Lit Authors: Where do get your inspiration?

[ukstockinglvr]

I am fast becoming addicted to these forums!

I have always been a keen storyteller. I am also highly sexed, if a man thinks of sex every 8 seconds (or whatever the myth is) then I am 0.008 seconds .

Sometimes normal everyday events can play out in my mind afterwards as a sexual fantasy, and as soon as I get chance they are added on a to write list (currently standing at 91 stories in various stages, plus 3 Ideas I have had over the last few weeks I need to add)

So it got me wondering about other authors on lit (especially prolific), how do you get your ideas and what inspires you?

 

[sr71plt]

They drop from almost anywhere or any chance sighting or something I've overheard. Most of them form in the back of my mind and most of them are delivered in the morning during that period of "not asleep anymore but not quite awake either."

 

[ukstockinglvr]

They drop from almost anywhere or any chance sighting or something I've overheard. "

Also This ^^

My current undertaking was a conversation half heard sat in a group, in a pub over 2 years ago. The story has now become a monster and I'm trying to reign it in and finish it (So many others to work on!).

 

[49greg]

They drop from almost anywhere or any chance sighting or something I've overheard. Most of them form in the back of my mind and most of them are delivered in the morning during that period of "not asleep anymore but not quite awake either."

The early morning period of waking sleep is very good for me as well. Letting my mind wander when I walk the dog is a good time for me. I spend a total of about two hours with the pup every day exploring the town and its parks, walking, picking up poop, being off in a wold of my own. I try hard to keep my mouth shut, because a couple of times I've found myself saying the things I want to write down. I don't want to be that crazy old man who talks to himself.

A few dreams have made it to my idea list, as have normal everyday happenings that can be twisted into depravity.

 

[StrangeLife]

So it got me wondering about other authors on lit (especially prolific), how do you get your ideas and what inspires you?

I'm married.

 

[RoyceConnors]

I'm inspired by anything that grabs my attention and imagination. If there's a story to be made out of it, there's my inspiration. I just have to come up with the story to go around it.

 

[ukstockinglvr]

The early morning period of waking sleep is very good for me as well.

I am the opposite to this, I am more productive creatively on an evening/night than early in the morning.

As for not wanting to blurt things out, coincidentally I had a great moment of clarity today that helped me overcome a mental block in my latest story.

However it was in the middle of a meeting and while trying to remember the wording to use I was also trying not to say anything "out of context" while giving a presentation!

I now remember why I gave up for a year after starting to commit my ideas to page.

 

[sr71plt]

I am the opposite to this, I am more productive creatively on an evening/night than early in the morning.

So am I, but I think there's a difference between inspiration striking and then doing something creative with it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Sometimes real life, with a dose of what-if. Sometimes from reading another story and thinking "that could have been done better". Sometimes from dreams.

 

[ukstockinglvr]

Sometimes real life, with a dose of what-if. Sometimes from reading another story and thinking "that could have been done better". Sometimes from dreams.

Hmm. I am starting to think we all have the same sources for inspiration

 

[sr71plt]

Probably. I might add inspiration might come from desired recapturing (or fantasizing) of personal experience.

 

[Serafina1210]

Mostly things I've read, with an admixture of my own fantasies and the fantasies I know others have had. My plots are often based on pieces from older literature, ancients to the Renaissance, recombined, and everything (usually) transported to the northeastern U.S.

I hardly ever remember dreams, so no dreams.

 

[TxRad]

Pictures, people, places. Almost anything out of the ordinary or different.

I have cages and cages of plot bunnies. Now if I only had the time to write them all.

 

[patientlee]

I write down interesting things people say, then go back to them later. Like two years ago, one of my students said, "My fingers taste good." That got me thinking about fingers tasting, like senses being swapped. That was fun to play with. Or the time that my coworker said she was going to breed her ball pythons on Valentine's Day. Or the time that I said, "Who do you have to blow to catch a break around here?"

I've got all kinds of shit scrawled in the margins in my notebook.

 

[49greg]

I write down interesting things people say, then go back to them later. Like two years ago, one of my students said, "My fingers taste good." That got me thinking about fingers tasting, like senses being swapped. That was fun to play with. Or the time that my coworker said she was going to breed her ball pythons on Valentine's Day. Or the time that I said, "Who do you have to blow to catch a break around here?"

I've got all kinds of shit scrawled in the margins in my notebook.

Hmmm lets see how this goes, Q: How do get fingers to stop smelling? A: You cut them off.

 

[Hypoxia]

Many many are based on experiences -- my own, or those in my uncle Ron's notes. Many such experiences are rather embellished to become workable stories. Some are straight reporting. Others are what-if's, like: What if a sibling had not died in infancy -- how would we have interacted?

Others are media-inspired. The end of BIG BANANA came first (real-life news) and I built the story to get there. JENNY BE FAIR came right out of the old folk song, updated and sexed-up. (Other songs will become stories. Stay tuned for I'M MY OWN GRANDPA, heh heh.) A SPOT OF MUSIC was inspired by the quote that begins the story. BRIDE OF KONG was a film idea that churned around in my head for years and years. RANDY RANDY jumped out after I saw the term Pornomancer on a tropes website. UNDER HIS EYES came from the James Thurber cartoon panel described at the end. Something I saw or heard just demands to be written, twisted.

 

[TamLin01]

Depends on the story. One of my Summer Lovin stories, for example, came about just because I'd read a lot of Welsh fairy folklore over the years (no particular reason, I just like folk myths) and I wanted to finally use it all for something. The other was actually (and oddly) inspired by real life: A heat wave, a transit workers' strike, and some really baffling relationship problems all hit me at once, and while my mind wandered during a particularly bad commute I came up with a story about it all.

 

[ukstockinglvr]

Thank you for all of your replies so far

These are really interesting to read and now I have a lot of stories to check out, knowing how they came about it will be extra fun guessing fact v fiction!

 

[SamScribble]

To be honest, I start most of my stories without any idea whatsoever of what 'the story' will be about.

I had a brain scan recently. The techies spent about half of the time frowning and the other half smiling. Broadly. Like they were reading a dirty book.

'So ... what does it say?' I asked.

'Hmm. The neurologist will talk you through it,' one of the techies said.

 

[JWren]

To be honest, I start most of my stories without any idea whatsoever of what 'the story' will be about.

I had a brain scan recently. The techies spent about half of the time frowning and the other half smiling. Broadly. Like they were reading a dirty book.

'So ... what does it say?' I asked.

'Hmm. The neurologist will talk you through it,' one of the techies said.

. . . and there's another story among the billions floating around. For fiction, any genre, imagination is a must.

 

[DeYaKen]

I am fast becoming addicted to these forums!

I have always been a keen storyteller. I am also highly sexed, if a man thinks of sex every 8 seconds (or whatever the myth is) then I am 0.008 seconds .

Sometimes normal everyday events can play out in my mind afterwards as a sexual fantasy, and as soon as I get chance they are added on a to write list (currently standing at 91 stories in various stages, plus 3 Ideas I have had over the last few weeks I need to add)

So it got me wondering about other authors on lit (especially prolific), how do you get your ideas and what inspires you?

It can be almost anything. Guardian Angel was inspired by the picture of the lovely Vanessa (from amateur pics) striding out of the Australian surf in a semi transparent swimsuit.

She Chose Me came from a conversation with a friend. Others have been inspired by feedback. For instance an ex-marine told me that I and my characters were both wimps because I wrote a story in which the main character went back to his family. So I wrote a story in which my hero responded in a very macho way and lost everything by doing so. ( I made him a marine )

If you have 91 stories on the go it sounds like you are not short of inspiration but maybe a bit short on working out an ending.

 

[ukstockinglvr]

If you have 91 stories on the go it sounds like you are not short of inspiration but maybe a bit short on working out an ending.

I know how they end, its getting there that I take time to do, and I am always short of time!

They are not all in progress stories, only about 10 or so have been fleshed out. The majority are titles with notes and plot summaries.

These stories have been accumulating since 2002! It is only recently that I had decided to finish some of them off.

 

[sensualwhispers]

inspiration

I get most of my inspiration from everyday ordinary situations. For example Confessions of a Learner Driver was inspired by me learning to drive and the what ifs of the situation.
Fairgame was based on something that happened to me as a teen which ive embellished for here.
A View from a ladder was written for my other half and it was also the very first one i posted on here.
Can i Dance for you was a request from a friend who wanted to be the main character in one of my stories, which he loves reading.
The Art of Temptation was inspired by a discussion on here about whether being subtle is more erotic and sexy than being blatant.
All of these are ordinary happenings with a sexy twist
Unfortunetly at the moment im suffering from writers block, ive got the ideas just finding it difficult to put down on paper so to speak.xox