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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. ^_^'
for my one series, i get ideas at night, and they wont stop and the drowsier i get the worse the ideas get XDD
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.
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. :^)
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.
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.
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.
tooootally. that and long journeys - put on a mood playlist or something, your brain really gets whirring.
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.
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.
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!
At one point I would've said I get ideas constantly, but now I've seen that in the long term, I think it varies a lot for me. I've been through stretches of life where I'm getting new ideas for things often and developing three story concepts at once, and I've been through stretches of life where I had no ideas for such a long time that I started to become terrified that I'd used up all my ideas and would never have another idea again.
I think, coming out of that drought of ideas it was very hard to remember that not every idea has to become a story. I'd have a neat thought for a character and instead of just drawing them for fun like I used to do, I'd be like THANK GOODNESS AN IDEA!!! WHATS YOUR MOTIVATION WHATS THE PLOT OF YOUR STORY, LETS START WORLDBUILDING, HOW CAN I MAKE THIS INTO A COMIC SOMEDAY and like, I don't think that much pressure to Make Something out of every idea is good for me. xD So just having some characters that are there just for fun has been a nice refresh.
I'm always thinking of new ideas for stories/worlds I have. Pretty much all the time I'm not concentrating on something else.
My brain also always ends up thinking up a fan characters for movie/books I read and many of them I end up making into stories of their own.
As for Unique stories ideas I've never thought of before every couple of months normally inspired by something.
