I know this is a broad and wide question, but you get it Where do you get mos of your inspirations from? Other books? Movies? Comics? Mangas? Animes? Video Games? Nature? Your real life? Music? I just want to understand how our creative mind work. Thanks in advance
Everything. Seriously. I can look at a bare tree branch and come up with story. It's just a matter of teaching yourself to ask "What if?" constantly. It's sometimes hard to turn that off.
Mine generally come to me as I'm doing things, actually a lot of my ideas arrive after I had an idea, begin to write a chapter and almost immediately after the first paragraph I think, "What about this instead?" My most recent idea actually came after watching HP5, the moment the prophecy is revealed. Because Prophecies almost invariably create good vs bad, but this time I want to spin in that one person will save the world, one will destroy it. But never reveal who the destroyer and who the savior is. But focus on the two characters and let the audience choose one or the other,
All over the place. I try to be original with my ideas. A lot of what I write I like to think comes from my own head, but I end up with elements which have been inspired by all sorts of things. My fantasy novel that I'm working on has elements that have been inspired by the following sources (Mostly accidentally) : Other novels: Raymond E Feist's Riftwar saga, Piers Anthony's Mode series, Treasure Island, a book by Tanith Lee that I can't remember the name of. Video Game: Eternal Darkness Sanity's Requiem. Pen and paper RPG: Cyberpunk. Films: V for Vendetta, City of Ember. TV series: Star Trek, Lost, Falling skies. Real life and probably all sorts of other sources that I don't even know my subconscious has raided.
From dissatisfaction. I might as well call inspiration dissatisfaction. Come to think of it; satisfaction also works. (used to read a lot of comics as a kid)
My characters come from people that I have known/know/or have met mixed with bits and pieces of myself. As for plots, ideas, themes they are always a hybrid. I'm a loner. I relate more to things like movies, books, art, objects than people but I pick up on stuff when I am with people. That's where the mix comes in. Art whether it be junk art like a lame-brain movie, or a Bazooka wrapper, to 'real' art like Fragonard or Dali painting or artists and their work I have met has always influenced my plots, scenes, and themes. It's not really the art itself as much as my impression or it or it's a trigger releasing an idea.
Anything related to the senses can become a stimuli. From the dusty smell of a house that makes you feel like you time-travelled in older memories of how you perceived things when you where a child, to the sound of the strong wind that carries the fallen leaves, producing a sense of space and loneliness. Building up your synesthesia can become a great source of inspiration, because it has no limits. It's like being able to observe your minds' chain reaction in reverse, guiding you down memory lane instantainiously. To me, it feels like pausing in a moment where I suddenly find myself in a parallel dimension experiencing a hidden world, and although this might last for a brief moment, the manifestation of the feeling (whatever its' form might be) is vividly captured in my memory. For example, one day I was lying on a carpet, in my friends apartment, listening to Slayer (not my choice of music), when the smell of the carpet, entered my nostrils and I was suddenly transfered at a Roma festivity that by the looks of it, it had taken place at least seventy years ago. I was experiencing the place like a child at the age of 11. The smells, the sounds, the people, the details in everything were all so vivid and familliar, that it gave me the feeling that this had been an actual memory, although it really wasn't. I even knew who were my friends and who were the people I avoided! It was an abrupt simulation of another me in another lifetime, like metensarchosis (Although I don't believe in such things, I get why some people strongly believe in it. The mind can be a very creative generator, especially when it comes to filling up the gaps). I got completely detached from the reality that was surrounding me for just a brief moment, by the smell of a carpet, and was taken to an atmosphere that was soooo out of context in relevance with anything in that room. (And this has nothing to do with drugs, I assure you. ) But ok. This is a little far fetched. Not every stimuli manifests in that way. This was, I think, one of the most complete experiences I had, which are really rare. Most of the times it's like this: My Sherona tastes like sparkling lemonade, the person sitting across the cafeteria gives me the impression that the sea is close by and that its waves are crashing rhythmically on the rocks and travelling in a speciffic line of buses, feels like the dry-muddy foils of the crocodiles skin. So, this is a basic form of inspiration, that comes handy mostly when it comes to describing the atmosphere; the mood of the story. But the story itself, is all about the music for me, either it's instrumental, either with lyrics. A good song, can unfold a whole film in my mind, or important parts of it. That's why I love albums that have some sort of consistency within the track list. It's like an audio story, that either I observe as a third person (like watching a film), either as a first person (I'm a character in the situation). Ok, books and films can be inspirational too, but for me they have their limits. I am not a fan of fan-fiction, but off course, I might find some elements in some films or books that are rather intriguing. Mostly b characters that don't play a big part in the story and remain a mystery. (I hate it when these characters die in an unworthy way). Or a speciffic highlight in the story that give you a very strong emotion and you think "this is what I've been waiting for, during this whole movie". Although I love films and I even get as far as to taking my time to analyze them and watch reviews about them (Rob Agers collative learning channel on youtube has been a great guide on that matter), they mostly help me out with the structure part, as a means of expessing what I have to say in a communicative way (a more practical progress than a creative one). Because I might be able to make sense out of my own creative chaos, but without a more refined form of expession and structure, the story will seem all over the place to the reader, and my ideas, way too abstract to connect with. Last but not least is dreaming, but I'm not going to analyze it further, because I noticed that I've already created an exaustingly long post. Enjoy!
Seconded. I actually used to make up stories even before I knew how to write. I'd play out scenarios with my Barbie dolls when I was really little, and then my LEGOs as I got older. Once I learned paragraph structure in fifth grade, that was it. Everything was fair game to write about. Now I get a lot of my inspiration from my job. I work with kids in RL, and it greatly informs my writing, especially my current WIP. I watch action movies with my dad, and have to sit with a notebook and pencil because everything the action hero does becomes inspiration. Hell, I was inspired by a pair of shoes once, and not even good ones like Pradas or Timberlands or Chucks. They were a pair of rather ugly black snow boots, they looked like someone had cut the poor Michelin Man's feet off, spray painted them black, and lined them with crappy fake fur. I was wearing them during a car ride in early March, and since my brain goes to strange places when I'm bored, I found myself looking at them and wondering if I could fit a boot knife in the shaft. This led to the genesis of my current WIP. So honestly, it's not really a question of what inspires you, but what you do that that inspiration.
My current is a derivative of a Star Trek escapist dream I used to have. I'm influenced by Star Trek, Cyborg 2087 and The Godfather.
I really just get the ideas. No consistent pattern that I know of, but they're just there. Shame I hardly write.
Depends. Usually they're from video games. I'd be running around the world, doing my usual thing and suddenly I'm struck with an idea. For example, I was playing Saints Row: The Third today running around with one of my custom-made characters until I started to imagine a scenario where she met one of my other custom-made characters and together they kicked ass in an adventure of love and action. If only I could come up with a plot out of that!
I think that most of my inspiration (if you can call it that) comes from trying to make sense of things I do not understand. It is why I like (hard) sci-fi so much, it is partly the research around the subject, and partly the idea of exploring ordinary people in extraordinary situations.
My inspiration mostly comes from romance. >_> Which, I find quite funny because scenes of romance are the seeds from which all of my works blossom, but the romance itself usually takes a back seat to the actual story. Everything else in the story comes from other various inspirations, which can come from anything.
From the realization that my all-time favorite book has not been written yet. If I think enough about a work of fiction, then I start to recognize things it could have accomplished but either did not try to do or failed to do. If you want something done right, then do it yourself.
Inspiration=seed, Imagination=soil, work=water, etc...? Observation of people, first-line prompts, or even just interesting stimuli as mentioned above seem to be the most common... (However, last story idea I got was while studying history, reading De Tocqueville... but it actually rather connected...).
I take in ideas, sights, sounds, events ect... from my life, put them in a blender, pulsate a few times and pour out an new idea... sometime I add a banana for extra potassium.
Film, music and media tend to be what drives my motivation factor. --That and wanting to see how far I can take writing. I watch a lot of Anime. The worlds within these shows are often so incredibly well thought out and detailed that it drives me to maintain a certain level of perfectionism. As of now I am rewatching Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood and it never stops being a thrill ride. Seeing how other outlets progress their story structure is a great way to maintain new ideas.
I have no idea where it comes from. I've found a lot of times a change in scenery can help the ideas flow better, but where it flows from....??
books magazines movies music videos and last but certainly not least the world around me. If i pay close attention to the little details of the world around me i can find inspiration.
Skyes, The stories worth telling are inside you. Things you feel, millions of others also feel. Bring these things to the surface via your characters…the readers will identify with the character. The plot of a story never really matters; it’s the connection to the reader. They will read the story to see how your character solved a problem, reached a goal, or overcome deep trouble. Draw from your feelings. Hide nothing. It is why it is said, “A writer is all over their work.”
The settings come from history and the world around me. The inspiration for the actual stories comes from deep within my mind born of my imagination and my desires and hates.
I've been getting inspiration from music lately. The hard part for me is songs have emotion but lack conflict (usually) and putting the two together has been a challenge. Still, its better than no idea at all.
