Hatrack River Writers Workshop   
my profile login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Hatrack River Writers Workshop » Forums » Open Discussions About Writing » Inspiration

   
Author Topic: Inspiration
Greenscreen
Member
Member # 6896

 - posted      Profile for Greenscreen   Email Greenscreen         Edit/Delete Post 
So where do you ussually get your inspiration?

Are there rules about where you can;t get it?

i mean other than the obvious, Plagiarism, never get inspiration from plagiarism, I mean unless you want to make enemeis of your freinds. Sounds like fun, no?


Posts: 61 | Registered: Nov 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
ChrisOwens
Member
Member # 1955

 - posted      Profile for ChrisOwens   Email ChrisOwens         Edit/Delete Post 
If there were rules, it wouldn't be inspiration.
Posts: 1275 | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
InarticulateBabbler
Member
Member # 4849

 - posted      Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Email InarticulateBabbler         Edit/Delete Post 
quote:

So where do you ussually get your inspiration?

If you mean "where do you get your ideas?" the answer is everywhere. Life. The News. Any and all of the arts. Dreams, nightmares, daydreams.

If that's not what you meant. I'm inspired by the characters and ideas.


Posts: 3687 | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
rstegman
Member
Member # 3233

 - posted      Profile for rstegman   Email rstegman         Edit/Delete Post 
I write an idea a day and have done so for what will be ten years December. I doubt I have ever repeated myself in the entire time.

I get my ideas from everywhere. I saw the trailer for the Goden Compass a couple days ago. I know nothing about the film but made some guesses as to what the story would likely be about. Someone is trying to get to the golden compass and someone else trying to stop them, and get there first.

Today I wrote a story idea based on that. Instead it is a palatinum Protractor. It is almost impoossible to keep someone from getting to it, but then you have to figure out how to use it. If you fail, you are sent back and blocked from access to it.
An engineer with physics training decides that the universe operates geometrically, not by the uncertancy theorum. He is thinking about it, needs a protractor to draw hsi concepts, ends up before the Platinum protractor, and finds the proofs for his theory. The problem is that he is now stuck, the emperor of the universe, isolated from everybody for the remander of his life, except what he can observe through the drawings he creates with the protractor.

When I write my story ideas, I show how the idea can be used. In the past several months, they are becoming short stories in and of themselves. I have tear sheet calandar pages almost everywhere I go. I get a basic concept and will write it down on them, or anything else I might have available. They are to remind me of the concept. I SELDOM edit when I get an idea. I just note them down. Of course, I remember the ideas I hae already used and some ideas come from a situation I am often in, so I remember them and don't use them since I don't have a new use for the concept.
One can use a journal instead of the papers, but the main thing is to write down your ideas, no matter how minor. I have used commercials, taking the silliness and causing them make sense.

News articles can be the start of a story. Why are all the cops getting killed? How about time travelers? How about space aleins taking over people's minds?
You might read a book or see a story where the bad guys are shooting up the area, trying to kill the escaping good guy who is also shooting up the area. Do a story about the situation from the point of view of a merchant who has to clean up the damage, or from the point of view of the law that has to investigate and try to figure out what happened and who was involved.

It is absolutely true. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Developed ideas are like gold. Getting the ideas is the easy part. Sometime next year I will have posted 4000 story ideas.


Posts: 1008 | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
RMatthewWare
Member
Member # 4831

 - posted      Profile for RMatthewWare   Email RMatthewWare         Edit/Delete Post 
I find that if my mind is 'wired' to look for ideas, its much easier. In other words, if I have a writers mindset of "what would make a good story?" I can usually find something that interests me.

There's also the principle of priming the pump. If you've ever used an old timey water pump you have to pour water in to make it possible to pump water out. The idea can be applied to writing. If you are reading a lot of stuff, it can help you think of other ideas. And I'm not talking about borrowing. If I read something from a writer's perspective, I'll usually end up thinking of a tangent that could be a good story and it usually has nothing to do with what I'm reading.

The important thing is to always write down your ideas, no matter how small. My novels usually start off with one small idea. As I start thinking of the idea, more come, usually a sentence or two at a time until I eventually get a good outline.


Posts: 657 | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Rommel Fenrir Wolf II
Member
Member # 4199

 - posted      Profile for Rommel Fenrir Wolf II   Email Rommel Fenrir Wolf II         Edit/Delete Post 
some of my newer stuff i am drawing from being deployed to a 3rd world ****hole country called AFGHAINISTAN and find that it works. my older wrighting commes from past drug use. and a hetic life. then i draw from ideas my friends gave me.

Rommel Fenrir Wolf II


Posts: 856 | Registered: Nov 2006  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Robert Nowall
Member
Member # 2764

 - posted      Profile for Robert Nowall   Email Robert Nowall         Edit/Delete Post 
It comes when I get the bills in the mail.

No, that's not it, I've got a job that pays the bills. Writing hasn't paid me anything. I find inspiration fleeting---I can write at a white heat level for months, page after page, then slow down and not write for months. (I'm in a "not writing" period right now, but hope to jumpstart it sometime today.)


Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Pyre Dynasty
Member
Member # 1947

 - posted      Profile for Pyre Dynasty   Email Pyre Dynasty         Edit/Delete Post 
I find that my level of inspiration is tied to my faith. When I am feeling spiritual the words flow as if from a fire hose. When I'm in a bad place writing feels like highly congealed honey, I have to fight for every drop.


Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
JFLewis
Member
Member # 6957

 - posted      Profile for JFLewis   Email JFLewis         Edit/Delete Post 
I don't get ideas. Ideas get me. They track me down and hold me hostage until I put them on paper.

It's always been that way for me. The only time I can't think up anything new is when I'm playing Nanofictionary, Once Upon A Time, or any other face-to-face playing-to-win story-telling game which uses cards to determine required story elements. For whatever reason, I stink at those...

Though now that bedtime stories with my kids has started to work that way, ("Dad, tell us a story about Batman, Robin, Superman, a jumprope, and Braniac.") maybe I should give them another try.

Hmmm...


Posts: 62 | Registered: Nov 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Lynda
Member
Member # 3574

 - posted      Profile for Lynda   Email Lynda         Edit/Delete Post 
My ideas seem to come from characters. I write fantasy, but it's the people in the fantasy that fascinate me more than the magic. The magic is just part of these people that I truly love getting to know. As for where my characters come from, I'm a people watcher. I'll see someone and if they strike me just right, I may have a whole back-story and psychological profile of them just jump up and bite me on the nose. Other times, I have to work to develop the character to get the story started, but there's usually a germ of inspiration in someone or something I've seen or observed. My latest story was inspired by something that happened to a friend of mine (she was being taxed for a piece of property she didn't own) and by my husband's cat, who has tons of personality and yet is "mysterious" somehow (unlike my cat, who isn't mysterious at all, LOL!). I couldn't get the story started for months when it was just my friend's "mysterious" piece of land that was on my mind, but when I put the cat in the mix, the story started popping. It should be a fun one!
Posts: 415 | Registered: Jul 2006  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

   Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | Hatrack River Home Page

Copyright © 2008 Hatrack River Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2