Write Away

Let me think about that. For one thing, I write a lot of fanfic, so the "idea" actually brings with it a lot of already-existing characters and worldbuilding some of the time.

So let's look at some specific examples of original fics. The Dragon We Feed is a response to a prompt-- and the truth is, so is a lot of my original fic. The prompt was "The Wolf We Feed" and that refers to a story that I've never liked, so my idea was to write something explaining why I don't like it (namely: won't a wolf that isn't starving and desperate be nicer?) and I just felt like making it fantastical, so instead of wolves, it's dragons. The village had to exist to make choices about how to interact with their dragons.

Unicorns and Other Fantasies is another one based on prompts. This time multiple prompts: neurodivergent romance and trying to save a sick unicorn.

The Unknown was for prompts for queerplatonic zucchinis and speculative slice-of-life. So I decided it would be after the apocalypse, and I like competent characters, and the whole thing came together from there. Wanting to write more about Tahara and Rachel, I used that verse for another fic, In The Cold, for a prompt asking for seasons as places.

I'm currently feeling inspired by my own fanart of someone's complaint about someone else's unclear insult. Someone called someone else a "fat pirate dragon-worshiping feminist" and it was unclear whether the feminist or the deity dragon was the fat pirate. And now I'm wanting to draw a comic of my fat feminist pirate character who worships a dragon goddess. (It's terrible fanart, very scribbly. I'm capable of better.) So that would be character first.

Then let's talk fanfics: I'll go through my posted fics on AO3 and try to recall what inspired them.

Artefact Run is actually an expanded version of a bit of fleeting imagery I used in another fic (not posted anywhere yet): in the unposted wip, Damas imagines what it would have been like if he hadn't lost Mar, and I liked the idea so much I expanded it from the few words given to it in the wip into an entire AU fic.

That We Might Live was an attempt to fill four ladiesbingo prompts and a response to something that used to be popular in Kingdom Hearts fandom a few years ago, where people would imagine KH without the Disney. I had thought I would make some meta about that latter idea, but then when I realised it had a fic in there, I made Tess the Keybearer and two other women her companions and then it could be ladiesbingo.

Fix was based on a situation and the character developed as I wrote.

The Road to Yu Dao started as something like "what if Toph and Teo started a disability rights movement in the ATLA verse?"

Dumb Sloth: I was watching the movie and from Sloth's first appearance I knew I wanted him to have a humanising portrayal. I was sure I'd have to work on erasing lots of horrible ideas from the canon, but I found that I didn't, which was a pleasant surprise. So I just gave Sloth and his family some closure, of a sort. (Of the "nope, goodbye, never talking to you again" sort.)

Last Chance: shyrstyne wanted BAMF!Tess for the reward for an art contest for unridiculous redesigns of the female characters. I borrowed the AU premise of a WiP I was already working on and focused on Tess's expanded role in that verse. (Then, to finish up the story, Ashelin and Keira immediately after.)

So I guess I get a lot of ideas for situations, events and premises, and occasional ideas for characters.