CJ at 2011-08-08 18:41:14:

Good question ...
My ideas usually come from genres or types of stories I'm passionate about, the kind I'd like to see in the movies. They come to me in different forms: sometimes as characters who need to go on a compelling journey; sometimes as a concept that is interesting on its own or that I could genre-bend or genre-mash to an interesting effect; sometimes as a world that I feel hasn't been explored recently, or explored in a way that I'd like to see it explored. Sometimes, an instrumental music work will suggest a story to me, too. Or at least a scene in a larger work.

Once I get the general idea of the main character(s), their quest and antagonist, I actually get an idea for a really good ending. I try to create something that will make the audience stand up and cheer, if I can. That ending helps serve as a polestar for the rest of the story. That's where all the roads converge.

I think my strength, as well as my weakness, is that I tend to stick with where my story instincts say a story should go. I outline, but I make the outline based on a certain "vision" of how I see things happening. I think I should be more open to playing around with the elements as you mentioned in your post; switch the protagonist's gender; find a way to change or up the stakes, etc. I need to be more clay and less granite. I'm working on it.

As always, thanks for a great thought-sparking, idea-honoring site.

Chris at 2011-08-09 07:34:31:

It's what gets me up in the morning, and what makes me sleep at night. When I'm up, I'm running around collecting all of my ideas, and I sometimes go to bed just so I can unleash my subconscious mind on whatever story I've ventured into.
And that "spirit of the spec" applies to my music too, as well as just about everything creative I've ever endeavored to do. Only those who really just love what they do can do it, because there's never a guarantee that anyone else will.

CJ at 2011-08-09 08:30:37:

@Chris: It is amazing what the subconscious can do.

As an example (it will be brief--other people's dreams can be brutal to listen to), one time I dreamed I was at a backyard barbecue that was suddenly attacked by an invisible killer (!). I had a pistol with one bullet left, but didn't dare waste it. Suddenly, I got the idea to add elements to the grills to cause them to smoke profusely--smoke which gave away the killer's location as he moved through it. I drew a bead on him and was able to bring him down with my last shot. Weird, I know, but the use of the grill smoke was a great little tactic dreamed up by my subconscious, and made for tense moments as I searched for the killer in the smoke.

Scott at 2011-08-09 13:21:19:

@Jeffrey: News to come on the book front.

@Chris and CJ: I've read lots of features and interviews with writers who are really serious about their dreams. Filmmakers such as Luis Bunuel in his more surrealist movies derived much of their cinematic style from dream reality. And if you read the terrific book by editor Walter Murch, "In the Blink of an Eye," he discusses a question that vexed him as he started in the film business: How does the very idea of a film cut, that is cutting from one scene to the next, that disjunction, work for a viewer? His answer: Dreams. We make transitions all the time in our dream state.

Of course, C.G. Jung was big on dreams. I've been studying him now for many years and as it turns out, he was a big fan of movies, too. In fact he thought movies and dreams shared a similar narrative structure.

What we conjure up in our conscious state is great. But what is the percentage of 'stuff' going on in our mind that is unconscious or subconscious? 70? 80? 90%? It just makes sense that we, as writers, should do what we can to tap into those resources. That's why I'm such a huge proponent of brainstorming.

Of course, I must end with that old joke about the writer who woke up in the middle of the night, writing down a dream he had onto a pad of paper on his nightstand, then went back to sleep sure in the knowledge his subconscious had just gifted him a hit story. He wakes up the next day and excitedly reads what he'd written on the pad of paper. It read:

"Boy meets girl."