Writing: effort or inspiration?

[indigogaia]

I've posted a few stories here over the past year and half and I enjoy writing. I won't say I'm great at it, but there are times when I think I'm pretty good.

My question is about inspiration. I'm not one of those writers who can just create. I can't sit down and invent a story. My ideas come to me from dreams or most often fantasies that have percolated for many years. The up side to this is that I often complete a story quickly once I get started writing it, the down side is that I don't write often. I can go many many months without writing and then I'll have a productive few days.

I hesitate to use the word "normal" because it's not what I mean, but for the writers out there...how does it work for you? Are you lucky enough and creative enough to pull things out of the air or do you need to ruminate before you write?

Just musing...

 

[johneb87]

My series "New Life in a New World" was inspired by my two favorite games right now, Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim. However, it was ShadwNinjaX's "Blazing Glory" series that gave me the final inspiration to not only create New Life but to also just write in general. Until then I hated writing.

I don't think it's a problem that a story idea is not 100% original, as long as you have that personal twist on it that makes it yours.

 

[TamLin01]

Virtually everything I write has its roots in some other media, usually a book or a movie. Often the relationship is obvious: When I read and was charmed by "1001 Nights" (Arabian Nights), I wrote a story in that style called "Ramadan". When I was startled and creeped out by HP Lovecraft's "The Festival" I turned around and wrote a similar (though markedly different) take on the same theme, called simply "Festival". Other times the relationship between the inspiration and the finished product is more obscure -- A story I wrote called "Still Life" came about because I watched the movie "Black Swan" and wanted to write something that also explored the theme of obsession.

Every now and then, very rarely, real life events will give me a story: "Man nor Beast" is about a depressive fit I had, and the story I'm writing right now grew out of an article I'm writing about spousal abuse (yeah, I'm a real ray of sunshine these days). The only thing I've ever written that I would call the product of years-long "percolation" is "The Red Masquerade", which was in part rooted in an idea I had back in junior high after reading "Masque of the Red Death" and imagining a Halloween party or haunted-house attraction designed after the mansion in it.

 

[sethp]

Both... I find that if it's not inspired, like if I'm doing a story request that I'm just not into...I have a hard time finishing it. it's effort. But even when I'm inspired, half the time I get a block...Usually it's plot related and I can't write the scene that needs to be written. I plod through and after that one part the rest flows and it's pure inspiration.

 

[BONNIEBREA]

Both are parts of my process. Once the basic idea for a story finds its way into my head (inspiration) I find the writing process relatively easy (although that's perhaps an overstatement, there's nothing really that 'easy' about it, as I'm sure you've discovered). But once the idea is there the plotting and characters and their relationships and interactions can come without agonizing effort.

The idea that got my last novel going was: 'What if you had someone who grew up wondering about the concepts of dominance and submission, and had to sort it all out as an adult?' The first draft went fairly quickly. The hardest part for me is then going back and creating the internal thematic and narrative connections.

Also, the book used almost all existing characters that had been in previous stories. There was only one major character that was entirely new, and one who had been a very peripheral character in previous stories that really needed a lot of work (and a few new minor ones). But having that familiarity already with the characters helped make the writing process less complicated and involved.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I dont have the usual problems most writers experience. My problem is too many stories vying for my attention. I have like industrial strength attention deficit disorder.

 

[oggbashan]

Like JBJ I have too many stories demanding that they be written.

Sometimes I use them to create my 15 x 50-word stories but often that process generates more ideas for more stories.

When I planned my Flawed Red Silk series for the NaNoWriMo challenge, I had 36 possible chapters in the first draft of the plot. I cut those back to 12 (and amended the first draft of the first chapter to fit) and completed all 12 at just over the NaNoWriMo target of 50,000 words.

I used some of the redundant plots in later stories but I still have about 150 part written stories sitting on my hard drive. I've had to split them into drafts of over 750 words and under 750 because the smaller ones are just an outline of the beginning. That still gives me about 80 incomplete stories.

From time to time I look through the pending folders hoping to complete some. The usual result is that I get an idea for a new story or two and the folder gains another incomplete work.

But inspiration isn't enough. Sometimes I have to write even when the inclination isn't there - to complete a story, to write an entry for a themed competition, or just to get the Muses off my back!

 

[TxRad]

Like JBJ I have too many stories demanding that they be written.

Sometimes I use them to create my 15 x 50-word stories but often that process generates more ideas for more stories.

When I planned my Flawed Red Silk series for the NaNoWriMo challenge, I had 36 possible chapters in the first draft of the plot. I cut those back to 12 (and amended the first draft of the first chapter to fit) and completed all 12 at just over the NaNoWriMo target of 50,000 words.

I used some of the redundant plots in later stories but I still have about 150 part written stories sitting on my hard drive. I've had to split them into drafts of over 750 words and under 750 because the smaller ones are just an outline of the beginning. That still gives me about 80 incomplete stories.

From time to time I look through the pending folders hoping to complete some. The usual result is that I get an idea for a new story or two and the folder gains another incomplete work.

But inspiration isn't enough. Sometimes I have to write even when the inclination isn't there - to complete a story, to write an entry for a themed competition, or just to get the Muses off my back!

I feel for you Ogg, I have 3 times that many incomplete stories and twice that in the idea folder.

Now, if I just had the time.

 

[bashfullyshameless]

It's a mixture of both. I have a sci-fi manuscript that I'm sitting on (I need to go through it again before trying to find an agent) that I wanted to write for about fifteen years. I just never started.

Then two years ago, I decided to Just Do It that summer. I got about four chapters in. I stalled on a point of supporting character development. I chewed on it. And then while I was waiting, I figured I'd just plain write something else, and I had this story that I had started in the maybe-someday-if-I-have-the-guts hopes of putting it up on Literotica... so while the sci-fi story was stalled, I put the Lit piece up in hopes of seeing how my work would be received by an anonymous audience, rather than by friends who were predisposed to be supportive.

And then that story and other antics on Literotica sucked me in for about a year & a half. It just started flowing, and pretty soon I couldn't wait to get home from work to write, and anyone who interrupted me while I was writing was a horrible person who deserved fire and damnation... and then I finally got done.

So then last year I got back onto my sci-fi manuscript and forced myself to stay on it without writing other stuff. It took months, and it was WORK. But now it's done (at least as a complete draft). I'll be more satisfied with it when it's either published or self-published (we'll see how the shopping-around goes). Anyway, yes. Sometimes it just wants to get out of my hands and onto a keyboard. And other times it's actual work, regardless of how much I love it.

My series "New Life in a New World" was inspired by my two favorite games right now, Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim.

Holy shit. So my girlfriend bought a PlayStation last Christmas (I've never had one), and along with it she got several games including Skyrim and Call of Duty 4. My biggest problem? After being sucked into Skyrim for so long, I switched over to CoD and I was running through the woods with the Russians trying to shoot me, and I kept trying to stop and pick flowers or chase butterflies because Skyrim taught me that this was very important... turns out in CoD it just gets you shot.

 

[MagicaPractica]

Effort can beget inspiration if you train your brain to look for inspiration in the world around you and to use it. Someone, I think Ogg, offered a prompt a day here during August a few years back. I tried to write a two thousand word story a day using the prompt. Some turned out well, others didn't. I've used prompts for some time with my writer's group to get the creative juices flowing. The more you do it, the more easily it comes, I believe. That's if you want to. Some people write as a hobby. I hope to make a living at it.

 

[Carreira]

I actually sit down and think: Ok, now I am gonna write.

What am I going to write about? Then I decide. What is the article or story going to be about? Then I decide.... I can say for me its 70% effort 30% inspiration.

But I go around it - I always carry a notepad and when I get inspired I write a mneumonic down for later

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Prompts and post-it stickies remind me of kids who buy rubbers but got no dates.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Here yuh go. If youre stuck try improvising something thats good to begin with, and see where it goes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOnr5uhoPlE&feature=related

 

[topace]

My problem is that I don't lack inspiration or ideas for story, but am lazy when it comes to writing. Still I can put my laziness aside from time to time when a great idea hits me!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Most people, especially writers, are lazy.

But writing isnt about sweat and elbow grease. The soul of writing is sensitivity to how expression affects people. And the best writers affect people as music does, as smell does, as all the senses do when theyre choreographed to best effect.

And to master the choreography all yuh gotta do is relax in a comfortable place and pay attention to your thoughts and feelings as you absorb experience. Almost no effort is required.

 

[HeyAll]

I usually start with a scene I think is really hot, or theme, and then I work around that.

For instance, if I want to write a story about a grown man drinking a pregnant woman's breast milk, I would think, "What's the most realistic way to set up this scene? How would it happen? What happens afterwards? ect..."

Also I add to it the vibe. "What's there relationship like? Is she slutty, proper, or casual?"

It's like a puzzle. Once you get the right idea, it clicks and you're excited about it. If I don't get excited about it, then I don't write until I find what I'm looking for. Before you know it, you have a story.

 

[sr71plt]

Oh, JBJ, you are sooooo full of crap.

 

[Hubs_in_hose]

I write, but still don't consider myself a writer.

I was in the middle of a chapter of my current series when I stopped to write my Nude Day story. Once it was completed I haven't had the drive to go back to my other story. I have had several other ideas pop into my head.

I need to go back to A New Mind and get back into that flow. After what I learned from Lost and Found I am afraid that my writing has changed and the newer chapters won't quite fit with what was posted before. Gah! I hate that I started posting that one as I finished chapters and not as a finished complete work!

 

[YDB95]

Usually my stories start with a flash of inspiration, often just something I read or overheard somewhere. For example, I got the idea for "Nobody's Beauty But Mine" (link on my sig-line) from a joke I read somewhere on the Internet about a guy who got lucky with a porn star, only to discover that acting really is just acting.

Then, of course, it takes real effort to flesh the idea out into a decent story. But that never feels too much like work as long as the story is coming along well.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Usually my stories start with a flash of inspiration, often just something I read or overheard somewhere. For example, I got the idea for "Nobody's Beauty But Mine" (link on my sig-line) from a joke I read somewhere on the Internet about a guy who got lucky with a porn star, only to discover that acting really is just acting.

Then, of course, it takes real effort to flesh the idea out into a decent story. But that never feels too much like work as long as the story is coming along well.

Old pro's suggest that you start with a premise rather than an event. Take Shakespeare and ROMEO & JULIET for example.

Whats the premise or bit of wisdom Shakespeare tries to get across to the Reader? When church, state, community, family, and friends fail to intervene with immature youth they invite disaster.

 

[Athalia]

It's like a puzzle. Once you get the right idea, it clicks and you're excited about it. If I don't get excited about it, then I don't write until I find what I'm looking for. Before you know it, you have a story.

Exactly.

I cannot for the life of me sit down and "write a story" the way I could "write a letter." The story has to come to me and say "Write me down." It doesn't usually say exactly how to write it, but it gives me enough pieces to put the mosaic together and fill in the pieces that aren't there. I judge my success or failure not by now popular the story was, nor how compelling the plot, but by my ability to figure out those missing pieces.

 

[nicecthulhu]

Some stories come to me in dreams/daydreams. Some stories come to me by effort - what would be a neat little romance during the War of 1812? Some stories come as I'm reading or watching something and my warped little mind goes off on a tangent. Holly's Winter came to me as I first looked at this bulletin board and saw a note about the various contests including the Christmas contest - if I were ever going to write a story about Christmas then how would I make it sexy? The germ of the story hit me within 15 minutes.
Like some others, I've quite a few story plots sitting on the shelf and waiting to be written. Not all will be written as a few are just whimsical plots and have no good story associated.
If a story is running cold (which happened with a story I am currently working on), I've found my wife had a great idea to get it going again as did an editor.
So, for me the initial plot is either effort or inspiration. The actual story writing is...well, effort and inspiration!