Where do you get your inspiration?

[SweetWitch]

I'm curious. Where do you find your story ideas?

I find my inspirations in the strangest places. Often it's in the turn of a phrase or a newspaper headline, such as:

The Girl in the Other Room (song title)
Seeking my future (from a personal add)
Man claims it was his mother's broken heart (headline)
It was her shelter from the storm (from a conversation)

I hear or read something and it captures my imagination. I've often wondered how it works for others.

 

[DeeZire]

Where do you get your inspiration?

From the flash fiction threads? I just wrote a whole story triggered by my last 100 word flash fic post.

Phrases are also good, but I'm more inspired by thinking of new ways for women to accidentally end up naked - especially in front of their brothers.

 

[MarshAlien]

I'm supposed to have inspiration? Crap.

Story ideas - now those I have. The last one came while I was listening to an mp3 of Kenneth Branagh reciting Henry V's "band of brothers" speech. "Wouldn't it be cool to have heard that in person?" I think. I enjoyed writing that story more than any other I've done.

Honestly, though, most of the other ideas came in the shower.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I'm supposed to have inspiration? Crap.

Story ideas - now those I have. The last one came while I was listening to an mp3 of Kenneth Branagh reciting Henry V's "band of brothers" speech. "Wouldn't it be cool to have heard that in person?" I think. I enjoyed writing that story more than any other I've done.

Honestly, though, most of the other ideas came in the shower.

I'm not actually sure. A couple of times they were reactive. I wrote The Round-Up . . . is Over because the original story pissed me off. I wrote Lost and Redeemed from the question of "What happens if the guy says 'No'?" and it sort of took on a life of it's own. I don't know why I wrote the Tantric stories, really I don't. The one I'm working on now is an incredibly politically correct non-consent/reluctance fantasy. They just sort of start and then, with a lot of help from my friends here, they take on a life of their own and I'm always wondering "What's going to happen next?"

 

[rgraham666]

My inspiration comes almost entirely from women I've got the hots for.

That's why I'm not writing much these days. Currently I'm not particularly interested in anyone.

 

[TE999]

The world in general. TV news, papers, magazines, some stuff I remember from my own life, people in the mall...

For instance, my story"Someday...I'll Find You" was inspired by an article I read concerning the legend of a woman buried in a lake in Central Park that used to be a reservoir. It just evolved from that.

Inspiration is everywhere.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

The world in general. TV news, papers, magazines, some stuff I remember from my own life, people in the mall...

For instance, my story"Someday...I'll Find You" was inspired by an article I read concerning the legend of a woman buried in a lake in Central Park that used to be a reservoir. It just evolved from that.

Inspiration is everywhere.

Back when I used to light candles on the shrine in my bedroom to Robert Heinlein, I recall reading that all science fiction is based on the premisis "If this goes on . . . " However, that was back in the early '60's when the majority of SF was obsessed with Post-Apocalypse writing. I think I write from more a position of "Gee, I wonder what will happen if . . . " It's sort of a Redneck's Last Words school of authorship with the advantage that I can't get hurt.

Here, hold my beer . . .

 

[SweetWitch]

I'm supposed to have inspiration? Crap.

Story ideas - now those I have. The last one came while I was listening to an mp3 of Kenneth Branagh reciting Henry V's "band of brothers" speech. "Wouldn't it be cool to have heard that in person?" I think. I enjoyed writing that story more than any other I've done.

Honestly, though, most of the other ideas came in the shower.

Just exactly what are you doing in that shower, Marshy?

 

[tickledkitty]

Sometimes mine comes from snippets of dreams or from moments in my life or from people I know. Sometimes I'll just have this moment in my head and a whole story weaves itself around it.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Sometimes mine comes from snippets of dreams or from moments in my life or from people I know. Sometimes I'll just have this moment in my head and a whole story weaves itself around it.

Real authors, the lot of you. I'm just a poor keyboard twiddler myself.

 

[starrkers]

Mine come from all over the place. From Helen With Love was a reaction piece: I read something and thought I could write a better headjob and it grew from there.
The Best Game (which I intend to revisit, rework and expand mightily) grew from a discussion on the perils of the Loving Wives category.
Others have come from snapshots in my imagination, I then have to figure out what happened to bring about that moment, or where it goes from there.
Overheard phrases; background action on TV - "I wonder what those two on the park bench are talking about" type stuff - headlines

I'm a regular bower bird of ideas, just rarely manage to make them bloom.

 

[Elianna]

I think that mine just sort of evolve. I'll start with a moment that I find particularly moving and then my characters just run away with me from there.

Silly things inspire me: places, people, a series of events, driving to work.

 

[damppanties]

Sometimes mine comes from snippets of dreams or from moments in my life or from people I know. Sometimes I'll just have this moment in my head and a whole story weaves itself around it.

That.

 

[The_Fool]

casual conversation. innocent double entendre. movies of naked women in my head.

Inspired by being mad, glad, sad, bad or some fad of which I am unaware.

 

[sr71plt]

I get my inspiration from Elianna. She's really sweet and considerate.

 

[Totzman]

Lots of places. I got the idea for "Sharking Day" from watching sharking videos on the net. "Nude Secretaries Day" I'm not sure. Maybe I got the idea from Snopes.com but I'm not positive on that. "Sweet Pie" was purely my own imagination. Same goes for "Spank a Waitress Wednesday."

 

[graceanne]

From the oddest places. Recently fairy tales have had my feverish brain working. I'm trying to get one going that is based on a dream. A few times I've been just journal writing and got an idea. personal fantasies, sometimes.

 

[Iamcanadian28]

From anywhere and everywhere. My imagination is a nasty bitch. Constantly working.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Several of mine are based on fantasies I have had for a couple of women I lust after.

Some are about things I'm interested in. Others have come from dreams or just the odd thought that has stuck in my brain for some reason.

Mostly I see my stories as a movie in my head. I replay it and replay it until I have all the kinks worked out then put it on paper so to speak. Sometimes after even after I have worked it all out, the story takes a turn because a new idea has me seeing a different ending or middle.

Hold on...it's show time.

 

[keeblercrumb]

Amsterdam Dreams

She is no longer in my life.

I have no inspiration left.

-KC

 

[Darkniciad]

Pretty much everywhere. I had the basic premise of "Home by the Sea" floating around in my head from the first time I heard the song. It only took me a couple of decades to put it on paper. Most of my Laresa stories have their roots in Disney movies. I'm sure Walt is spinning in his grave. Danica's tale was - and still is - inspired by and written for my Baileykins, to her fetishes, with my old gaming world as a backdrop.

"Finding Karen" is a far better version of an ancient stroke story off my hard drive, rebuilt around a woman from work and some Hollywood old west.

I'm still trying to find the characters in the back of my head to write "A Sale of Two Titties", so add Monty Python to the list.

I'd say the LST3Ks were pretty obvious

Ebon Genesis is a combination of the one paragraph history of Zoraster from his character sheet and a single line in an email from a reader ( that somehow ended up 7 Lit Pages long *laugh* )

Old nightmares end up inspiring scenes that turn into full stories/chapters. New daymares do the same. Managed to get the nightmares under control with a timed red light cobbled together from Radio Shack stuff about fifteen years ago, but can't get rid of the daymares.

Camping trips, drives, single lines ( Ghost of a Chance sprang into being fully formed from "He's dead, Jim" )

Of course, lately my inspiration and motivation are both rather lacking of late

 

[GabrielDaemon]

Songs do it quite often. One artform translates to another, I suppose.

There are times when I see people and an idea just springs to mind. Like a pair of giggling blonde cheerleader-types walking down an alley between a pair of old buildings near the downtown mall. Naturally, I can't help but imagine terrible, depraved, and debasing things happening to them.

Seriously, though, the best inspiration comes when you aren't looking for it. Kind of like love.

 

[CeriseNoire]

From my, er, interesting past.
From my present and imagined future (the stories turn out more interesting than the real thing)
From reading themes I think I could do better.
From emotions that I transpose to another situation.
From pictures, sounds, smells, and random phrases.
From submissions calls (regardless of my plans for submission).

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I write all kinds of things...including word puzzles.

But my best writing is anchored in 19th Century attitudes and practices. That is, my protagonists are always self-reliant and self actuated, and always at odds with inept 21st Century castrati & nannies....the social barnacles.

 

[SweetWitch]

This has been interesting. Many people come by their ideas and inspirations by the same basic means. Random thoughts inspired conversation, media events and past experiences.