My Process
The writing process that I use today is quite similar to what I used to break out of my disappointing streak of writing failures; it’s what took me from dreading the writing I wanted to do, to looking forward to writing every day. That process has changed over time, so I’ll make note on the steps here of how it changed:
Generating ideas: I know that this step can really trip people up. Some writers have an enormous backlog of ideas (I’m fortunate to be one of those), while others desperately want to write, but just can’t seem to tie down a compelling idea. So, to hopefully help with that, here are some of the sources of my ideas:
Inspiration from your own life: one of my stories started off as a twist on my own experiences, before growing into something else. So something in your own life, even something that seems mundane, can be a good starting point.
Turning it up to 11: I read one piece of writing advice that said to almost always make your scenes, characters, and events far more dramatic and explosive than what seems reasonable. So you can take something from your real life (or something else you’re familiar with) and add something crazy. The story I’m looking to publish started off as a fairly low-key mystery, based on some twists and swaps to events I experienced. Then I decided to experiment by tossing in fantasy and sci-fi elements and dialing things up close to absurd; the folder it lives in is still titled with “Crazy” prefixed to the original name. And it worked. Dialing it up so far served to dial it into something
Combination inspiration: you see this concept a lot, and I’ve even seen it on some questionnaires for publishing