WHEN AWESOME IDEAS ATTACK

Hey All!!!
Imagine this:

You're at your writing critique group meeting, shooting the breeze, talking plot points, and just chatting about overall life. In your spare time you've been trying to work out a new story idea that would fit in with the current reading trends you're seeing. You know the one: girl meets boy, girl likes boy but knows there's something seriously wrong with boy, girl finds boy is X, girl finds herself very attracted to boy because of X or Y redeeming qualities, girl and boy fall in love and fight X situation together.

Suddenly, one of your critique group members makes a comment that leads you to think on one of your favorite sci-fi shows and voila, you've got a spankin' new tale on your hands.

Something similar happened to me tonight. An idea just hit me out of the blue when chatting it up with friends. And it's GOOD!!! Well, I think it is anyway.

There's nothing more exciting than when you get that sudden burst of a shiny new idea. It's the beginning...a new start. And the possibilities of where that tale can take you are endless. I love this part of writing. The glimmer of an idea. Fleshing out the main characters and who they are. Thinking about what they want and what gets in their way. And finally penning that first draft.

I don't know about you guys, but when I get in these moods, I become darn near obsessed. I eat, drink, and breathe the details until they solidify.

Now all I need is a new notebook to jot all of this down in!

How do you all handle the idea phase of your writing process? Is it something you revel in, or something you don't look forward to?

Happy Writing!!!