When the river runs dry

[Quiver he/him]

Or, 'am I the only one who worries about this?'

So... I tend to be...concerned. when trying to come up with ideas, I can maybe come up with a single concept I like, or idea I think is cool...

But I worry, a lot, about the river drying up. About the mine being empty, the book being blank. I worry -a lot- that the reason I only e er have random vague ideas is because I'm not creative enough and running out of ideas is a matter if "when", not "if".

Does anyone else ever have that kinda worry?

[Delightful]

Yup.

Its counter-intuitive, but the more im working on something the more ideas I get. Creative energy, to a degree, seems to feed on itself. Or more like a creative muscle that gets stronger as you use it.

Just write your weak lame terrible ideas and work with what you have and that should get better ideas flowing.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I used to, especially back when I was just starting out. But like Delightful said, the more ideas I had, the more ideas came to me. 

 

Just don't be afraid to project-hop, like Brandon does. Writing things for two different worlds, with different themes and characters, is invaluable to keeping your ideas fresh. As an exception proving the rule, look at Rick Riordan. He stuck with Greek and Roman mythology-based middle-grade books from Percy Jackson all the way through Heroes of Olympus. The original series was fresh, but you can sense his enthusiasm beginning to wane by about House of Hades; and by the time you get to Blood of Olympus, you can tell by all of the hastily resolved subplots and lack of meaningful description that he's sick of the whole thing. He's pumped that well dry, when it would've been wiser to dig a new one and let it replenish itself. 

[A Joe in the Bush]

Like the others, I usedito have that worry. But, I wrote anyway, despite having no ideas. And like the others said, the well will not run dry if you just keep writing. There are Thirteen different stories I'm 'working' on right now. I just hop between them whenever I have an idea for them. It does take me longer to finish a story that way, but I've never sat down and had to force myself to come up with something to write.

[Arrae]

A teacher of mine said that it's better to have a horrible first draft than nothing at all, because even if 99% of it is trash that you'll throw away, you might find a few gems in the mud worth keeping.