Quote Originally Posted by Neo Emolga View Post
There's not a whole lot in the US either. It's a really difficult job market at the moment, but volunteer graphic design is another cool possibility.

As for the novel, I still need to write a synopsis for agents, and I need to get off my butt and do that. I didn't realize most agents want that and I can't really start contacting them until I have one ready to be sent over. It's basically summing up the entire novel in 500 words or less, chock full of spoilers. The idea of them just reading that and not the novel actually kind of irks me (because they'd miss out on so many good things), but that's just how the process goes. They get tons of these all the time and unless they like the summarized storyline, they're not going to plow through the rest of the novel.

But yeah, coming up with ideas is tough. Usually I like to build a setting first, come up with concepts, creatures, and characteristics, and then give it a story, all the while tinkering things along the way to fit with that storyline. It helps to think of your favorite movies and games, borrow a few of the things you liked the most about them as inspiration (tweaking them to your personal tastes helps make them uniquely yours), and weave them into your story.

Dreams also help, and there you don't need to worry about copying too much because it's not like it's copyrighted material! Sometimes dreams can get weird, but weird is good. I won't deny I've used events and themes from my dreams in stories. Sure, I tweak them to fit with the story, but often it's "you can't make this stuff up" kind of material that you just can't pull out of nowhere.
I often have dreams that I feel like would make really good stories as I wake up. And then after a few minutes I realise none of it actually made any sense at all. XD But maybe I should start writing them down or something! I have a fair few ideas for things I think would be cool stories, but I struggle to come up with interesting characters.

That makes sense that they would need a short summary. It must be tough to try and make it sound as interesting as possible in so few words! Cool to hear it's all progressing though :D