Idea generators say “Get an idea!”

[avram]

Meh. I don’t hold much with fortune-telling per se, but I find some techniques useful as creativity stimulators, generators of semi-structured randomness that I can spark ideas off of. At least, sometimes.

So I’m trying to come up with plot ideas for this comic strip I want to work on, and I consult the Astrodice drcpunk picked up for me at GenCon. What do I get? The Sun and Scorpio in the 5th House with the lead pipe — brilliant creativity. Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m trying to be brilliantly creative, you dumb hunks of plastic, but it’s not flowing, so make with the ideas! OK, let’s try the Voyager Tarot — the Ace of Crystals, which means brilliance. Gee, thanks.

Comments

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

*giggle* With the lead pipe. I love it!

I would suggest doing a more complex pattern - they tend to have cards to represent things like what is blocking you, where you're coming from, what's to come, and what is influencing you. Those might be more helpful bits of information to play around with.

[avram]

I should probably adapt a common layout pattern for plot generation — Who’s my central character, What’s his or her problem, What are his or her complications, etc.

Maybe my first story should be about a brilliant, but blocked, creative person.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Maybe you're supposed to do a comic strip based on 150-watt light bulbs.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

In a context in which those results have meaning, I'd say they mean that you think the problem is lack of ideas, but it isn't--that the problem is somewhere else, you have the ability to generate the ideas on your own, so what's stopping you?

Then, based purely on what I know of you and of writing, I'd ask about things that I've discovered that often block ideas: having a lot of ideas but not settling down on one to develop; being too critical of the ideas during the vulnerable formative stage; waiting for The World's Best Idea to come along; expecting ideas to develop themselves instead of doing so through one's hard work.

Maybe none of these are relevant, of course!