The Birth of Ideas

[Aurora Black]

Under what conditions do you come up with your best story ideas?

This question applies to both written and unfinished stories.

Are you relaxed, perhaps enjoying a cup of coffee or a walk in the park?

Or are you stressed, and the muse visits you while you're toiling in the office?

Are you happy, sad, indifferent?

Ideas come to me regardless of how I'm feeling, but the majority of them have their start when I am in a relaxed state and I feel good about my well being. In the shower, while sleeping (dreams are great story material), and on vacation.

 

[Guest]

agreed on the 'relaxed' state. seems i do the best when i can control my environment. when kids are screaming or in need of things, i tend to be choppy and forget details.
the ideal environ for me is quiet music in the background (there's always manic music playing in my head) pre dawn or evening and a recent sexual experience with the mrs.

 

[Aurora Black]

agreed on the 'relaxed' state. seems i do the best when i can control my environment. when kids are screaming or in need of things, i tend to be choppy and forget details.
the ideal environ for me is quiet music in the background (there's always manic music playing in my head) pre dawn or evening and a recent sexual experience with the mrs.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

they just come... *sigh* Sometimes I try to brainstorm ideas, if I'm stuck, but usually it doesn't work. It normally has to be inspiration... usually in the form of a little seed, like a tickle in my head that gets stronger and bigger as time goes on... then I sit down, and start to write, while it's still just a seedling... that's like sunshine and water, it just starts to grow and bloom where it's planted...

 

[Darkniciad]

Mine just build up over time, mostly at work where I'm up in the back of a semi for 8 to 10 to 12 to god knows how many hours a day with only the roar of the conveyors to keep me company. I could do the work in my sleep, so I have plenty of time to muse.

 

[oggbashan]

My most frequent stimulus is Yahoo Adult Groups. The titles alone are enough to start an idea rolling around. My latest failure was inspired by a new group 'Dominated by Shop Assistants' and I wrote Late Shopping for them.

That was a waste of time. The group's moderator has not approved a single message so no one can comment or even mention the story. It has just got to 10 votes on Lit with a rating of 3.40.

Sometimes I am reading and an idea arrives that may be nothing to do with the book or a wild deviation from it. This weekend I was reading Arthur Bryant's History 'The Age of Elegance'. He was discussing folk customs and mentioned 'Tandering Day' when men and women sit around in each other's clothes drinking elderberry wine (and pupils bar teachers from entering schools). I did a Google search and the only references are back to Arthur Bryant. The statement above is all he says. Why did they do it? Where? When was Tandering Day? Why elderberry wine? Several plot ideas started. What if the man and woman were very different builds e.g. the village blacksmith and his wife? What happened to those who didn't observe Tandering Day? Were they forcibly cross-dressed? Or thrown in the village duckpond? What about the unmarried? Did village lads and lasses make opportunities for sex on Tandering Day? I could make several stories based around Tandering Day.

Og

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Jogging.

 

[cantdog]

I call it open in the back of the head. It's not like zen, but it's a disengaged, receptive state. It supervenes of its own accord when no acute use of the brain in being done. Nowadays, anyway. I used to worry. Destructive thing, worry.

Anyway, the ideas come up from behind. It's on me to notice them.

 

[Aurora Black]

Does anybody else carry around a notebook in case inspiration strikes while on the go?

 

[oggbashan]

Does anybody else carry around a notebook in case inspiration strikes while on the go?

No. Ideas, once started, won't leave me alone. I have too many unfinished, unwritten and unstarted stories to fill the rest of my life even without the dozen or so story ideas that come every day.

Og

 

[Ravlicious]

Does anybody else carry around a notebook in case inspiration strikes while on the go?

No, and I'm sure I've lost many great ideas because I haven't.

Anyway, my ideas don't come to me when I'm in a particular state or mood, they just, you know, show up. Probably not nearly as often as I'd like, but that's probably true of many authors. I have books designed to draw out ideas, and those can work wonders, as well, when the creative well just seems bone dry on a particular day.

 

[TxRad]

Does anybody else carry around a notebook in case inspiration strikes while on the go?

Nope.....

I carry a pocket recorder......

That's why I have 60 stories in the inwork file.....

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Aurora,

Ideas come from a thousand different places. News paper clippings, conversations, a billboard and so on. More than anything else, I'm an observer. In truth, there are so many story ideas floating around in my head I could never write them all. Some shouldn't be written. Some should be written but won't because I'm not really comfortable with the story for any number of reasons.

My mood when ideas come could be anything but angry. Anger covers that "something" that generates those ideas. Mood also has nothing to do with the genre of the idea to comes to me. One of my best humor stories came to me at my mother's funeral.

 

[Liar]

Does anybody else carry around a notebook in case inspiration strikes while on the go?

Nope. Ideas come easily. I have a dozen ideas evbery day. If I'm in a writing mood (rare), I just sit down in front of the keyboard, and an idea plops up. If it sucks I sit there a while longer until one that I fancy plops up. Then I write.

 

[Aurora Black]

Aurora,

Ideas come from a thousand different places. News paper clippings, conversations, a billboard and so on. More than anything else, I'm an observer. In truth, there are so many story ideas floating around in my head I could never write them all. Some shouldn't be written. Some should be written but won't because I'm not really comfortable with the story for any number of reasons.

My mood when ideas come could be anything but angry. Anger covers that "something" that generates those ideas. Mood also has nothing to do with the genre of the idea to comes to me. One of my best humor stories came to me at my mother's funeral.

Wow. Inspiration really can strike at any time.

I agree that anger (and worry - thanks Cant) have the potential to destroy creativity, but in my experience they can also fuel the fire once the idea is already realized. There's a scene in a recently finished story that I would have never been able to pull off if I wasn't angry almost to the point of rage while I was writing it. It worked damned well.

I try to write all my ideas down as they come to me, no matter how many. I guess it's my way of making sure I'll never run out. It may sound silly, but I believe that we're all born with a finite number of ideas inside us. When one lets an idea fade, it's an opportunity that's lost forever.

 

[Aurora Black]

Nope. Ideas come easily. I have a dozen ideas evbery day. If I'm in a writing mood (rare), I just sit down in front of the keyboard, and an idea plops up. If it sucks I sit there a while longer until one that I fancy plops up. Then I write.

Lucky you.

 

[cantdog]

I'm with Og and Liar. They're everywhere. Not always real super good, mind you. But there all the time.

 

[Liar]

Lucky you.

Yeah. If I ever had the willpower to write the damn things.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Maybe Aurora is thinking that story ideas come from inside your head. I don't think that's true. Story ideas are a reaction to almost anything external. Besides, there's nothing in my head and I rattle when I walk.

 

[oggbashan]

... Besides, there's nothing in my head and I rattle when I walk.

So do I. That is caused by gallstones...

Og

 

[Guest]

 

[Aurora Black]

Jen, yer a goof.

'rora, I get my ideas at weird times and weird places. Two of my stories were conceived in Lit's chat room, two on a message board far away, one while doing laundry, one during a phone conversation with a friend, one as an outpouring of grief during a real situation and two as "presents" for friends. All happened in different moods, and circumstances.

Anger doesn't prevent me from getting ideas, but I must admit that it can make me a bit...hrm...childish in what I write. I usually write out angry stuff, and then close the document without saving.

And instead of writing down ideas, I let them float around in my noggin for a while. If they're good, they'll stick until I have to let them out, if they're boring, they'll dry up and blow away.

Hope that answers your questions--I'm drugged to the eyeballs again and not sure if I'm blithering or not.

Nope, you're fine.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I'm usually driving. My mind tends to wander a lot when I'm in the car (yes, it's dangerous, don't pass me bitch, I'll sideswipe you ).

Other times and places that have added note-able inspiration have been when I am eating lunch at a restaurant, at martial arts class (some of the younger students mothers are pretty fine), and when I'm trying to fall asleep.

 

[duddle146]

Creative Story Ideas

Believe it or not - most of my better stories come from daydreaming about various situations.

A bit of an old country song lyric probably says it best: Daydreams, spending the hours in far away things...

I have always loved flights of fancy. Sometimes I try to put literary foundations under my daydreams to support them. Many of my stories will never see the light of day...but, no matter, I love writing them. Once in a while I'll even submit one here on Lit.

 

[cantdog]

I'm usually driving. My mind tends to wander a lot when I'm in the car (yes, it's dangerous, don't pass me bitch, I'll sideswipe you ).

Other times and places that have added note-able inspiration have been when I am eating lunch at a restaurant, at martial arts class (some of the younger students mothers are pretty fine), and when I'm trying to fall asleep.

Young mothers. *sigh*

I guess story ideas for porn are of a different order? Even more easy to come by/