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What do you do when you need an idea for a story? In my case, I'm often inspired by small things. Once I have the basic idea I start to try coming up with characters, situations. The result usually tends to grow and grow..

As for shorter stories, I never really tried coming up with a lot of those.. any tips?

My longer stories usually come up by themselves, or by me playing around with what a certain character would do in a certain situation, and so forth.

When I need short stories, I usually brainstorm a lot. Open op a text document, and just write a lot of stuff down that comes to mind. That sometimes helps.

I'm actually kinda an airhead one. That's why I use either papers that I fill with lots of info on one character (and one only) and I leave some space for further "interaction notes" (or character evolution) or lots of data files (*.txt mainly).
Then I write a document where I put all the interactions between characters, how one move makes the other act, etc.
The pros are that you exactly know where your characters evolve but the cons are that you get lots of paper to fill. Or you can play with the labyrinth software which can draw graphs of character interactions for you (you'll save forests doing so).

As for the main story... I usually tend to do simple things like "presenting characters, place obstacle 1, resolve obstacle 1, place event 1, etc..." but it really depends on the overall story you plan to create.
I mean, that depends on what you're planning : if you're more interested in how your characters evolve, or how long your story goes, or how much you'll be able to write a day...

Short stories are always the hardest for me because I have a terrible tendency to make everything epic (e.g. A hero has to collect five hundred shards of the shattered vase to gain enough power to defeat the evil Lord Zanzelzee and his army of darkness. After he gathers the shards, he must train to harness the power, and finds that the best place to do so is at a world-famous tournament that lasts and entire year [Okay, so maybe I'm not THAT bad]).

Ideas just hit me at random times because I tend to ask myself a lot of "what if" questions, and then I start weaving a story around my answer. For short stories, I usually try to ask myself what event could happen over the course of a single day that someone would tell their best friend about when they ask "How was your day?" Sometimes I come up with mundane stuff like the line at the grocery store was too long, but even that can be turned into an interesting encounter.

It's hard to explain for me. A lot of the time I daydream, and it's in these times I come up with original (and sometimes weird, disturbing and zany) ideas. Another thing you can do is use everything around you. Like if you see two people having an arguement in the street- you can use this scenario, and now you know what you're doing, let your mind loose.

If you're bored, just think. You'll work best at these times, because there's nothing to distract you.

sometimes I steal an idea, dream up some diffrent characters, 'improve' the plot, add things i like... voila! Whole new idea!
this actually works. One story I wrote was based off a popular anime. None noticed, they just went 'holy crap' on me.

Other times I get inspired by dreams. Like this space adventure I'm writing, or this novel I'm working on. I dreamed the beginnings of them both.

then again, it might be a matter of "I really wanna read sumfin' like this, but none writes it." you simply write it yourself!

I find it very hard to come up with story ideas on demand. Luckily, though, ideas strike me at all sorts of other times. I note them down (even if it's in the middle of church or whatever - okay, if I'm cycling somewhere, I'll wait till I arrive before noting it down). I have this big file of "Story ideas" on my PDA (but a pad of paper would do just as well).

When one of them keeps burning away at me, then I'll figure out more details to it, and eventually write it

Or alternatively, when NaNoWriMo (or NaNoRenO) rolls around, I'll look in the file (and/or my MCI list) for two or three ideas that particularly grab me, and combine them to form my story idea

What I do is listen to music and gaze outside of my window. That's for the long stories. For short stories, I think of my past experiences, and write a story based on that. (For example, I was accused of stealing a bike and got sent to jail.)

Haha, story ideas are seldem a problem for me. I actually get way too many and I can't decide which ones to turn into games! ^_^;;

Short stories are always the hardest for me because I have a terrible tendency to make everything epic (e.g. A hero has to collect five hundred shards of the shattered vase to gain enough power to defeat the evil Lord Zanzelzee and his army of darkness. After he gathers the shards, he must train to harness the power, and finds that the best place to do so is at a world-famous tournament that lasts and entire year [Okay, so maybe I'm not THAT bad]).

Waahhh... I get the same problem too all the time! The biggest work for me is not coming up with a story idea, but scaling that idea back into something that I can accomplish with the resources I have! ^_^;;

I usually do the followings :
1. I daydream in a quiet place, alone in my room.
2. I turn on music to find the mood, either sad, happy, or scary.
3. I chat with my friends, sms them and others, they give me ideas!

Friendship!

You asked when I need a story idea (not how I get a story idea for general, right?). Usually, when I think for some idea, my mind goes blank. After that, I think all the idea I've been thought before. If I think something else that I never thought, I think about it deeper.

Most of the time I think about the situation first. Like "How about if a boy, want to reset his life from the beginning, get his chance but in the form of a little girl?" or "How about the story about a teacher that actually a demon-hunter?", etc. After that, I start thinking other aspects like the main characters ability, the heroine, the enemies, the motives, etc.

Oh, and don't forget to jot them all down (usually I type it in my computer) so I can add and edit them easier and faster. Never ever delete an idea. If you think to heavily edit an idea, make a new file (use Save As...).

1. I watch anime
2. I ask friend. XD

I don't look for ideas, they look for me.

Really. I see incredibly vivid dreams sometimes..

Ideas can come from anywhere, so I always have a notebook (or some paper) and a pen with me everytime I go outside.

If there are ideas in the form of text files and/or documents dumped in my PC's recycle bin, I retrieve and store them in my own folder for later use. The same thing happens when I occasionally drop by netcafes. That's why I also bring my flash drive.

Then when the time is right, I can link the story idea(s) to the stories I'm writing.

I never use notes, heh, heh.
Basically I keep them in my tiny brain and there they are for the rest of my life XD