Let's have a discussion about the nature of people, writing, and creativity. We live, think, and exist like this. Linear. Events happening in sequence. Some events and flashbulb moments more important than others. While not EXACTLY this, but EFFECTIVELY creativity is like this: What are we looking at? A spiral staircase. Why that in particular? Our creativity tends to PIVOT around ideas and concepts. Narratives stack or stair-step in chains of cause and effect.
This can also be visualized like this: Ripples. So, let's turn to how thinking about those images can be used to simplify story creation. Erase all your preconceptions about story plot and theme. Blank sheet. First - Think of a character and the world that character exists in. The single most important thing about that character is that they have something that they CARE about, something they will fight and struggle over.
Second- Knowing what the character's stakes are, stories FOR that character involve some threat to their stakes. Template : Character in World values X, Y element in that world threatens X = Story So, this very simplistic model is the water droplet that creates a chain of events- your plot.
- Man loves house, city wants to demolish house- story.
- Woman loves child, someone kidnaps child - story.
- Man loves country, country goes to war - story. This brings me to the visual depiction of this: Almost all blocks to creating a story concept is over thinking it. It's understanding a simple dynamic then *spiraling* outward as events are driven by the actions of characters.
Let's walk through a more complex story premise. I'm going to use isekai (from Japanese anime because it is LITERALLY a formula for an infinite variety of stories). Isekai is a character from the real world waking up in a fantasy / science fiction / game world. That's it. There must be more, right? Nope. The only requirement for a "isekai" story is it involves some person from current day urban existence being translated into some speculative context. Here's some of the ripples:
- What is the world like? (World building)
- How do they adapt? (Coping mechanisms, mental / emotional issues)
- What is the real-worlder's perspective on the new realm? Of course, there's a myriad of threats and twists that can be applied to this and that's why every anime studio that I know of has at least ONE isekai. The formula is popular, themes are easy to develop, and there's so many ways to go to make gripping, fun, or exciting stories. Some isekai characters have super-powers in the speculative context (popular) Some isekai characters have no powers and have to start life over - older people put in teen or even INFANT bodies (with full awareness of their former lives). So, circling back to story codification. What happens to all isekai characters? They form an attachment, some stake in the new world (or perhaps getting back to the old world). Sometimes their stake is their own life. Whatever that is... it's threatened and the plot pivots around that. Long story short... coming up with story ideas is easy... the hard part is ideas that grip you enough for the long haul.