#brainstorming story ideas

[uncleasad]

This post came past my desk today, and I thought folks here might find it interesting/helpful, particularly the suggestions (from the academic paper, as summarized by the author of the blog post) for clearing a block—or at least a specific type of block:

Take a break from writing: “Stop writing, decide tomorrow is another day, and walk away from the computer until the next day.” (26%)

Work on a different writing project: “Jump from the work on which I’m currently engaged to another.” (13%)

Keep writing: “Force myself to write to a certain page number” (12%)

Revise or reread current work or skip ahead to work on a later section: “Reread notes or drafts” (10%)

Read a book or watch a movie: “I read the work of authors I admire to become inspired.” (10%)

Take a walk: “I go for a walk” (6%)

Discuss ideas with others: “Ask for advice. See what other people think. While you usually won’t use what they suggest their ideas can kickstart you brain.” (8%)

Change writing location or writing method: “Switch up locations or methods of writing – write using a pen, a typewriter, etc.” (6%)

Exercise: “Exercise/movement” (3%)

Research: “Researching relevant or related topics” (3%)

Eat or drink something: “Drinking coffee or snacking” (2%)

Meditate/do yoga: “Meditate for five minutes” (1%)

Number 2 is responsible for pretty much the entirety of my In-Progress list as well as for the Tales from the Salvatore Kitchen series. I’ve also done a lot of #4 (especially on After Ten Long Years, which currently consists of 5 distinct sections, but I also successfully employed the reread/revise strategy on the final part of the Josie Saltzman’s Final Holidays trilogy), some #6—which is really a specific subset of #9 I think—(often working in the yard/garden or mowing the lawn instead of walking per se), sometimes #7 (looking at you, friends 😀)…and #10 is a good procrastinator 😂

One thing I don’t see mentioned, and the source of all my best ideas (as I’ve mentioned before) is take a shower; the article I linked to in that post explains why that works.

(Sadly, none of these suggestions are relevant for my current case of writer’s “block,” which is entirely a lack of time. Maybe I should stop visiting tumblr 😂)

[uwudonoodle]

[westywallowing]

he's,,, a cat

adrientte fruits basket au ;)

[starry-bi-sky]

"Stillborn? No, no, still born." -- DPXDC AU

Based off a comment I saw where Bruce knew about Talia's pregnancy in the earlier comivs, and was ecstatic to be a father. So much so that Talia feared he'd give up being Batman for it, so when she gave birth she put the baby (Damian) on a doorstep and (seemingly) told Bruce that the baby was stillborn.

Instead of Damian, that baby was Danny! Meet Daniel Brown, the 14 year old foster kid whose been living with the Fenton family for the last two years. He's about two years older than Damian.

His last name, "Brown", was a generic surname given to him because the note he came with didn't have one on it. It just had the name "Danyal" on it, but albeit 'Daniel' was the one that had been put into the system for, I'll be totally frank here, racism reasons.

(I looked it up to make sure, and it's generally not permissible for foster parents to change the names of their foster kids even if it's a permanent residency, and for that reason Danny doesn't have the last name "Fenton".)

Danny's got ✨~issues!~✨ He's been through a handful of homes growing up, most of them terrible for a variety of reasons. Which has, as a result, left lasting scars. He's generally a very sweet kid, just very distrustful and jumpy. He's got the signs of a kid suffering from PTSD, and a handful of other issues including attachment and insomnia. His inferiority complex could rival Damian's, and that's going to make for an interesting mutual hatred for when they finally meet.

(something I'll get into later)

He still has the blanket he was found in. It's made of a very high quality material and is a beautiful emerald green with little golden thread accents, it's high quality as a result has Danny clinging onto a desperate hope that his bio family might be out there, and the only reason they gave him up was because of some outside factor. It's been taken a few times in old foster homes, and he's flipped out each time.

While he still calls Jack and Maddie by their names, he likes them well enough. The bar isn't that high though, and while they're some of the better foster parents he's had, "better" doesn't equal "safest". Their laboratory malpractice. Basically, C- Fenton Parents. They're negligent by virtue of being engrossed in their work, but they do care equally about Jazz and Danny. So he doesn't hold it against them that much.

He kinda prefers it that way, their loud affection is overwhelming and Danny doesn't know what to do with their attention, even if he craves it. It's a bit of a complicated situation.

They took in Danny because they genuinely wanted another child, but didn't want a big age gap between them and Jazz. It was actually Jack's idea to foster, and they discussed it with Jazz beforehand. She was all for the idea. Thus, a handful of weeks later, a ton of paperwork, and inspection later, and Daniel Brown entered their household with a trash bag in one hand and eyes like shards of stained glass.

His relationship with Jazz is kinda strained, but that's by virtue of her constant psychoanalyzing and helicoptering. Like with the parents, Danny's overwhelmed by the attention and also just, straight up doesn't like the fact that she's telling him that there's something wrong with him. He knows that, thank you. He pushes her away when she does this.

Other than that though? When Jazz isn't smothering him and is acting like an actual sibling and not a third parent, they're pretty close, and Danny really likes her. They've hung out a few times on their own volition, and Jazz showed him how to take better care of his long hair.

His school situation,, pretty similar to canon with the bullying, albeit with a few more instances of him blowing a fuse and lashing out against his attackers. He's a rather angry kid, but it's quiet. It builds up, piles on top of itself, until eventually, like a volcano, it erupts and burns everyone within radius.

Danny's got a fire core, not an ice core. Phantom's hair is made of white magma; thick and heavy, setting itself on fire when his anger runs hot. When he gets angry, his skin begins to char and split open to reveal pulsating lava underneath, and he crackles and pops like a raging forest fire.

I haven't decided yet on how he meets the batfam -- i've got two ideas but they're both in opposition to each other, and drastically alter how the rest of the plot goes. But I do know that him and Damian hate each other in the beginning. And it has nothing to do with inheritance or "being the blood son" -- although their blood relation absolutely plays the major role in their disdain for each other.

Simply put, they're jealous of each other for the same thing: thinking that the other was wanted.

Damian hates Danny because, unlike Damian, Bruce knew about Danny since conception and wanted him from the moment he heard about him. He had a whole nursery set up, and still does. He never took it down -- just locked the door. Damian was thrust upon Bruce without warning, and he feels like he forced himself into the family. And while on some level Damian knows and understands that Bruce wants him and loves him as much as his other children, that doubt and feeling of inferiority still remains. He looks at Danny and sees him with what Damian always feels he needs reaffirmed.

Meanwhile, Danny hates Damian because he looks at him and sees him with everything Danny's ever wanted. He hates him because Damian grew up knowing both of their parents, with one of them for most of his life, and then moved over to the other. There was never a moment where Damian was (seemingly) left to doubt his place within the family. Damian was raised with the very same woman who left Danny on a doorstep, with no clue to his identity beyond a little green blanket and a note with only a first name. Damian was wanted everywhere, and Danny was wanted nowhere. Damian is Danny's replacement in his eyes.

(It's the little revelation that Damian grew up with their mother that elevates Danny from being quietly envious of Damian to downright despising him. What did Damian do, that Danny didn't? He could live with Damian living with Bruce -- Bruce didn't know Danny was even alive. But him living with their mom? Are you fucking kidding him?)

Damian never outright attacks Danny physically, but it's not like he hides that he didn't like Danny. Meanwhile, Danny, in all his repressive anger, quietly despised him from a distance until finally one wrong snide side-comment has him blowing up and it becomes a screaming match. They're both just enough similar to each other that when they look at each other they really just see a mirror.

They'll work it out together, eventually. But it'll be ugly and cruel and explosive, and they'll start mending the bridge to become brothers in more than just blood relation in the end.

But yeah, stillborn Danny has... a lot going for him.

[fictionadventurer]

This AV Club comment is making me so desperate to write a romcom, you have no idea.

[taldigi]

slides onto table

i'm just saying that a piece of jewlery made from a droplet from your persona is an untapped gift potential between persona users

I wonder if different personas make different colored droplets...

[ella-norah]

Ahh, these ideas won't leave me alone. But here is the current one. Mook as a mafia daughter, who dislikes her family's line of work so she left and works as Rak's secretary.

Now I'm just debating if this is gonna be a crossover with some other fandom. I could see this as a crossover. But not sure with which story.

[angrycloudcrown]

i think the idea that the concept of devotion or attachment in fiction HAS to be romantic is stupid. yes i do enjoy the devotion of two unhealthy romantic lovers who love each other more than anything BUT. friends devoted to each other because they have no one else who understands them? friends willing to both die for and kill for each other, and will go down with each other if one friend dies? friends who would never want to engage in anything romantic or sexual with each other, but would give up everything for each other in a heartbeat? friends who would sacrifice their lovers and family for each other? friends who would sacrifice themselves for each other? i feel like boiling complicated dynamics to "oh theyre just in love" sometimes takes away certain things, not all of the time but in a lot of cases. idk anyway platonic devotion/attachment trope ily

[readingxwriting]

Tip

To keep track of each character (for writing a major book), I sketched out a family tree (including who loves who and who they're married to). For some of the major characters, I made a page on that document/slideshow to note important information about them (and how it will affect the plot). I also used symbols like [😃/face emojis] to show their mood, [👑/clothing or job emojis] to show their role in the book, and [⚰️ or ❤️] to show if they're going to be alive or deceased at some point in the book.

*If possible, I also sketch out a portrait of the major characters to understand better

*This is for the writer's eyes only, so don't worry if it gets messy. However, if you're a perfectionist at these kinds of things, I recommend doing it digitally.

[venusdian]

Vote!

[pushing500]

It's Bella's birthday again!! Double-digits already! I'm so proud of her, and I love that she has an edgy vampire-hunter oc to contrast my edgy vampire ocs.

I think Socks is struggling with her peg leg a bit, but Vasso is not really the counsellor type. She'd probably have better luck talking things through with Laursen or Duchess, but at least Vasso is helping in his own way.

Ahahahaha, we've been waiting for this! Husk here is a pigskin raider we've been saving for a special occasion: our yearly prisoner sacrifice ritual! We were going to use a Hussar wild woman, but she kept breaking out, so we ate her.

Husk will atone for her crimes against our lovely little cult in the best way she can. By providing snacks for everyone!

Finally, this beautiful spider came to visit. As the Cult of Ecthuctu has little use for the anima tree, I decided to leave this creature alone for the time being. As long as it doesn't hurt anybody (aside from the anima scream it will inevitably cause when the tree is consumed) it is free to roam as it pleases.

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[bookshelf-in-progress]

June Writing Wishlist

Finish something for each of the unfinished Chesterton Challenge prompts (current plans are for two pieces of flash fiction, a bit of Arateph worldbuilding, and two scenes from Shadowstruck)

Write at least 10,000 words of a single project (or, possibly, divide it up between two shorter retellings)

[sotogalmo]

5:50

Smth smth. Thinking of re-doing my own original story (Coree being the protagonist and such). And since I was only doing "Time Diary" (the story's name) as an exploration of myself,,, and. Well. It's clear that I'm autistic. And I want to use something- yk how espers and their powers in mp100 are just autistic mind powers?? Yeah.

Werewolves and vampires. With some psychic powers.

Yeah- (just been reading a fic that has vampires and I love the world building of the vampires in said fic; bloodless. A ritshou vampire fic, if you all want to read it)

Coree is most definitely a 'werewolf' via this drawing of her I did

Euhsudheuwhhd

[weirdchristmas]

Anyone have candidates for my oddball category for the story contest? I always do a "whatever" and a "weird card" where you riff on an old postcard. Third is always unique. We've done holiday cryptids, a riff on an MR James story, and a remake of an old holiday tv special. Ideas?

I suppose I could try AI or AI-assisted? That seems timely. If I did it, tho, I'd want to know what model and what prompt. It'd be weird to decide, tho. Of course people could reverse "cheat" and write something that'd be funny coming from an AI. But maybe that's the fun?

[rusty-courage]

im really excited about doing this watcher animation bc most of the stuff on my channel has been very loose, sketchy, and colorless, which i LOVE doing, but with this one i really want to take my time and add color/backgrounds/effects/etc.

i'm glad there's no pressure for me to get something out before hype dies down- for example, getting Time's Up out ASAP was so important to me bc i wanted to do it while the hype of limited life was still high- but with this there's no time frame to get something done by. i can just take my time and make something that looks COOL.

that is to say i may not release anything about this for a while (bc i'm also working fulltime rn) but im going to be here having a blast making this. maybe when i get my footing on this project i may stream working on it or something i dunno.

[abeinginsand]

Something, something, Lincoln doesn't like butterflies because they always fly away and don't return. Something, something, Taylor's demon wings are starting to sprout. Both are secretly freaking out about it. ---- Started working on this (fic snippet here)