So, how do y'all develop ideas for stories? Any tips?
I question every aspect of the story, and I let those answers develop the story.
I always come up with the same problems: the world is too complicated, there's too many plot holes
Those problems present questions, and the answers write your story.
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"This guy and girl need to love each other 'that' way, but they can't because they are siblings... and incest is gross! How can I do this?"
One can be adopted.
"The family is poor and can barely feed one child. why would he adopt?"
The family was paid by royalty to care for a child as his own.
"But the father HATES royalty, he'd sooner die than accept money from them. Why would he do that?"
Because the child is that of a concubine, one he use to love very much before the king enslaved her. She stole as much gold from the kingdom as she could carry and headed back to the father. Between the hard trip to the father and giving birth, she died. His hatred for royalty actually stemmed from the concubine's act of selflessness, and he hates them for what they did to his previous lover.
"i thought you said he was paid by royalty?"
That's just what he told his current wife to keep her happy. She wouldn't like to think they were surviving because of the work of her husband's old flame."
"...That's actually pretty good."
Thanks, It was your questions though.
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By breaking apart a problem into smaller questions, you can easily answer and sew them together to form an ultimate solution. And that solution is your story. Things can get a bit more tricky when you try to sew other players into your story, but the process is the same.