The Chicken or the Egg?

[Kate Thornton]

Tomorrow I am going to the local Natural History Museum because I have an idea for a story and want to see if the museum will work as a setting and if my premise holds water...

Story idea, then research - in this case.

But sometimes I do it the other way around - I have an interesting experience ("Hey, let's go see the Museum!") and a story idea develops from it, almost unintentionally.

I do keep an idea file, and I do listen in on other peoples' conversations, but sometimes I also get involved in researches ("Hey! Stop it! You're reading the dictionary again!" or the Google equivalent) which lead to story ideas.

So, what do you do first? Idea? Research? Blank screen of Death until hunger sets in?


.

[BRDurkin]

Usually I get the idea before I start doing any research. Although sometimes, the ideas occur because of an experience I had. And every now and then, I've hit upon an interesting idea from some tidbit of history I picked up while doing research for a school project (although I haven't done anything with those ideas yet, so I don't even know if they'll turn into anything).

But yeah, usually for me, it's idea first, then research into it.

[jaksen]

For me it's the idea/title. They usually coincide. (And sometimes just the title.) I had this title in my head for months, "Caterpillar Bones" and something about a little girl. I couldn't piece it together until I was driving to school and passed an old stone wall, a very wide one, along the side of the road. In my mind I saw a child walking along the middle of it and finding some 'caterpillar bones.'

Then it all gelled.

[Jamesaritchie]

I usually just sit down, find a title I like, and start writing. I seldom get ideas, as such. I decide the genre I want to write, find a title that holds my interest, and just write the story without having a clue where it's going.

The rare, too rare, exception to this is when a story pops into my head fully formed, complete from start to finish, and all I have to do is write it down.

[Erik M]

Idea then research usually. Even if I get an idea from something I have been reading about or otherwise studying, usually I will have to do some research specific to my idea.

[MissMacchiato]

Mine usually goes:

experience --> wonder how I could use it in a story --> further research to see if it's viable.

haha, when I read this thread title for a minute I thought it said, "Children of the Egg" - short fiction.

I couldn't imagine what that short story might be like, haha!

[Kate Thornton]

"Children of the Egg" - I love it!

[MissMacchiato]

Kate - you should write it! :D

[rachelviola]

idea...some research, but little. sometimes the title hits me or the first line, and i go from there.

[sisco]

I usually start with the idea and research then go from there. Although, sometimes when researching I get an idea for something, sometimes even while I'm researching a different story I get an idea for a new one from the research.

On a side note, I rarely come up with a title and work from there. The story is usually done before I settle on a title for it. My WIPs usually have working titles like "Gothic Story" or "Bounty Hunter Space Western" until I figure out something better to call them. Usually the title strikes me sometime after the story is at least halfway written or even complete.

[Scandiaca]

It might be the downfall of most of my longer stories, but I usually start with a single line or something like this. It starts bugging me and I need to get it out of my head or it might explode... that's how most of my stories start. After the first scenes are written, I know in general what I want to write about and such. After that is clear, I start researching and stuff. That is just the way my mind works.

[KyraDune]

It's always an idea first for me, but my stories don't require much research because they're mostly fantasy set in made up worlds.

[Sitka]

"Children of the Egg" - I love it!

Children of the Egg --- I'd buy a copy just on the title alone!

To answer the question in the OP, I am almost always hit with an idea first (usually not even a full idea, just some image or fact or tidbit that strikes me) and then let it sit for a while. I don't have to research for much of my work, but when I do I've found that you have to limit it to some degree --- you could get lost in finding new things.

[Buffysquirrel]

I need an idea before I start. If I start with a title, the story never works. It's as if having a title constrains me to the point of block.

Somewhere though I had a huge list of bookmarks of news and science stories and such that were going to inspire me...nuh huh. Nothing.

Useless brain. I want a retread.

[dgaughran]

50% of the time the idea comes first
50% of the time the title comes first

Almost always happens when I am somewhere without paper and pen, resulting in pockets full of napkins, beermats, and receipts, and a morning of deciphering the hurried scrawl.

[AlwaysJuly]

Generally ideas before research. Sometimes I'm researching something for another reason (usually a new word or a medical term I haven't heard before) and have an idea based off the research, but usually I start with an idea, start writing, and then realize I need to do some research first.

[Daniel A. Roberts]

Ideas and research are akin to milk and chocolate syrup. Both are good by themselves in their own way, but yes, when you mix them they make the best chocalate milk you can find. Since both have two totally different origins, that they find each other in the real world or in the darkest corner of our minds is amazing to me.

And your thread title got me excited there at first. I thought I was going to get to share how I learned which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Should I tell them? *Waits for the whispering that never leaves his inner ear to talk on this subject, then agrees with the shadowy voices*

Ok, this is how I discovered which one came first. Hmmm. Interesting, I am staying on topic too. My idea on how to solve this riddle lead me to researching this in the cheapest sandwhich shop I could find. Understand, this had to be a 'cheap' sandwhich shop. Nothing really considered high quality, as the higher the quality, the less accurate the research.

I ordered a chicken sandwhich and an egg sandwhich at the same time. I made it a point to mention first that I wouldn't be tipping, to include elements of the chaos theory into the grand design. Can't have good research without some chaos somewhere.

When the waitress returned and the plates thumped down, the riddle was solved. The chicken sandwhich was placed on the table first, followed closely and with a dejected glare, the egg sandwhich. (I didn't eat them, angry staff tends to add the ingedient called 'spit' when behind the counter and out of site if they know you won't be tipping ahead of time.)

So it has been settled. The Chicken came first. This idea is designed on the fact that our universe is just as chaotic as well as it's ordered. The element of chance mixed with chaos only works in the proper order when applied only the first time, which is the only time such a thing matters. The actual living chicken and egg happened only once, the first time. Applying them to a sandwhch with this context had never been done before. So it's accurate.

*Listens to the whispers a moment.*

Yes, everyone agrees on that.

:D

[dgaughran]

Actually, the egg came first.

Presuming you accept a basic Darwinian account of evolution, there must have been a species from which the chicken evolved. It's also a safe presumption that this pre-chicken species was an egg-laying one.

Ergo, the egg came before the chicken.

Where's my prize?

[Detri Redmond]

Usually for me it's idea then research. But recently when I had the urge to write and a setting for the story I didn't have an idea and so...I just sat there making goo goo eyes at the screen for a few days.

[Daniel A. Roberts]

Actually, the egg came first.

Presuming you accept a basic Darwinian account of evolution, there must have been a species from which the chicken evolved. It's also a safe presumption that this pre-chicken species was an egg-laying one.

Ergo, the egg came before the chicken.

Where's my prize?

I don't subscribe to Darwin. He may have it all backwards. 50/50 chance.

I never met the guy, but he makes me think of Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heros. There's an episode where there's an unexploded bomb in the prison camp yard from the allies, and Hogan is trying to disarm it. Klink is looking over his shoulder and the intensity is high. Then Hogan asks Klink, "Which one would you cut?"

Klink picks the wire and Hogan immediately snips the opposite wire. It's disarmed. Klink has a fit and asks, "Why did you pick the opposite wire?"

Hogan's classic response, "Because I knew you would get it wrong."

People like Klink really walk the living Earth as we know it, which gives me nightmares sometimes. I don't know if Darwin was ever that bad in real life because well, I wasn't around when he was kicking. But it's possible. /shiver Oh so possible.

:D