For me, nothing has ever blasted away writer's block faster than a new and interesting idea. Sometimes it gives me a new way of thinking about my project, and sometimes it gives me an idea for something to change/add. It doesn't even have to be relevant, it just needs to be cool/weird enough to get my gears turning.
I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I thought collecting a bunch of fresh ideas together in one place might help get one or two people out of a slump.
So if you have anything particularly interesting, share it here! It can be a person, an event, or an abstract concept. It can be real, fictional, or even something you made up. (Just remember that this isn't about self promotion, there's time and a place.) As long as you think it could give some authors ideas, plonk it on down!
Since I've always thought one of the best ways to get ideas is looking at a different perspective, I'll start us off with something from a different culture: The Japanese religion of Shinto.
The basic idea is that everything has a spirit/god/kami. A Starbucks, a forest, your computer specifically, a tree, a leaf... Everything. Most of them are pretty close to nonexistent when it comes to intelligence and power, but some of the bigger ones can get pretty powerful within a limited area. Some even grow powerful enough to shape entire continents.
However, most practitioners are more concerned with the local kami. There's about one per town, and the traditions for appeasing them, as well as the effects their powers have (good or bad), varies from kami to kami.
Of course, Shinto isn't so simple I could describe it in two paragraphs, but the idea of a religion with an infinite number of gods (even though most of them aren't good for anything) was too fascinating not to share. It's definitely more interesting than your standard pantheon/monotheistic stuff. (Although they can have their fun parts too.)
I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I thought collecting a bunch of fresh ideas together in one place might help get one or two people out of a slump.
So if you have anything particularly interesting, share it here! It can be a person, an event, or an abstract concept. It can be real, fictional, or even something you made up. (Just remember that this isn't about self promotion, there's time and a place.) As long as you think it could give some authors ideas, plonk it on down!
Since I've always thought one of the best ways to get ideas is looking at a different perspective, I'll start us off with something from a different culture: The Japanese religion of Shinto.
The basic idea is that everything has a spirit/god/kami. A Starbucks, a forest, your computer specifically, a tree, a leaf... Everything. Most of them are pretty close to nonexistent when it comes to intelligence and power, but some of the bigger ones can get pretty powerful within a limited area. Some even grow powerful enough to shape entire continents.
However, most practitioners are more concerned with the local kami. There's about one per town, and the traditions for appeasing them, as well as the effects their powers have (good or bad), varies from kami to kami.
Of course, Shinto isn't so simple I could describe it in two paragraphs, but the idea of a religion with an infinite number of gods (even though most of them aren't good for anything) was too fascinating not to share. It's definitely more interesting than your standard pantheon/monotheistic stuff. (Although they can have their fun parts too.)