Like Maia said, anywhere and everywhere. I get lots of it from random little scenes in films and books and stuff but it just comes to you all the time.
Well I just got some inspiration for a new story (probably just a short story, we'll see how well I can flesh it out), about two days ago. I'm in Rome for a week, and as I was sitting in a cathedral, the only one there, a group of monks or priests started singing in the back somewhere- out of sight. It was such a beautiful, serene, moment. Taking everything in, a scene just started to flow in my head. I could see the characters perfectly, there movements, what each of them were thinking, all in the span of a few minutes. Needless to say, I practically spilled the scene into my trusty notebook, and it's been growing from there.
My inspiration...honestly I have no clue which is probably why all my work is totally crappy. Actually some of my best pieces came from sitting in class and in five minutes I was done...now that is lame. So yeah maybe I shouldn't be writing if I can't even find something sensible to write.
Actually, it's good if you write when you don't know where any of it's coming from. Once you learn to control that and make sense of it, you can do anything (when it comes to writing, anyway).
Yeah that could work I suppose. Maybe I'm in the mindset to put myself down about everything because I was recently banned off some other writing forum. Honestly I'm glad I was banned. The reviews were from jerks and they never gave you even a drop of praise to lift your spirit up just a little bit. I can see that this forum is the complete opposite so maybe I will get a good piece someday.
So showering gets your ideas flowing? Interesting. I think most of my inspiration comes from dreams. More than half of the stories I've written (and never finished) were based off of dreams I've had.
^Something like that. If I'm thinking of a story and then don't know what else to do, taking a shower usually helps, it's weird.
That is a little wierd. As far as dreams go, some of my ideas came from them, but since I can usually only remember a little bit of the dream, I can't get anywhere. I think I get most of my inspiration when I'm studying actually. Maybe if I concentrate on something else it sort of comes to me.
My inspiration comes from anything. If hear something interesting, see something interesting then I'll start to be inspired. I find the things that really get me are the most random.
Interesting about the shower. I've written whole chapters in my head while in the shower, sometimes whole stories. My characters have the best dialogue while I'm trying to get to sleep. Then if I get up, cos they won't stop their chatter, my fingers freeze on the keyboard and they turn mute. So now I have a pen and paper at my bedside and write it down straight away - waiting for the computer to boot up at 2am kinda makes me forget what my characters were saying. I do get inspiration from books too. I don't copy anything at all, just think to myself, 'wow that's a great idea, a great way of expressing an emotion, a great way to set a scene' - stuff like that. I also love to watch people. I sit down in a cafe, or similiar place, and just watch them Their movements, funny gestures, the way they eat, the way they look at other people, their reaction if they catch my eye, their clothing, - tons of stuff. Plus I give them lives; I imagine them going home and arguing with their spouses, kicking the cat, making love, cooking dinner, going to work etc. I also take notice of smells and noises; I find them irritating and so like to pepper my stories with those two senses.
Major insperations on me and my writings are: Books Video games TV People Folk tales Mythology Art Ghost stories.
You know what stinks? I get a lot of my inspiration at night when I SHOULD BE SLEEPING! But I'm so excited, and the ideas are all rushing through my mind, and I feel all giddy and excited. Grr, I wish the ideas would come at a more convenient (sp?) time. Lemex, I also get a lot of my inspiration from some of the things you have listed.
That's happened to me before. Actually, I had a dream in which I was playing a song, and I ended up using the music I was playing in my dream later. It's happened for stories too. I get some ideas from thinking about books and mythology and religion and such.
anything really. Even a sentence I hear sometimes gives me an idea to us it in my story and then come up with a scene to use it in. Just this night I read the sentence somewhere, "You think I'm sick?" and that helped me and gave me more excitment to write. Also, being on forums like this...people talking about writing. It's nice to be in a crowd
My ideas come from everywhere, although mostly from mythology. I've also had a couple dreams that I turned into short stories (my "Spirit of the Wanderer" series being the biggest).
My ideas come from all over. Sometimes it will be a book or movie that makes me think, "Well,what if instead of THAT, THIS happened instead?" Other times, it may be a scenario in a book or movie that makes me think,"That's ridiculous! That isn't what woukld happen!" That is more likely to result in a scene, rather than a full story. For example, exposure to vacuum scenes where someone inflates like a balloon (people, it's a ONE atmosphere pressure difference!) But often, I really couldn't say exactly wher ethe idea comes from. Neverending started out as a short story idea for a contest, where the theme was "sacrificing a life to save another" I started thinking about what might make the scrifice larger, and it occurred to me that if the life surrendered were virtually immortal, and a rare commodity. Forever in a Heartbeat arose from arguing against suicide, countering the argument that "at least the suffering would end." I wrote it as an illustration of an eternal personal time in agony, within a finite moment of physical time.
I think inspiration comes from anything and everything that has meaning to us. I usually draw inspiration from the things I see that have to do with 'older brother, younger brother' relationships, but I think that's just me...I'm weird like that...
My inspiration normally comes from music, the weather, or when I'm training outside, the landscapes often give me great 'views' of things that could happen on that particular scene.
Like a lot of people here, it seems, I get some ideas in the shower. Something about the water beating down on my head. I've always been a water baby... That half-sleep state in the mornings when I'm supposed to be getting up also seems to be a fertile breeding ground for plot bunnies. Sometimes I wish there was a factory somewhere that generated ideas...It'd be a whole log more regulated and easy to catch fleeting inspirations...but there isn't, so I just take extra showers.
Probably everywhere as well... but I get most of it from listening to music. The type of music I listen to governs my mood. Something sinister would help me conjure an eerie scene a bit better. The same goes with romantic scenes and mushy tunes...
