Generating Ideas and Overcoming Writer's Block

The Myth of the Muse

Beethoven kept notebooks of musical fragments. He filled them obsessively. When it was time to compose, he didn’t wait for inspiration. He opened his notebooks and started combining, developing, and transforming the raw material he’d already captured.

Professional writers work the same way. They don’t wait for ideas to strike. They have systems for generating ideas, stockpiling them, and pulling from the inventory when it’s time to write.

AI supercharges this system. Instead of generating three ideas per brainstorming session, you can generate thirty. Instead of being stuck for hours, you can break through a block in minutes.

Ideation Technique 1: The “What If” Engine

Every great story starts with a question. What if a boy discovers he’s a wizard? What if dinosaurs were brought back to life? What if you could erase specific memories?

AI is a “what if” machine. Try this prompt:

Generate 15 "what if" questions for stories in [GENRE].

Make them range from:
- Intimate/personal (affecting one person)
- Community-scale (affecting a group or town)
- World-changing (affecting civilization)

For each, add a one-sentence hint at the emotional core
of the story.

You’ll get a list. Most will be mediocre. A few will make you lean forward. That’s the signal. When your gut says “ooh,” pay attention.

The key insight: You’re not looking for finished ideas. You’re looking for sparks. A “what if” that makes you ask “and then what?” is gold.

Ideation Technique 2: The Collision Method

Take two unrelated things and smash them together:

Try this prompt:

I want to create an unexpected story premise using the collision method.

Give me 10 combinations of:
- An ordinary setting or situation
- An extraordinary or contrasting element

For each combination, write a one-line story premise
and explain why the contrast creates narrative tension.

The magic of collisions is that they create built-in tension. The contrast between elements generates questions that pull a reader in.

Ideation Technique 3: Character-First Discovery

Some stories start with a person, not a plot. You see someone interesting and wonder: what’s their story?

Create 5 compelling character seeds. For each one, give me:

- A vivid physical detail (not just appearance—a habit, gesture, or way of moving)
- A contradiction (something that doesn't match expectations)
- A secret they're keeping
- The question a reader would ask about them

Make them diverse in age, background, and situation.

When a character intrigues you, the story follows. “Why is this retired librarian learning to pick locks?” is already the beginning of a story.

Ideation Technique 4: Sensory Starting Points

Sometimes the way into a story isn’t a concept or character. It’s an image, a sound, a sensation.

Give me 10 vivid sensory moments that could open a story.
Mix the senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, taste.

Make each one specific enough to imply a situation:
- Who might be experiencing this?
- Where are they?
- What just happened or is about to happen?

“The smell of burnt sugar and gunpowder.” That’s not a story yet, but your imagination already started filling in details. Who’s smelling this? Why are those two smells together? The specificity does the work.

Building Your Idea Bank

Don’t let ideas evaporate. Create a simple system:

The capture tool: A note app on your phone, a pocket notebook, a voice memo app. Whatever you’ll actually use when an idea strikes at 2 AM or in the grocery store.

The organization: Keep it simple. A single document with these sections:

## Premises (What-if questions and story concepts)
## Characters (People who interest me)
## Images (Scenes, moments, sensory details)
## Overheard (Dialogue fragments, real conversations)
## Collisions (Interesting combinations)
## Feelings (Emotions I want to explore in fiction)

The rhythm: Once a week, run one AI brainstorming session. Add 10-20 raw ideas. Don’t evaluate them immediately. Let them sit. The ones that keep pulling at you are the ones worth developing.

Quick check: Before moving on, can you recall the key concept we just covered? Try to explain it in your own words before continuing.

Breaking Through Writer’s Block

Writer’s block isn’t one thing. It’s several different problems wearing the same costume. The solution depends on which kind of block you’re facing.

Block Type 1: “I Don’t Know What Happens Next”

You’ve been writing and hit a wall. The plot needs to advance, but you can’t see the path.

Here's my story so far: [brief summary or paste the last few paragraphs]

My character needs to get from [current situation] to [eventual goal].

Give me 5 different things that could happen next.
Make them range from predictable to surprising.
For each, explain what new tension or question it would create.

You’re not asking AI to write your story. You’re asking it to show you doors. You pick which one to open.

Block Type 2: “This Scene Isn’t Working”

You know what the scene needs to accomplish, but the execution feels wrong.

This scene needs to accomplish: [what needs to happen]
The tone should be: [emotional quality]
The characters involved are: [brief descriptions]

I've tried writing it and it feels [flat/rushed/boring/forced].

Give me 5 different approaches to this scene:
1. Start the scene at a different moment
2. Change the setting
3. Add an unexpected interruption
4. Tell it from a different character's perspective
5. Use a completely different emotional approach

Often the problem isn’t what happens in a scene but how you’re approaching it. Starting a confrontation mid-argument instead of building up to it. Setting a breakup in a grocery store instead of a living room. Small shifts in approach can unlock a scene completely.

Block Type 3: “Everything I Write Is Terrible”

This isn’t a craft problem. It’s a confidence problem. The inner critic has taken over.

The AI technique here isn’t about the writing. It’s about perspective:

I'm feeling stuck because my writing doesn't feel good enough.
Help me reframe this by:

1. Remind me of 3 famous first drafts that were terrible
   (with specific examples)
2. Give me a 10-minute writing exercise that's designed
   to be bad on purpose
3. Suggest a way to lower the stakes so I can just play
   with words without pressure

Sometimes the best thing AI can do is give you permission to write badly. Bad writing is the raw material of good writing. Every published novel went through a phase of being terrible.

Block Type 4: “I’ve Lost the Thread”

You’ve been away from a project and can’t get back in.

Here's a summary of my story so far: [summary]
Here are my main characters: [brief descriptions]
I stopped writing at: [where you left off]

Help me re-enter this story by:
1. Summarizing the emotional state of the main character
   at this point
2. Identifying the 3 most important unresolved tensions
3. Suggesting the next small scene I could write
   (just 200-300 words) to rebuild momentum

The key word is “small.” Don’t try to recapture the grand vision. Write a tiny scene. Momentum builds from there.

Exercise: Build Your Starter Kit

Right now, do these three things:

1. Create your idea bank. Open a new document. Add the section headers from above. This is now your permanent creative idea repository.

2. Run one brainstorming session. Pick the technique that excited you most (What If, Collision, Character-First, or Sensory). Run the prompt. Add at least 10 raw ideas to your bank.

3. Star the spark. Look through your results. Mark the one or two ideas that made you feel something. Not “this is objectively good” but “I want to know more about this.” That feeling is your creative compass.

Key Takeaways

• Professional writers have idea-generation systems, not divine inspiration
• The “What If” engine, Collision method, Character-First discovery, and Sensory starting points are four reliable ideation techniques
• An idea bank separates the pressure of ideation from the pressure of writing
• Writer’s block has different types (stuck plot, broken scene, low confidence, lost thread) and each needs a different AI approach
• AI gives you options to react to, which is faster and more productive than creating from nothing
• Your creative instinct, that “ooh” feeling, is the compass that turns AI output into story potential

Next lesson: we go deeper. Character development and worldbuilding, the foundations that make your story feel real.