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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/7867
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I've done some writing in the past - mostly short descriptive pieces, although I once wrote 9000+ words of a story idea I had.

What I enjoy about it are the technical, intellectual, creative challenges involved in every level from the sentence to the plot arc. I am analytically minded: I enjoy identifying a problem, clarifying it, breaking it down, and _solving_ it. I don't really do unrestrained creativity, I need a concrete problem, which "make up something interesting" isn't. Anything I've written in the past, I've just happened to get an idea: then I had fun solving the _concrete problem_ of communicating that idea as well as possible. But coming up with the idea in the first place was just a happy accident.

I've considered more conceptual forms of writing, like philosophical stories (dystopias etc). But is that the only way? Does anyone _want_ to read a story written by someone who doesn't like coming up with ideas? Have any popular writers (past or present) been similarly-minded to myself? Or am I overthinking my problem, and this is something everyone struggles with? If so, what are some techniques for coming up with ideas when you don't care _what_ you write, you just enjoy writing fiction?

Original score: 12