How often do you get ideas for a story?

[VibrantFox]

Something I've noticed about myself is that I'm almost always coming up with one random story idea or another and I'll usually try to write them down when they come. It's like a separate stream of consciousness where there's just always something new be it a dream, though, when i'm listening to a song or whatever. Sometimes they follow the same story line sometimes it's a totally new one.

What I'm trying to get at here is do other people also experience this where suddenly an idea comes to mind but in a sort of constant flow?

I apologize if it seems like something strange or abstract but I've always wondered about how my fellow creatives get their ideas so I hope you don't mind

[sei_gogone]

Every. Existing. Moment.

Okay, maybe not so dramatically, but I do cycle through eight or nine "big" ideas a day. I have little scenes that come to my mind, but as far as ideas that have a followable trail of thought to create a story, it's about that much. If I'm lucky, I'll just add onto one scene, but mostly I just create new things.

I constantly have WIPs building on my computer. It's fun, but since I get inspired by so many random things, it can be... a lot!

[KennDemon]

I get so many random ideas every day! Mostly it's from listening to music and combining the story of the song (I like show tunes and country music) with a theme I'm interested in. Because of this, I have a ton of half formed concepts that all need work in the plot department before I can actually write and share them, but they never get enough attention because I just get more ideas in the same way.

[Hexigate]

I've always assumed that I was the only one that would be brainstorming story concepts every second I get. But looking at the comments here, I am mistaken; It seems to be more common than I thought.

But yeah, like everybody else here, storytelling occupies my mind the majority of the time. Most of that time is put into already-existing concepts that I deem worthy of further development. Thinking of a completely new idea is less frequent than that, though it's always welcome.

I have a small note in my phone where I type down ideas I think I can work with. Most of the time, that's as far as an idea goes in terms of physical proof-of-concepts. I do have some that I've taken a step further: Some comic strips, some conceptual art, some written novels. They're pretty low-effort though; as long as it delivers the idea, I'm good.

[fakey]

It happens fairly often for me. Sometimes the idea comes and I can easily expand it to a more fleshed out form and sometimes it's just a concept that I feel I can do something with. Regardless, I tend to write them down as they come in case they're useful later. Same goes for any interesting or bizarre dreams I might have.

[Rhonder]

Hmm, I'll say that I don't necessarily get story ideas all the time, but definitely here and there over time xD I never ended up making anything of it, but I started a story idea back in middle school for a long fantasy epic, and man do I have sooooo many arcs and story scenarios for that bouncing around in my head. Some I wrote as assignments for creative writing courses in Highschool/College, some I wrote down for myself, and others are still just lingering in the back of my mind. If I ever do pursue creating that story I'll have a lot of material!

As far as new, unique story ideas... not super often. The one-shot I'm working on now took quite a bit of conscious effort to string the story together after I had a very general idea and characters made.

Just last week though I had a random spark of inspiration though. I was just at work and all of a sudden I was like "holy crap, I know what I want my next comic after this one-shot to be!". it's both good and bad xD On one hand, it'll be months and months before my current comic is finished, so I wont be able to do anything real with this idea for a long while yet. But on the other hand, I'm going to try and generate some of the story in writing in the meantime :] so hopefully when I get to the point where I can work on it, I'll have a decent amount of material to work with!

So that was kind of a happy surprise xD Not necessarily a common thing for me though.

[Nullyish]

Oh yes story ideas come in unexpected ways and times XD

Like I am talking with a friend or anyone and suddenly “Hey, this can be a good comic story.” But unfortunately I don’t really write them because I have a few comic stories when I finish with my on-going comic.

[YangKoete]

All the time! Even if it's just for a simple RP or whatever, I always think of them!

I just guess I'm really good with coming up with ideas. ^_^'

[BobbyjoeX]

for my one series, i get ideas at night, and they wont stop and the drowsier i get the worse the ideas get XDD

[rmdooley]

All the time.

How often do I get GOOD ideas for a story...less of the time

[eochoa92]

I'd say on a daily basis.
For me, it's really about how many of those ideas actually end up becoming stories that I want to follow through on. There are times when for a day, I think I've gotten a great idea, but the following day I have a different opinion. Then there's the part where you tinker with an idea, changing things here and there until you perfect it.

[dawgofdawgness]

Mostly it comes up while I'm doing mindless activity while listening to music, like washing the dishes or going on a walk. Sometimes it can be inconvenient because I have to stop EVERYTHING to write down my idea, though.
It also helps because I'm thinking about my comic 25/7. :^)

[punkarsenic]

oh toootally

if not story ideas, then little ideas for characters, settings, framings. i think when you write enough, when youre in the writing rhythm and thinking about it, you look around and all you can ever see is stories.

i often make little notes in my notebook when an idea takes me, but it can then sit there for a good long while.

[jpnakashima]

It depends of my state of mind, really. It comes in waves, in a way.
The only thing that is certain to me is that ideas come strong when you're already having many ideas. It's like a muscle to me: if I allow it to stop, it freaking stops, but if it's going strong... oooh boy!

Also, taking a shower.
No better place to solve that story problem for me.

[joannekwan]

It comes an goes. Sometimes I'll have maybe 4 ideas in a week, pertaining to different series I'm developing. Then I might not think of anything for any of my stories for weeks. I might get a big story idea perhaps once every other month.

[punkarsenic]

Also, taking a shower.No better place to solve that story problem for me.

tooootally. that and long journeys - put on a mood playlist or something, your brain really gets whirring.

[panda3291]

I get a great deal of story ideas. Usually, they'll all be one big story for a couple days and then a new one will come along. The problem I have is that I can't just make that one story. I will get half way through the story I come up with and create a miniature story inside that story and so on.

STORYCEPTION. It never ends and then it becomes too long for me to keep up with.

[craftymarten]

This was almost exactly what I was going to say.
A lot of ideas, most of them go nowhere.

[Wezboy]

It's so hard for me to NOT have any ideas for my comic xDD. I get inspiration and story ideas just by watching a leaf blowing on the wind ( literally ) lol.

[eleviken]

I actually get a lot of small ideas, but none of them are big/complete enough to make into a story ://
Usually I get my inspiration after I read/watch other stories, or see something interesting in daily life! The part that sucks, though, is that usually I forget/get sick of my ideas in a short time. It's also hard to incorporate potentially interesting ideas into my comic for consistency's sake!