Curious how the creative minds think here.  If you are building charactors, does it just happen or by plan.  If you are writing shows, does the idea come or do you just start writing. Do you create something someone else requested.  For me it comes in different forms.  I may have an idea for a show, and try to work it out.  Sometimes I come across a prop and build a whole story or show around it. Other times I get a song in my head, and I create it and a show is built around it. Right now I'm releasing a show a month.  After my Christmas special I ran out of ideas and considered asking you all for some. Last year I thought about doing a country Western episode. I did not feel inspired at all but last week I attempted to write a country song(I am not a fan and have not really done any country stuff)Somehow a crazy country bluegrass tune came out for my puppet Millie to sing. The creative juices began to flow. I then decided to try for another.  This one my character auntie will perform(very frightening). I then set out to a hobby store and found a variety of country and cowboy hats. Was given two pairs of denim overalls from my 2 year old nephew. Perfect fit.(Patsy now looks like Ellie Mae Clampit). A few jokes and a 6 minute episode is under way. now I'm kind of excited about it.  so how do you work it out?

My process sounds similar to yours.  Inspiration can come from anywhere.  For our feature film It Came from Uranus I built that characters around the script - it was not written for puppets and had to be re-worked to accommodate them once we decided that was the medium we were going to use.

Other times it can just be "Hmmmm.  I built this puppet.  What does he look like?  How does he sound?  What would he do?"  I like the idea of juxtaposition - putting puppets in situations that they wouldn't ordinarily be in.  A children's show with more mature content - therefore the things the puppet says and does is not what one would typically expect.  I built a zombie puppet last year and made a pleaful Christmas lament for him - he was lonely and sad at Christmas because humans misunderstood zombies. 

Once the idea strikes, I find I just write, re-write, talk to people, flesh out ideas.  For the feature the new ideas kept coming right up until the scene was shot.  It's a constant and uneven evolution.  And I love every minute of it.

Since you asked I always pray first, since I am mostly doing my puppets and shows as a ministry.  I get good ideas from others, or a song, or a specific idea I want to convey and things progress from there. Once I woke up with my alarm playing a song and the vision just came to me for a whole show! We did use the song in the performance.

My process is similar to Angel's.  I "ruminate" on ideas, thinking about them for weeks somtimes.  My best ideas come when I have been up late trying to write a script and go to bed. I don't know if I am dreaming or if my brain just keeps working on the problems while I sleep but in the morning I often have a new idea in a new direction. And keep rewriting as new ideas come along.

I want to applaud Daryl of StiqPuppets for his teaching videos.  In those he shows his creative process how he changes his mind and makes it better as he goes along.  That is so good for beginners to see that even experienced creators still change the process as they go along.  I have seen many beginners give up because they could not be professional the first time. It's a process for everyone.

Inspiration... For quite a while I have been impressed by Millie Haskins of the Patsy Hoolahan show and how she comes up with such great songs. I don't know if any of you have heard of '31 minutos' from chile (a big hit here on TV)  Their songs were so.. unexplainable, so I finally got up the courage, and got inspired by Millie's life.  So.. without further adieu.. Frogo's fisrt Karaoke...

Millie will be flattered LOL! as I am.

When I was in college for film/TV we were required to keep an idea journal with ideas and bits of inspiration. I've kept up the habit and always carry a sketch book I can write down ideas in, draw things or even sometimes clip an interesting photo from a magazine or newspaper (I also use Pinterest as kind of an online digital version of my sketchbook now). I have a huge stack of books I've accumulated over the past 15 or so years and every so often I'll flip through them for inspiration.

They've been insanely helpful on the documentary I'm making because I had to design several short puppetry sequences in different styles (marionettes, sock puppets, etc.) and I've been able to make use of a lot of seemingly random ideas I had jotted down 5, 10, 15 years ago.

If someone is paying, it comes from an offshoot of their initial direction.

Otherwise it can happen anytime. I was playing with Playdoh with my daughter this morning and started making lizard men out of playdoh. Took a few pics with my phone before she smashed them up in case it's future inspiration