I can’t just sit down with a title and start writing. I tend to need more than that. Much more than that, to be honest. I’ve written one or two stories with simply an opening, and as I worked on that opening, more ideas came, and the story unfolded. But that’s rare.
The way I see it, there are two parts of the idea process — idea gathering, and idea honing. Idea gathering is akin to buying a pair of shoes. You try this pair on, then that pair. You walk around. You look in the mirror. And so forth. That’s what idea gathering is for me. I simply think about what I want to write, trying this idea or that idea, until I find something that works.
Idea honing is taking those ideas and putting them in some kind of workable order. I’m not much of an outliner, but I’m not a pure discovery writer, either. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being pure discovery writer and 10 being the outliner, I’m about a 3 or 4. I want something, but not a lot. At the heart of this honing is putting my story into a sentence or two. Since I use Scrivener, I make sure this sentence as a place of its own: for novels, a document in the Research section of the Binder, and for short fiction, a note in the Document Notes.
This technique comes from Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer. It consists of five elements: 1) situation, 2) a character, 3) the character’s a goal, 4) the character’s opponent, and 5) the opponent’s goal. Thus:
1) With the galaxy under the rule of the Evil Empire, 2) Luke Skywalker 3) wants to join the Rebellion and free the galaxy from tyranny. But will he survive when 4) The Emperor 5) wants nothing more than to convert him to the Dark Side of the Force by having him murder his own father?
Once I have this sentence, I pretty much start writing. Yet over time, I’ve discovered some problems with this process.
First, I don’t do enough idea gathering. I think I might be too quick to jump into a story, and not give it long enough to develop. In order to correct this, I’m staring an Idea Notebook, writing down ideas that stay with me more than a few hours, and looking through the notebook every few days to keep the ideas churning in my head. I’ll make notes, additions, changes, letting the idea grow until it’s ready to write. I tried to do this last year, and it didn’t work. The main reason, I think, is because I was focused on writing short fiction — a story a week. Now, because I’m focused on novels, and because novels take considerably longer to write than a short story, I have time to grow this Idea Notebook.
Second, I think I might be stopping the idea honing process a bit too early. I don’t want to start outlining. Every time I’ve tried to outline a story/novel, I’ve ruined it for me. But maybe creeping up on outlining is a better way of going about it. To this end, I plan to revisit the four lessons in Holly Lisle’s How To Think Sideways: An Online Novel Writing Course on planning. I don’t intend to do everything she says with my next project, but maybe one thing with the first project, and another thing with the second, and so forth, until I find that comfort zone.
I’m a writer. This blog is about writing. For more details, 
I definitely try on many an idea. I’m oft kicked out of the Idea Store for simply traipsing about in their ideas without any intent of purchasing a new pair.
Sometimes I do manage to wing a whole story out of a single, happened-upon idea, but much more often, some level of reflection is required. I spent some time using a sort of checklist or schedule, although I’ve of recent abandoned this in favour of a more ethereal checklist, or a “sentiment of checkedness.” As an example, I abandoned a pair of stories some time ago, because, despite the fact that they were great ideas, they just fell flat as stories. Now, though, I’m writing a story that incorporates both of them – as well as a third that had also failed to make inroads as something special. The story is still very ethereal and metaphorical (that’s how all my stories are coming out these days) but it’s an actual story, filled with ideas – instead of an idea, trying to fill out a story.
So… my point is… stories are the shoes, ideas are the feet?
Yeah… yeah, that’s it…
I think you might be taking the shoe analogy just a little too far. LOL!
I think Orson Scott Card says the reason why so many stories seem flat is because they’re built on only one idea.
“creeping up on outlining” I like that. I’m finding the same challenges as I go…. Not always enough information and finding out too many details the same time my characters do… There has to be a sweet spot for me somewhere between outlining and discovery, I just haven’t found it yet.
Here’s my plan. When I finish this novel, I going to list all the things I wish I knew before I started writing. As I see it now, this list can be divided in two. There are those things that are replicable, and there are those things that aren’t. Character description, for example, is replicable; you need it in every story. But when a story takes a big twist during writing, that’s not replicable. You can’t count on that happening with every story; you can’t plan on it.
Thus, my first step toward creeping up on outlining is figuring our which replicable things I wish I knew before I started, and get those down pat before I start Novel #2.
A lot of times I will just start writing – start off with an opening hook (usually in media res) that grabs a reader’s attention. Well, my attention anyway, lol. And then I add that opening scene or character introduction to get the story going until I run out of steam (usually at 500 to 1000 words). At this point I let my story idea(s) simmer a bit [your idea gathering stage] and return to the manuscript later with a basic plot and maybe an ending in mind. This second step can come on the heels of writing my opening hook or many weeks later – or even longer! I have a bunch of story starts just waiting around for my subconscious brain to return to them.
If I know the ending then I can power through on my third swipe at the story and maybe have something worth reading. [Your idea honing stage.] If I don’t know the ending, I’ll just keep cycling back (I edit as I go) until I get there and discover what just happened. That’s my current approach, at any rate. Thanks for posting how you go about it as it helped me think through what I actually do when I write! 
I think cycle writing is a great way to go, and I enjoy it. However, as I noted in the post, I need more than a vague starting point. But I still cycle write because even though I know the general shape of a story, I don’t know all the details, and like you when I find myself stuck, I just cycle through the story trying to figure out what comes next.