her brother, but once I get the idea in my head of inappropriate people a story formed around it.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Always during either the most inopportune moments and circumstances. A lot of them during sex. Others come from my life. They're everywhere, and they don't stop coming.

 

[sijopunk]

I tell people they come from a topic that I want to explore. Either a character I can't let go of, a conflict I want to reconcile, or a setting I want to know more about and share.

In reality, I steal them from AH. For example:

They're everywhere, and they don't stop coming

will be the title of my next story

 

[Imstillfun]

will be the title of my next story

not if I beat you to it

 

[Lord_Libido]

Puberty and hindsight are the inspiration for a lot of mine.

 

[Esther_Montanus]

I think about my fantasies or instering situations, and then consider how I could turn them into a story and make them happen in reality.

 

[IWroteThis]

Mowing the lawn, long solo drives on open highways, and trying to go back to sleep Saturday morning are common ones. Sometimes I'm inspired by what I'm reading/watching/listening to. Other times, things just pop into my head out of the blue.

A lot of them during sex.

That's actually the one time I don't recall ever getting a story idea. I've found that anticipation is fertile ground for ideas, and after the fact is best for writing, but I tend to focus on the task at hand during. I think that's also why I struggle some with writing the sex scenes, as I don't really recall the details of my own experiences afterwards. I remember general aspects, but not specifics.

 

[crookedletter]

It's simplest to say where they don't start, and there's really only one answer: when I'm consciously trying to come up with story ideas.

They come from anywhere and everywhere when I'm doing anything and everything apart from trying to steer my mind. I'll catch a stray comment from an overheard conversation and laugh inwardly, thinking, wouldn't it be funny if she meant... Or I'll be reading or watching something and some random detail will catch on my mind and start to stir things. Or sometimes I just pop awake in the middle of the night with some image or character in my mind and have no idea where it came from.

 

[Imstillfun]

I think that's also why I struggle some with writing the sex scenes, as I don't really recall the details of my own experiences afterwards. I remember general aspects, but not specifics.

Interesting I struggle with them too. Basically the story is getting there. The sex scene is kind of boring to get through.

 

[AG31]

Intense, unbidden fantasies. Then I spend fun time figuring out how to put words to them.

 

[StillStunned]

Mostly my stories begin with a scene, or an image, or maybe a line of dialogue. Very rarely with a character idea, because I don't really write character-driven stories. From there, I start writing towards that scene, and once I reach it I write backwards and forwards until the story is whole.

For longer stories, I might need to do the process a few more times, each time with a new scene or image, and writing from what I already have towards the new goal.

 

[Callum_M]

Randomly.

I finished a story a few says ago and didn’t have anything else lined up. I welcomed the break and decided to edit other drafts. In a day, three new ideas popped up so I wrote the premise down for each and tucked them away.

I think one hit while reading another story, one hit while watching a movie, and other just got in there. Yet nothing from those first two were directly involved in the inspiration. My mind was relaxed enough that it went to work.

 

[StillStunned]

Randomly.

I finished a story a few says ago and didn’t have anything else lined up. I welcomed the break and decided to edit other drafts. In a day, three new ideas popped up so I wrote the premise down for each and tucked them away.

I think one hit while reading another story, one hit while watching a movie, and other just got in there. Yet nothing from those first two were directly involved in the inspiration. My mind was relaxed enough that it went to work.

Inspiration is like anal sex. You have to relax to let things enter.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Nightmares.


Daymares too.


Some of mine were really terribly, terrible real life experiences that I rewrote to be a LOT less terrible. You know, the way they really should have been in reality.

 

[Soixenta]

Stories become more difficult to invent if I am trying. For example, if I want to write a sequel, it takes effort for me to think of a premise, instead of simply being struck by an idea and writing it.

 

[TropicalTwist]

Some times I happen to think of a pun and run with it.
Others I'll read something and it spirals from there.
Yet still others, I'll have a strong desire to try and capture an emotion within words.

 

[MK_Whimsy]

On here? Basically they just came from having an idle fantasy or kinky scenario come to mind and thinking, you know, I could actually write this down! Not that I should, but still.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

will be the title of my next story

not if I beat you to it

That's the title of my memoir!

 

[Britva415]

not if I beat you to it

Yeah! Then they'll be stuck with /theyre-everywhere-and-they-dont-stop-coming-1

 

[ClintonBrooks]

Several places...

Some just pop into my head late at night when I can't fall asleep because of life stressors. So I direct my thoughts to something pleasant. Sometimes I like it enough to text it to myself because I never remember them once I wake up.

Sometimes I get them from the Story Idea's thread here. Someone starts with a nugget and I, and others, will tweak it. Sometimes I like what I come up with from someone else's premise.

I've written a couple of unpublished stories where someone came to me and asked me to write them.

And sometimes, I've watched a sexy gif and turn a 10-15 second video into a longer scene, then into a story.

*edit - I almost forgot...Writing Prompts can be a nice exercise to unclog any creative blockages, and sometimes turn into nice stories.

 

[anthrodisiac]

That little subconscious imp factory that gets kickstarted by an errant cosmic ray, which poofs a little cloud of nitrous oxide for the imps to huff as they screech at each other until one of them wins and sends it up the flagpole.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Where do your story ideas start?​

Multiple places.

For me, I get a scene in my head and then write a whole story trying to get to that scene.

I wrote one novella precisely that way. I had an image of a man and a woman, and I wrote that first, then filled in the 30,000 words of how they got to that point.

But also, I might have a general theme in mind. For example what it feels like to be a woman in the 2020s.

Once I just made a joke about the website: WhoreBnB.com and another novella was born.

I might see someone, or a group of people, and it suggests a story to me. I might take some trope and twist it, creating a what if?

Another time I wrote a light-hearted response to someone on AH and it somehow became a neo noir novella.

I might read something that spurs an idea. I might watch something. I might have a friend tell me about something.

There is no single way that it always goes.

 

[AStrangeDesire]

I genuinely have no idea. Or maybe it's just that ideas pop up and there is no consistency.

One of my latest came from a single photo of a woman fishing. She looked competent and comfortable in the environment, which lead me down a path of 'What if..."

Other times I'll read a story here and either wish it had taken a different part, or have an idea that wasn't explored there. That initial idea will then blossom into something. At times it even stays close to the original intent

 

[Erozetta]

For the most part, I sit down, start writing, and see what happens.

Sometimes it starts as a dream or a thought or a need to say something to someone in a way that I can't say it in person or with my voice.

 

[Trubbycat]

A few are based in real life experiences, others are fantasies