How do you come up with ideas for stories?

[Vicki M. Taylor]

For me, when I was actively writing, the characters revealed themselves to me and told me their stories.
I also had 2 books published from dreams. I woke the next morning and wrote and wrote every detail of my dream. These pages became my synopsis. From there, the characters took over and the book wrote itself. This happened twice. The second book one first place in a writing contest. I don’t write anymore, not since a huge server backup disaster lost all of my writing. It was like a dark curtain shut out that side of me and the characters don’t talk to me anymore.
I did continue blog writing for a few years, but I finally “officially” retired from writing and am concentrating on marketing my backlist.
I had considered writing a memoir, but even that doesn’t make me eager to write.
I think concentrating on marketing is best for me.

[BooksRule1969]

And eerily here we are, ten years later, and people can do this!

I've been a writer all my adult life. And maybe some of you have heard of this joke, but I've used it numerous times over the years, a couple of times I was actually believed...

Someone asks "How do you get the ideas for your stories? It seems hard and you've always got ideas."

I glance around to ensure we're not being overheard, then say "I don't suppose I should be telling you this..." (which always precedes spilling the beans) "We writers have a special, private website that most of us use." (before the internet it was a special book sent to us privately)

"You see, if I want to write a new horror story or a new mystery, I just log in, give my secret password, and then I check a few boxes-- what type of story, what length -- short story or novel -- what setting -- modern day or old times. You know, I just click the boxes and it takes all my selections, and it downloads a story outline for me! All I need to do is put in some character names, tweak the story line a bit here and there, make any personal changes I want. But the entire story is already there, ready for me to edit. Sure saves a lot of time!"

heh heh, we writers are clever, eh?