I sometimes feel like I don’t know how to deliberately come up with ideas at all, but I’m not sure if I’m actually like that (it’s probably just insecurity or something, lol).
Do people like that actually exist, though? If so, why are they like that? And how do they learn to deliberately think of ideas?
There is a process called “learning how to learn.”
Essentially its a series of questions or question-templates you ask to gain deeper understanding of something beyond what the source material you are learning from provides.
The basic versions of them include “how” and “why”, where the “who”, “what”, and “when” matter less in most cases (and if they matter more, it will be extremely apparent).
Then, listing out every answer to each of those questions you can possibly think of and testing them against logic and evidence.
“How do apples fall to the ground?”
Warping of spacetime?
flat disc that we stand on accelerating through space?
The pull of the aether?
You would then test each of these ideas by gathering evidence and eliminating others. Eventually in the example through rigorous testing, logic (including mathematics), you’d come to the correct conclusion of the warping of spacetime.
Then, if you are trying to come up with new ideas, you apply this method of thinking to the unknown and reverse it a little. Take facts and evidence that exist, and ask the same questions against the unknown. For example, if you’re writing a story, the who and the what become important in the reversal, but the how and the why stay relevant.
“What would the main character do after they realize they were betrayed by the grand duke of blahshire?”
Who+Why: what are the main characters beliefs and convictions? What drives them?
How: What kinds of actions has the main character taken in the past? Have they grown since then?
What is the current sociopolitical climate that the story is taking place in? What kinds of behavior is expected of the main character and those around them? Are things like revenge frowned upon, or is not exacting revenge considered weakness? Maybe both depending on who you ask?
You can also apply this to general ideas, making yourself or a project/concept/etc. the main subject.
This kind of thinking is a muscle you have to exercise until it becomes natural. Eventually you start doing it without realizing.