Its either inspired immediately upon the idea hitting me or an extremely painful, brain-wracking exercise.

Sounds like you and I are of a similar generation! That was my cartoon network experience too. Plus I had some other channels playing Ronin Warriors and Sailor Moon if you woke up early enough, and PBS had an anime block that was showing Serial Experiments Lain and Evangelion.

It really did! Everything just clicked in my head on how to combine all the things I loved into a single passion.

And yes, Inuyasha was amazing. One of those pieces of media that I feel doesn't get as much talk now but had such an impact

I made the mistake of doomscrolling this morning. I need a day.

I do! I built a whole timeline over a thousand years long so I can track it. I'm slowly adding changes to technology and culture to it. Anything else you think might help?

My initial idea for a novel and a specific character sparked the world, but I realized my process works better if I have a "sandbox" to play with where I understand the rules and boundaries, so I went heavy into worldbuilding and now use it for any new ideas and characters I have.

I started writing some drabbles about two characters and am falling more in love with their relationship... except one is destined to die as the triggering mystery of a novel idea I have lol.

Same! I didn't like revising/rewriting, but as I've gotten older I realize how important this part of the process is.

Sounds like you slipped into the backrooms of your unconscious

Me looking at my original copy