I had contacted Authors and universe Creators about writing in there universe when I had the down time at work. I had High Hopes and lots of Solid Ideas, but when I put my self down to write my muse refused to cooperate every time. For those of you that your muse will feed you ideas and help you write stories I have to tip my hat to you. My muse no matter how much I tried to cares it cox it and reason with it would give up ideas but would never help me compose those ideas into stories that people could read. I miss my High School days when it did but now it does not. To those that I was talking Too that I have failed to deliver stories that I came up with the ideas on I am deeply sorry and apologize greatly. I guess I am going to have to accept that I have been relegated to the status of story fan and not an Author.
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We all start somewhere
My method is to write a one-paragraph description (summary) of the story; it's all sentence fragments and crap - grammatically not worth beans. But it outlines the story.
Then I break it into major scenes. Tom meets Amy, etc. Start with a one-liner for each scene if you have to, but start somewhere and get your scenes collected. Then for each scene, write a summary of what happens in the scene - again, focus not on grammar or even spelling, but describing what happens in the scene. Once you do this for a scene, you have a skeleton you can hang muscles and organs and skin on. This breaks the writing task into small manageable chunks and makes it easier. If I get stuck on a scene, I can write a later one - so long as I don't shatter my basic outline.
Just a thought. If it works for you, by all means use it. If it doesn't, experiment with other ways. The key, though, seems to be to break the work into smaller chunks that you can get your mind around.
Good luck, and if you keep trying, you'll find something that helps you organize your thoughts so your muse has a clear runway.
Imagination is more important than knowledge
A. Einstein
thank you for the advice
I have always had difficulty with outlines and wrote my train of thought from beginning to end taking steps back and forward and revisions were required. But I see your point just write down the general idea of what I want and try and expand on it. I just wish I had the free time like when work was slow. My work week right now is Monday through Friday during the day and then when it is required I have to work Saturdays too. Right now I hate being in IT sometimes.
"Cortana is watching you!"
I think only grammar teachers like outlines
My 'outlines' are rough things at best and written for two purposes: first, to get a beginning-to-end flow of the major plot elements and characters, and second, to start a playpen to flesh-out each scene. I guess you could call it verbal storyboarding. Like anything, you just have to push yourself to do it. I can throw together a storyboard now in 10-45 minutes, depending on the story length and complexity.
In any event, I hope you find the way to harness your muse.
Imagination is more important than knowledge
A. Einstein
The idea factory
My ideas come from all kinds of strange places. It may be a phrase or situation I saw on the TV or it might be something I remembered from last night's dream -- I'm fortunate that I can generally remember such things and let my brain work on them in the background.
Sometimes I open a new directory and store a simple text file with what I can remember of the plot or scene. When I go back to it that's usually enough to trigger the memories again, but what might become of it can be completely different than my original musings.
As for writing, don't attempt to over-control the process. Just start putting words down and see where it goes. It is useful, mostly, to have an idea about how you'd like the tale to end but that doesn't mean that you have to know every single stop along the way in advance. Sometimes I find my characters have a much better idea of what's going on than I do!
Some authors like to have a complete story outline in place before they begin, and then subdivide and subdivide and then fill in the detail but I can't write like that. Often I'll have waypoints where I know certain things must happen but how I get there is completely open.
If your ideas are not turning into full stories perhaps I could suggest you try looking at them from another angle. The original idea for A Winter's Tale was nothing like the story that resulted here, but the basic plot points remain and I think the result is better for my rethink.
I think you'll find there are stories there for you to write. You just have to find the way to let them out.
Penny