well, no big surprise here, but count me in as one who gets random ideas at odd times.
i just sort of let part of my mind (henceforth known as "timmy") go wandering around. sometimes, timmy will come across a new and cool idea. sometimes, this idea will be for an invention. usually, it's something that turns out to have been done before... over the years, timmy has independantly invented water distillation, an advanced air mattress, and submarine pressure hulls, among other things.
sometimes, though, timmy will find (or, as seems more accurate, be ambushed by) a fic idea. sometimes, that idea will actually come to something. sometimes, i'll go to the keyboard ASAP and dash the whole thing off in one sitting (note that my average fic length is below 15k). sometimes i'll mull it over and work on it and kick around ideas in my head until they hit critical mass. sometimes i'll just jot them down in a notes file and work on things as i can (i've got about a dozen of those, some of which have been waiting for
years). sometimes, nothing comes of it.
then again, there are those handy challenges... those tend to get new and different thoughts going.
still, i've never been able to write to order, and i haven't been much for writing in general lately. been trying to work on some of those old WIPs, but nothing's come of it yet. we'll see.
so, i think somewhere in all that i actually answered the question.
Paul
