Dreaming in Digital,

Danzig
 

Music, a picture, a statue---one thing can set it off. I have one story that I listened to the fight music from Mortal Combat until people in the house threatened to break the CD. (I got the headphones relpaced) I often do that write entire stories or books to one song.

Shawn
 

kwsni
 

The rain to which my character had fallen asleep in the story had brewed overnight into a major storm. The lightening was needed to remove one conflict point, and the torrent of rain was needed to create the river flowing near by (or more accurately, to make it raging, audible, to show it was there).

Funny, but before that night with the storm outside, I had my character waking up and just being able to see again (the serene sunrise, which I'll still use, but much more effectively now), and stumbling onto the quiet river. Now, it's much more dramatic, and a much smoother transition. More believable than 'la dee da, I can see and oh there's a river'.

I know the story specifics don't mean anything to you, but the elements that inspired my writing, that crept into the story completely unplanned and unexpected, worked great. Thought it was a pretty cool example of the way the writing process can work at times.
 

I find when I try real hard to make something come, it usually doesn't; but it doesn't mean the grappling with the idea hasn't been useful. Usually my mind tries to wrap around it while I'm away, and brings me something later. Without the hard thinking before, it never would have come. I try not to get discouraged, I just keep working different angles for a while, and let the back burner cream the mix later.
 

And sometimes I get ideas by asking questions. For example... I was walking in a local park, and I saw a tree that was very old and gnarled, and had a spot on it that looked somewhat like a face. I wondered when that tree was planted, and under what conditions... and I got an idea about a live forest with the ability to speak, move and defend themselves, that has dwindled because of age to a few lonesome and far-between hoary old trees. (Not a story idea in and of itself, but certainly an interesting story element.) (And yes, I've gotta admit-- it sounds a lot like Tolkien's Ents...)
 

i could be out walking and see two kids playing together, which would get me thinking, and after a while i'd come up with an idea about a kingship that only becomes legal when the heir prince kills his youngest brother, a ritual that was the invention of a power-hungry dictator (oxymoron there) but evolved into part of a full-blooded religion...

my main problem is that i get overloaded on story ideas, and very involved in the stories i'm working on. i have to keep up with what's going on in different stories while at the same time devoting full attention to the work in progress, which in itself is pretty difficult, and made more so seeing that there's such a thing as school.

if i had the time to write the way i prefer to write, one of my stories might actually develop and end, but as it is i have pages and pages of 'excerpts' on every story.

besides the fact that some stories stall simply because i know that i require a great deal more knowledge in order to do the story justice...so right now my first priority has to be focused on learning, as i hope it always will be anyway...
 

[This message has been edited by JP Carney (edited May 22, 2001).]
 

Shawn

[This message has been edited by srhowen (edited May 28, 2001).]
 

I get myself to start writing. Even if I am uninspired, and even if I start out writing poorly, I begin to write. I need to get a few words down on paper.

Then I invoke the mystical creative powers of Snickers. I slowly eat a large Snickers ( Hershey's, Three Musketeers, etc.) bar, and by the time I finish the candy good ideas just come pouring out of my sugar-charged brain!

Physiologically it makes sense that this would help, but I am always amazed at how doggone effective it is.

Now pardon me while I step out. The vending machine becons . . . and Doc must respond.
 

But siting down and writing no matter what is a good soloution---write long enough and enough words and there are bound to be some good ones in there somewhere.

Shawn
 

The most ideas for me come out of what I'm interested in. Like (about a year ago) I loved Fairies so I wrote a short story about a girl who found out she was a fairy. Like I said, it's the most ideas, not the best ones. The best idea I have ever had for a story was in a popcorn story where a kid was in a pyramid and all this cool, high tech scary stuff was going on. unfortunately, my friends and I ended each part with: Josiah knew that he would never get out. or even: Those dark, pitiless eyes told him that he would never see his father's palace again.
 

Ideas?

The library, usaually. There are certain journals I flip through whenever they come in (Nature, Aerospace America, etc.) Also, I subscribe to Discover magazine. I get most of my ideas by reading what real scientists are doing this week.

If there was a journal called Physica Esoterica, or whatever, I'd subscribe!

I was working out some planet-building equations for one story, and had a "What if...?" shiver run down my spine. Changed a few numbers, looked at the results, cranked out a 500 word short-short almost instantly. (It hasn't sold, of course. Ah well.)

Organ music by Bach helps, too.

[This message has been edited by chad_parish (edited June 18, 2001).]
 

I got an interesting twist on how to kill vampires while working out at karate. (Sharpen a long-staff.) My first, and so far only, fantasy story.

Slightly off-topic question:
There seems to be a lot of fictional swordplay (et al.) around here. Anybody ever actually fence, or whatnot?

Very off topic:
I'm not a black-belt or anything, but I'd be happy to help people discuss the plausibility of fight scenes. (I personally practice unarmed techniques, and some slight experience with nunchucks and long staffs.)

 

Ain't it? I started martial arts a few months before I started writing (more) seriously, so the two sort of meshed. I've personally expended a lot of skull-sweat on how unarmed combat in zero-gravity (or low gavity) would fare.

Quote: "Actually, does it have to be sharpened to kill? Surely if you slam it in hard enough, it doesn't matter if it's blunt or not? I'll have to research that..."

I don't know -- it's just fantasy; set up your rules ahead of time, and stick to them, right?

...Although I wouldn't want to try to stick anything dull through a person's sternum... but if you could dig up -- though the solar plexus, say -- and hit the heart...

My mental defense mechanism is that writing is a "craft" or "hobby;" that way I don't feel so bad when I screw up. (Hey, it's just my hobby. So what?)

It's Tang Soo Do I consider my art.

[This message has been edited by chad_parish (edited July 12, 2001).]
 

I can not possibly convey to you how much 'standing around' i do. Really.

Arron
 

for the most part my inspiration comes from no where i can think of. i can be doing anything, feel the need to write, and have to sit down and do it. i don't even know what i'm writing about until it's on the paper. then i just go from there.

another big inspiration is playing with pre-existing stories (behold the daydream! [insert holy music here]). that way, i can go through all sorts of plots, dialogues, etc. without having to create any characters. and if i'm lucky, my daydreaming will create a character.

or a plot worthy of writing about.

or both!

but not very often. still, it sure is fun!

TTFN & lol

Cosmi

[This message has been edited by Cosmi (edited October 02, 2001).]
 

literary results, i mean.

gotta go...

[This message has been edited by Cosmi (edited October 02, 2001).]
 

Lot's of times when I write, I just let my creative or subconcious or whatever side of my brain take over, and I'm really not even thinking. Then, when I stop writing, I have no idea what I've written. So, I have to go back and read everything just to stay on the same page as my, um, self...anyway, it produces a neat effect - I really am a first-time reading, able to give myself honest feedback, and to know what to scrap and what's ok, but it takes forever, because not only do I have to go through the usual process of writing and re-writing, I also have to re-read it everytime I write something new, because I don't even remember the gist of it. Would there be a more effective way to keep myself down-to-earth, but getting the same effect, or is this pretty much a you-want-to-read-your-own-stuff-for-the-first-time-do-this-or-get-amnesia kind of thing?

Also, if you were to see a book written by a Soule V. Wells, would you think, "Freak writer", "Cool name", or not even care?

Thanks!
 

They way you write sounds a lot like the way Ray Bradbury writes. Have you read his Zen in the Art of Writing? Stephen King writes much in the same way, knocking out 10 pages a day until the first draft is done. Then he lets it set for two months or so (he's speaking about novel writing) and then goes back and begins a massive rewrite. You may want to read King's On Writing, too.

It seems to me you just have to write the way that comes naturally to you. And if your working on a long story, review what you wrote the previous day before you begin working that day. And take notes of what you have written, too. Because as your manuscript grows, you wont want to be re-reading the whole thing each day.

And the question about your name, I wouldn't care. If it's a good story, I would read it.

Peace

[This message has been edited by Augustine (edited October 03, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Augustine (edited October 03, 2001).]
 

While I write I listen to music, preferably something that doesn't have lyrics, which distract me. Or at least, lyrics that I understand. Classical, for obvious reasons, works best for this. I generally don't listen close enough to hear the title, so when I hear, for example, Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring", I don't know it as such and the images I get probably have nothing to do with spring.
 

Some of my favorite ideas are stolen directly from people's lives; others come from misunderstanding (willingly, sometimes) something someone has said or something I see. Every once in a while I get one from a song title or peculiar phrase, but these are the most limited when they come out.

Usually the music I listen to is to keep me pumped up; I can't listen to vocals when I start in, but prefer them once I'm in the groove. Natalie Merchant and Counting Crows are favorites for this purpose.

Rickie Lee Jones supplied the title and basic idea (not that she meant to) for the story I just wrote, "Last Chance Texaco." Bless her heart.

Luc
 

http://www.angelfire.com/ky2/NikeBoy21sWebPage/music.html

i now its music from a cartoon, but listin to it its good for storie thinkin

o ya all my best ideas come late at night probably caus im tierd

[This message has been edited by Chrono (edited November 09, 2001).]