Where do you get your inspiration?

[Lovepotion69]

I was going through my CD collection and realised I should just steal a plot from the lyrics for my next story.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Songs? Personal experiences/fantasies? Friends? Other authors?

/LP

 

[Alex De Kok]

Good question, and if I ever have the answer I'll be sure to let you know! Everywhere, basically. Sometimes it's a picture, or a mental vision, sometimes a phrase, or a piece of dialogue. For an example, my story 'Tell Me I Can Hope' was written from the inspiration of just that one fragment of dialogue - it had to be the title!

Sometimes a story just comes together after a mess of false starts and turns out to be completely different to the original idea. The characters tell me what to write.

Alex

 

[OldnotDead]

An author I like says, "Never waste experience". It's his summation of talking about the best writing being that to which you can personally relate, be enthusiatic about and then communicate that enthusiasm to the reader.

The stories I have written all have some anchoring in reality. The settings, are for the most part, real places I have been. Some of the action is real. Then the story can often develop a life of its own. Haven't you ever thought back to a situation and realized you mishandled it from beginning to end? I find writing is a wonderful place to 'correct' history and make it come out like it should.

The other source is friends. I'm lucky in having some friends that have actually shared some rather interesting experiences. Of course, some of that has to fall in the category of 'be careful what you wish for.' I really don't want to write about the twins I knew that dated twins and swapped and swapped and swapped to see how identical everyone was. It probably would not have bothered me except for the stories about food. Food that came out of a shared refrigerator . . . But if it inspires you, be my guest.

OldnotDead
http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=135309

 

[Guest]

Writing - whether fiction, non-fiction or poetry - helps me think. I'd say 98% of the time I need or merely desire to work on a problem that requires thought (e.g., a question, an issue, an ache to know more).

Then there is joy and grief.

The other 2% I write for Lit. I don't believe in inspiration. Writing is work; great creating satisfying work. Reading often leads me to thinking, and so to writing. Other arts, or merely beauty or pain, can lead me to thoughts and emotions, and so to writing. But no, I do not ever say I am inspired; I reserve inspiration for living.

Perdita

 

[ffreak]

My ideas seem to come in containers as distinct as the genre in which the idea fits. For horror, my ideas come from music (save the last dance for me, nights in white satin, etc). For mystery it comes from all the things I wondered about growing up (why did the nice grandmotherly lady who made me cookies kill her husband). For poetry, it comes from the emotions that pass through me - a mosaic of sight and sound reduced to images in my mind. For erotica it comes from the conversations and AV's of folks on this site.

There's also a po box in Schenectady.

-FF (for a dollar, they'll send you an idea - really they will)

 

[The_Fool]

My greatest inspiration comes from the last drop from a whiskey bottle, from self reflection while driving at midnight, from waking from that most vivid dream or while taking a shower still half asleep. Unfortunately I never capture those ideas....

Fool

 

[otherdarkmeat]

I find inspiration in everything under the sun. I have been inspired by people I know or random people I see on the streets. I have been inspired by songs, pictures, stories, dreams and too many other things to name.

-Mike B.

 

[Icingsugar]

Ev
ery
thing

Basically. I've had inspiration sprringing at me fron the oddest of places.

More often than not, it seems to be of "divine intervention". Meaning that I have no idea where the hell a particular odea came from. What that really mean is that my head is a big jigsaw puzzle with pieces missig, and I almost never remember exacly what inspites me to ideas.

 

[raphy]

Pop culture literature, normally. I get inspired by things I read, or movies I see.

 

[English Lady]

Well so many diverse things inspire me. An episode of buffy, A trip to the physio with my healing wrist, actual dreams, my own (and other peoples) fantasies....the list could go on and on and on...inspiration hits me form all angles and is very often unexpected!

 

[Dirty Slut]

Good question...

For legitamate fiction I use experiance of life, mine, and other peoples. For erotica I simply start playing with my clit, and think what if?


Ds

 

[Quint]

I think mine comes from my experience and surroundings and how the two blend and build together, but I'm too often hampered by inertia to give a conclusive answer--when I'm at my best, I pay attention, analyze, and recreate those situations. I'm rarely at my best.

Do a whole mess of character studies based upon myself and everyone I see. Plot comes harder (well, it comes not at all, these days); people are easy for me.