Writing Eureka Moments!

Chaaruzu_Corner

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I really wanna get a discussion going in this forum, don't really venture here much but yeah XD Anyways what I mean is that little spark in your head when you thought of a great scene, moments, motivation, plot elements, etc.

That AH! Moment when you finally solve a loose plotline or something that improves it tremendously changing your original vision of the chapter for an arguably better story as a result.

For me some of these eureka moments are so great that they changed my story for the better, for instance I made one character be a son of a protagonists' friend or connecting two plotlines so that my protagonist has a good motivation to do it. Something like that.

(Yes I know this thread may contain spoilers from your submissions so I don't mind keeping it as vague as possible)
 

Scribbler

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I wouldn't exactly call it a eureka moment, more so a time where I tried to do something without actually knowing what I wanted to do, but it was fairly recent and this seems like a good as place as any to share it. I'm writing a VRMMO story and the MC is taking a quest to find a lost item. The hook/twist of the quest/chapter was supposed to be the idea of finding some lost item becoming something far grander as it leads to an underground organization trying to take over the world. And it just so happens that stealing that lost item was one of the things they needed to do in order to take over the world (in this case it was shoes).

I had never written, or endeavored to write a mystery/thriller as a main plot for me before. I had the beginning and the end/ main premise, but I didn't have the middle part. So I after I wrote the beginning, I started to write the middle, and it was the most cliched scene you would see in every thriller movie, where the main characters accidentally stumbles on someone who is connected to the secret organization, chases them down, and before they can talk the culprit is killed by another goon of the organization.

And it's not that I completely hated how I wrote the scene or how cliche it was (though I did partly). I hated the fact that I basically already wrote the same scene in a different story. And since I didn't think of the middle part like I usually do when writing a chapter, I wasn't exactly sure what to write next to get to the end. It's not as if I couldn't think of a way if I wanted to, but it simply felt wrong, so I scrapped the scene and thought of a better more logical and more interesting order of events. This time the MC actively looked for and found a culprit based on a prior clue and followed him.

It wasn't exactly a eureka moment. I'm not exactly sure if I've ever had anything so fortuitous. It was more like a moment where I knew it felt wrong so I had a long think about it.
 

jinxs2011

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One time I was just in the car on the way home. All of a sudden, a fragment of storyline came into my head, along with a name. I checked it later, and the name's meaning fit the character's personality and story so much it was almost scary. Pretty much the only time i've jotted something down as soon as I thought of it.
 

Phantomheart

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Was researching some definitions of kanji and found that the word Mao is made up of ma (spirit or evil) and o ( usually denoting greatness or respect) so spirit great, other wise demon lord. Used the kanji ma with the jape seems word for fox, kitsune. And bam! I had a name.
 

Nihilaine

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Don't you just hate it when you had that really great Eureka moment that can drastically improve the plotline but like, it was aimed at something that you had already written way back at the beginning of your story and you had already written somewhere around like 50K words and you have to modify all of that if you want to implement that brilliant idea you just thought. xD
 

Azrie

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Mine wasn't such an Eureka moment. It was a more of 'Hmm, this is an amazing sh*tpost' It was just a big what if, that really didn't make that much sense. I did it. Ended up creating the most likable character in my story. Worth it. Would do it again, 10/10.
 

Chaaruzu_Corner

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But there's no harm in just asking "okay, but what if", and it can bring a fresh perspective.

Hmmm I've never really thought of it that way, the way I always had them is just wondering how to solve this problem in my story then just thinking about it when you have a little thought and Beulah!
 
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I think it can be as simple as just shifting a single bit on a common trope.

Like when you get hit by a truck, the MC don't get Isekai'd.

Instead, he hit the truck back until it went home crying.

Simple as that.

Or about a dragon who loves riding humans.

Sure it can be random, but it's possible to just consciously think 'bout it and come to a satisfying solution. Well, it depends on the story you're working on. I'm just writing shits and giggles so anything's fine.
 
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