This is what I'll do next time I'm strapped for ideas.

[timepiececlock]

In her recent post, apocalypsos wrote this:

I just like knowing what ideas I've got on hand even if I'm not going to use them, you know? I feel like I want to do like I did with Heroine Addiction, where I kinda just sat down and made a short list of stuff I either like to read about or write. So, "bisexuals" + "superheroes" + "wee little cafe" = FUNSIES. I'm just going to end up throwing, like, "disasters" and "wizards" and "gay romance" and "mpreg" and "reality TV" and "cooking" and "travel" and "surprise pregnancy stories" and anything else I can come up with at a wall and seeing what sticks.

I thought, 'Hey, that's a great idea!' For my original fiction and for fanfic. So I tried it:

HERE HAVE SOME FUN. There's two, possibly three things that appear twice on the list. Notice them?

Also, there appear to be some interesting groupings that I'm afraid to say reveal certain things about my psyche. For example, one column goes: secrets, amoral killers, redemption, vampires, demons, politicians. Did I ever tell y'all I was a poli sci major?


After that, I typed them all up, printed them out, cut them into little fortune-cookie sized strips and have them sitting in a plastic CD stack lid that's turned upside down to be my desk's interpretation of a grab-bag.

Comments

[spikewriter]

Funny, but one of the first exercises in a on-line course I've been taking this year asked us to make a list like that. It was rather illuminating.

[gojira007.livejournal.com]

D'aww, you have "Crowning Moment of Awesome" listed there; I don't know why, but that makes me really happy. :3

Anywho, I'd say this is a fairly good idea for all writers, myself included. I've got millions of ideas and things I want to make bumbling about in my brain, but only so much time to even begin to address them all; I may very well have to start keeping a list like this too.

[thelymachy.livejournal.com]

Lolz, "character deaths" and "picnics at night". Though, this is a really good idea for when you're stuck and need an idea, but you know, one that doesn't suck.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

man I wish I knew how to analyze people's handwriting. I'm trying to remember which RL friend of mine yours reminds me of...

I like the grab-bag idea! I may have to do this myself. Also I may have to find my camera hm...

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

It's the eternal question of which came first?

[irrel.livejournal.com]

So that's what that was! Am I officially retired from prompt-giving? D: <--- in which I SUCK lol

I think this a great idea, BTW! :D

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I surprised myself by being both very specific (intimate conversations) and very general (psychics). I guess there's value in both.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

D'aww, you have "Crowning Moment of Awesome" listed there; I don't know why, but that makes me really happy. :3

The reason I've not yet written anything beyond 20,000 words is that I always want to jump to that moment as soon as possible within the story. =)

I've got millions of ideas and things I want to make bumbling about in my brain, but only so much time to even begin to address them all; I may very well have to start keeping a list like this too.

I tried to look at this not as a list of ideas, exactly, because nothing here is original. More like a list of components...things I already know I enjoy. Maybe ideas will come out of them.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I tried to find something cool like pottery or a pretty glass bowl to put the little strips of ideas in, but all I could find was my plastic CD stack lid.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Am I officially retired from prompt-giving?

No, I need you when I'm not at home to look at my list. =)

And, btw, I don't know how you can take "prompts?" and respond with questions like "what kind?" :P If I knew the answer to what kind, I wouldn't be asking you. Any kind will work! The next two words that pop into your head, or the thing you see on the street, or whatever's right in front of your eyes at the moment, or what you're eating or feeling.

[irrel.livejournal.com]

HEHEHE

But I tell you 'cookies and sand' that does nothing for you! XD I was asking 'what kind' as in... a word? a song? a scenario?

I got it now, though! I'll be prepared next time ò_ó!

[gojira007.livejournal.com]

The reason I've not yet written anything beyond 20,000 words is that I always want to jump to that moment as soon as possible within the story. =)

I know that feeling. X3

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Cookies and sand was the perfect response! Often it's not what you say, but what your words remind me of, the second-thoughts, that's what does. =D Which wouldn't come about if you didn't say the words you said, first.

I was asking 'what kind' as in... a word? a song? a scenario?

Ahhhhh. Noted for the future! I will answer next time.