Inspiration & Plot Ideas

[Aurora Black]

What inspires you? Where do you get the ideas for your stories' plotlines?

I usually get my inspiration from my dreams, fantasies, and longings.

My story ideas sneak up on me, pretty much. Sometimes when I'm watching a movie or listening to music, I experience a creative brainstorm and I just have to write my ideas down to hold onto them, cementing them before working to make them real.

Also, has there ever been a specific source from which you got an idea for a story?

For example, the greenhouse seduction scene in "An Erotic Bouquet" was inspired by the description and history of orchids given by Meryl Streep's character in the movie "Adaptation."

 

[Guest]

most of my stories have been inspired by something that has happened to me...with exceptions...sometimes, i'll wake up at night and think a dream i've had would be a great tale. so, i'll scribble notes the next day. This is how Violet in She Had Had Enough was born. I dreamt about a kazoo concert and a story was born with my kazoo savant in lead role.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I can get inspired by certain scenes in movies, or a song, or something I see in the street. The ending of Grease II gave me an idea for a Gay Male story. Two guys on the bus the other day provided another. And I wrote a whole NaNo-novel based on the idea from listening to "Wild Dancer", the winning song in a Eurovision Song Contest.

 

[Aurora Black]

most of my stories have been inspired by something that has happened to me...with exceptions...sometimes, i'll wake up at night and think a dream i've had would be a great tale. so, i'll scribble notes the next day. This is how Violet in She Had Had Enough was born. I dreamt about a kazoo concert and a story was born with my kazoo savant in lead role.

God, I wish that my stories' plots really had happened to me. *sigh*

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Most of my ideas seem to flash into my mind when I least expect it. Something I've seen, or heard seems to trigger it. The story then just explodes in my mind. If I don't get at least some of down immediately they seem to evaporate like a dream from my memory...

 

[BlackShanglan]

Most of mine seem to have a source, influence, or trigger somewhere, although some of it is fairly distant from what I end up writing. For my Lit stories currently posted, the list is something like:

- Arthurian legend.

- Andre Norton's novels The Forerunner Foray and Android at Arms.

- A scold's bridle kept on display in Warwick Castle.

- A biography of and the written poetry of Alexander Pope.

- C. S. Lewis's The Horse and His Boy, Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, and Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.

I can't really identify a source for the last story. "Letters from the Hesperus" would appear to have sprung whole from the author's mind. Odd, that.

 

[Aurora Black]

Most of my ideas seem to flash into my mind when I least expect it. Something I've seen, or heard seems to trigger it. The story then just explodes in my mind. If I don't get at least some of down immediately they seem to evaporate like a dream from my memory...

Have a notebook handy to jot down your ideas the moment they come to you. It really helps.

 

[Munachi]

i don't know. it's just suddenly there. sometimes due to something i read, or due to some scene in a movie, or something someone says, or a phantasy i have, or just no reason whatsoever. sometimes a phrase goes through my head and gets stuck there, and i find myself constructing a story around that phrase.

 

[Aurora Black]

- C. S. Lewis's The Horse and His Boy, Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, and Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.

Gee, I wonder why you chose those...

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Garth Brooks's song rodeo Inspierd Riding for the Brand.

A character sketch of the Cevilier de Eron inspired The spy wore petticoats.

My love of diving Inspierd Jinx, Night diving and my unpublished work the Wreck.

Mats, inpsired Alien Sensations. Her belief in me gave me the courage to try Sci-fi/fantasy.

An article on radical pain relief inspiered my dentist story, along with a litizen as the main character

Mindy, Lucky, Lauren, Des & renza have all inspired stories or poems.

The evil fuzzy wuzzy, devil ducky and others have inspired me to try diferent genre or story ideas.

I got on from the story ideas forum.

Inspiration is every where

 

[Aurora Black]

i don't know. it's just suddenly there. sometimes due to something i read, or due to some scene in a movie, or something someone says, or a phantasy i have, or just no reason whatsoever. sometimes a phrase goes through my head and gets stuck there, and i find myself constructing a story around that phrase.

I know what you mean.

 

[impressive]

Garth Brooks's song rodeo Inspierd Riding for the Brand.

A character sketch of the Cevilier de Eron inspired The spy wore petticoats.

My love of diving Inspierd Jinx, Night diving and my unpublished work the Wreck.

Mats, inpsired Alien Sensations. Her belief in me gave me the courage to try Sci-fi/fantasy.

An article on radical pain relief inspiered my dentist story, along with a litizen as the main character

Mindy, Lucky, Lauren, Des & renza have all inspired stories or poems.

The evil fuzzy wuzzy, devil ducky and others have inspired me to try diferent genre or story ideas.

I got on from the story ideas forum.

Inspiration is every where

... and wing back chairs ...

 

[Colleen Thomas]

... and wing back chairs ...

Rats!

I will get that one done. Promise

 

[Aurora Black]

Inspiration is every where

Yeah, it is. Lovely.

 

[kendo1]

A visit to Rosslyn Chapel.

 

[impressive]

Rats!

I will get that one done. Promise

I can't wait to read it ... but I have the fantasy already written in my head.

 

[McKenna]

Inspiration for me mainly comes from real-life sources. I say the inspiration, mind, not the finished story. I may run with an idea sparked from a song or the name on a headstone in a 19th century graveyard, but what's eventually generated is usually pure fiction.

Poetry, on the other hand, is almost always a reflection of real-life events. Poetry isn't something I've learned to do impersonally. It's too much a reflection of who I am or what I'm going through.

I know I've mentioned this before, but my idea for "Private Property: No Trespassing" came to me during a camping trip this summer. The male protagonist's name was one I saw on a headstone in a graveyard of a near-deserted mining community. The creek name, the area, the description of the wildlife and scenery are all taken from places I've been to in Idaho. That weekend I roughed-out the plot, and as soon as I got home, I started writing.

 

[impressive]

Poetry, on the other hand, is almost always a reflection of real-life events. Poetry isn't something I've learned to do impersonally. It's too much a reflection of who I am or what I'm going through.

Impersonal poetry is WORK to create. The personal stuff INSISTS on release.

 

[lil_elvis]

Mostly from my own experiences. Sometimes my own experiences, either actual or tangents from them; people I've met and places I've been become characters and settings. Nothing brilliant, just observing things and then asking what if...

 

[Colleen Thomas]

How could I forget?

My Football widow series was inspired by super bowl sunday

 

[Aurora Black]

How could I forget?

My Football widow series was inspired by super bowl sunday

God, I miss football. Soccer just doesn't cut it for me.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

From any and everywhere. Truth be told, I could hardly tell you where most of the ideas I write about come from. Usually, I get something in my head, and it meshes with something else in my head, then something else jumps in, all things that have come from other places. They meet, correspond, then begin to build together.

The plotlines tend to be decided by the characters involved, and most of them come from people I have met, or more often haven't met, that left a specific, yet undeveloped impression. The girl I spoke briefly with at Spencers with the pierced lip and eyebrows. Pretty eyes, red hair, then she left, leaving one simple impression to base a character on. One trait that might correspond well (in my own mind, anyway) with a few others that create a character I like (or dislike) that I can write about.

Other than that, I really can't say I remember where a lot of my ideas have come from, and I honestly don't want to look back and examine that. So long a they don't stop coming, I need to just look at the story and write it before it grows tired of waiting for me to do so.

Q_C

 

[cloudy]

I Alone was inspired directly by the song of the same name by Live.

My Atlantis series was sparked by a History Channel show.

Several are twisted (or not so) versions of things that have actually happened to me.

The one I'm currently working on (the race memory story) was inspired by a random quote I came across.

 

[Aurora Black]

I Alone was inspired directly by the song of the same name by Live.

My Atlantis series was sparked by a History Channel show.

Several are twisted (or not so) versions of things that have actually happened to me.

The one I'm currently working on (the race memory story) was inspired by a random quote I came across.

Yeah, I remember that you mentioned I Alone during the Holiday contest, and I had you in the back of my mind when I created this thread because I wondered if others' stories were inspired by songs.

 

[oggbashan]

I wish the inspiration would slow down slightly.

Even writing 15 plot lines for each of the last three contests hasn't made a noticeable dent in the outstanding pile of story ideas.

Og