It’s like my starting ideas I don’t actually shop for at all. I’m wandering down the street and I see something in a store window, and I can’t resist it, so I buy it even though I have no clue what I’m going to use it for yet.

But then one day I’m strolling along and I see something that would go just perfectly with one of the other things I own, if only I had x, y and z to go with them both, so then I head out looking for x, y and z. Finding x, y and z is both harder and easier. Easier, because you know what you are looking for, and harder because, well, you know what you are looking for — it’s no longer a case where any random cool item will do. So you have to diligently hunt for x, y and z, where you merely had to recognize as something worth having the initial starting ideas.

So I guess I see three potential weak points a writer could have that might need work. There’s recognizing good ideas when they wander across them, there’s realizing what else is needed to make those starting ideas work as actual stories, and then there is hunting up the missing elements.

Except that this isn’t how I usually think about it at all.

I usually think of developing a plot as building the story proper out of the story stuff I already have in my starting idea. I know I end up with a lot more than what I started with, but it hardly ever feels to me like I’m going out and getting something new. It’s more like when I need something more, I just look deeper into what I have, and the deeper I look, the more stuff is already there just waiting for me to find.

Not worrying too much about it right now, however – getting it right will happen in the edit.