I Don’t Mind
When I come up with new ideas they occur in one of three ways typically.
One way that I am using less often is that I will come up with a title and work out from there, slowly adding Why the plot exists then the characters. The second way is I might get an idea for a character then I have to find a place to put them, often I will try to put them in an existing work but they will grow a personality to large to be a secondary character so I must make a world for them. Last and most common recently I will come up with a single concept and create characters and a plot.
The notes below are for an idea that I came up with while watching Forged in Fire with my sister. She is a ferrier (someone who trims horse hooves and makes shoes for them) and she mentioned that you could intentionally forge a sword with weaknesses so that it would break after a few strong hits. From this comment the idea of a smith intentionally sabotaging his rulers sword arose.
First I had to know why the smith was angry, then who the ruler was fighting, and lastly the setting of the story, which turned into the idea for a series. The names for the books were created during writing down my notes, which I have to do after a lot of my brainstorming, because in order for my mind to work to write a story I have to be walking. Usually the first parts I flush out in my mind are the dialogue of the characters in the story.
End of the Age of Tyrant's
Outsider hero
Book 1: A Sword Forged in Hatred
Smith looses his wife. sword breaks
Book 2: Poison to Taste
Cooks sister flogged to death. Allergy poison.
Book 3: Song of Trifles Canary
Best friend murdered by the queen. Hanging