Where's Your Inspiration Location?

[miwoodsman]

The other day I was driving to work, not really concentrating on anything besides driving, when a thought popped into my head which solved a problem I had with a story under construction. It was simple but elegant, and dovetailed nicely in the plot.

I find I do most of my creative thinking when I'm away from the keyboard. If I have an idea I can sit down and type away but when I'm stuck, I'm not that good at finding a solution while sitting at the computer. I also don't find much inspiration there, either, for starting a new story.

So where am I when I get my ideas?

- driving in the car (no music, quiet, wife and kids asleep if present)
- while exercising (looong bike rides)
- in the shower
- waking after a dream (less than a tenth of these ideas are good ones upon review in the morning)

The question is, where is your favorite inspiration location(s)? Discuss.

 

[rgraham666]

I've had them happen anywhere and everywhere.

 

[English Lady]

When I'm on Holiday in Scarborough I get loads of inspiration, I think it's because I'm relaxing and not writing anything else, so the ideas have space to invade.

Oh, and on buses, I get loads of my ideas when I'm on a bus.

 

[MagicaPractica]

The most productive times are mowing the lawn, gardening, showering, and lying in bed while trying to go to sleep.

 

[xssve]

Sitting on the patio - that's where I draw, the natural light is much more inspiring, and the chair is more comfortable. I'm going to have to train myself to draw inside this winter, last winter was not so productive.

 

[DeeZire]

When I'm spying on my neighbor while she's in the shower.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

I do my best stuff when I sit down and go "o.k., come up with something".

 

[Frank Noir]

I agree with Nietzsche, who once said that good ideas came from walking.

My best creative thinking comes from walking around in a city - especially in Berlin (my second home).

Switching on the computer, on the other hand, always triggers a brief attack of writer's block.

 

[xssve]

I agree with Nietzsche too - some of my best ideas have come when I was stone batshit crazy.

 

[xssve]

Walking is good too though.

 

[rachlou]

If i'm puzzling over where a storyline is heading, I often find inspiration when i'm lying in bed on a night. In that hazy time when you're just beginning to fall asleep and your mind is wandering, ideas seem to materialise. I've had some great ideas then. The only problem is that I dont always remember the details when I wake up the following morning. The details are still there, but sometimes it takes a couple of days for them to pop back into my head.

I try and think plots over when i'm cycling, but I lose track too easily. Exercise doesn't seem to go hand in hand with creativity for me. My brain doesn't have the energy to be inspirational then, I think...

 

[kierianna]

In the bathtub or sometimes talking to friends.

 

[DeeZire]

In the songwriting community we do mundane tasks to free the brain for more creative endeavors. But it's also important to take notes when those ideas pop into your head, because, likely as not, they'll pop right back out again if you don't capture them.

Many songwriters go out and mow the lawn, or do the dishes, or drive the kids to school when they're in need of inspiration, which makes it nice for the songwriter's SO. "Honey, don't you think it's time to write a new song?" which, translated, means "do the dishes, dammit!"

The 'isolated blurt' thread is a goldmine of story ideas. Same with writing down interesting dialogue while watching a DVD. It may mean nothing at the time, but open your notebook a week later, and that line you wrote down might spur a scenario, or a character, which could turn into a story.

So, after all that, I get ideas while driving, and if I can't write them down, I leave a message on my cellphone.

 

[jomar]

If i'm puzzling over where a storyline is heading, I often find inspiration when i'm lying in bed on a night. In that hazy time when you're just beginning to fall asleep and your mind is wandering, ideas seem to materialise. I've had some great ideas then. The only problem is that I dont always remember the details when I wake up the following morning. The details are still there, but sometimes it takes a couple of days for them to pop back into my head.

Ditto.

 

[galaxygoddess]

More often than not, the bed. When I'm laying there thinking, lost in my own head...

or when i just wake up. Man I woke up and had an AWESOME one liner... I didn't write it down and by time I remembered to write it down, I had forgotten the second part of it which MADE it into a great one liner ><

Or in the shower... I guess when you're washing your hair, you're massaging that brain into some greatness or something o.0;;

 

[Guest]

car

Listening to music while driving.

Oh, the multi-tasking!

Maharat

 

[Bizkit_Writer]

I get inspired everywhere. I sometimes get inspired when I'm riding my bike around the neighborhood going to the store...Lately its been really late at night when I'm playing yahtzee online..

 

[NALA CAYENNE]

My inspiration comes from life itself. Makes no difference where I am. I can be at a restaurant with hubby and the kids laughing and joking then all of a sudden scramble for my purse to get out my paper and pen.

Driving is the worse though because most times I have the pen and no paper or the paper and no pen...

 

[sr71plt]

My stories form to full blown in my mind all by themselves--and tend to drop into my consciousness whenever/wherever it's most inconvenient for me to do anything about them. I can usually identify what the grain of sand was that set the pearl to forming--but only in hindsight.