I’m amazed by my certainty that ideas come from the unconscious. If anyone reading this struggles with focus and decision making I strongly suggest you reduce your inputs, embrace silence, and get plenty of sleep. When authors say that their characters determine the story, how do you suppose that happens? What it means is that progress in thinking up a story takes place unconsciously.
Talking on video as much as I do leaves a record of thought development. I can see myself having an idea while talking. It occurs seemingly spontaneously, out of nowhere, because ideas come from the unconscious. Something in the moment likely triggered its appearance. A new idea pops out raw and is often labeled an ADHD distraction. Even if I like the idea I don’t know where to go with it. If I try to take it too far (more than my unconscious has worked on it) I get lost and uncertain. That’s the stage when mistakes are easily made, pushing an idea instead of waiting for it to develop. The best thing for me is to acknowledge an idea that I like that I want to work on, and then to put it aside. Later the idea will come back more refined, without me having spent any time on it consciously. I have seen this pattern repeatedly in my “talking to myself” videos.