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Post by leepoutine on Jul 5, 2013 15:22:27 GMT -5
Where do you guys get your ideas for writing? I get them from normal situations and then I try to figure out how I can make them into a story. I am constantly doing this when I go for walks. I see people, hear things and look at stuff that could be made into a story. I heard reading the newspaper is also a good way to get ideas for writing. Anyone else have any tips to get some inspiration?
- Lee
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Post by aquarose on Jul 5, 2013 15:49:48 GMT -5
I pretty much do the same. Everything seems to have a story. I find locations are the strongest, walking in the forest, an unusual cliff formation, caves, all make me question 'who would live there?'. Reading always prompts ideas. I'll read a cool scene and I think 'what if this had happened instead'. Oddly enough, dreams are a great inspiration if you can write them down when it's fresh in your mind.
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Post by mllersil on Jul 7, 2013 9:37:38 GMT -5
Leepoutine, this seems to be the most common method, right?  For myself, I noticed that I get my best ideas from visual stimuli, from seeing something striking me as odd. This can be a single candy wrapped in neon green in a bowl full of blue ones I once saw in the staff room at my ward (one of my favourite stories came from that moment). Or a pair of different shoes - a worn-out left grey sneaker and a black right gents' shoe - I once found right beside the country road. The shoelaces of both were missing. My second best ideas come from meeting unusual people with unusual life stories and sometimes resulting unusual point of views. Because of my job I get to know a lot of people very intimately and sometimes there are rough diamonds glittering through which inspire one or two ideas. Reading something somehow doesn't get my brain working productively, it's in pure consuming mode then and I'm too focused on the text to let my mind wander. So unlike you aqua, this is definitely no source for ideas for me. |
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Post by r.elena.t on Jul 7, 2013 13:52:05 GMT -5
I think I get more writing technique - or writing permission - from reading than actual story ideas. Maybe because of one of my old silencing mantras was "There is already too much noise in the world. Why should I add to it?"
Now, my brain is too full of story ideas to ever run out. Just living did that. The only question is whether I can make myself sit down & write - for which break-through NaNo gets all the credit.
Reading, though, is always helpful for writing technique. My almost-ready-for-beta middle grade novel has the characters in the real world using a kind of meditation as a way to access a "magical" ability. This actually works. I want to give enough info that interested readers can try it for themselves, but not so much as to be boring. (As a kid, I would try things that characters had done).
Yesterday I took some reading time for one of Diane Stanely's YA novels (after finishing my minimum, 'cause unfortunately most reading dulls my writing spark, like it seems to for you, mllrsil). In one scene, her MC used meditation to unleash her magic. It was an accurate description, done very neatly. My description is similar, so no change there, but it was very heartening. "Okay. She did it without being boring. So can I."
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Post by wetdirt on Jul 25, 2013 21:22:59 GMT -5
It's scary, but I find that miracles are my main crutch. Twice now, once in the shower and this morning at work, I have been rescued from "NOW what do I do?" by miracles. The first gave me the general structure of the story's resolution, and today, at a dismal staff meeting, the speaker basically dictated the entire couple of scenes that I needed but didn't know how to write. I needed a high-level diplomatic negotiation, and I have never been to one. But the speaker today did that for a living, he mediates those disastrous incidents where an outraged community is hanging one or another govt agency in effigy for some screw-up. He said how it works, and I wrote what he said in my compo book. Now I have the scenes I need for today and tomorrow.
But this miracle thing is making me nervous. Somehow, I think Real Writers(c) don't do it that way, they know what they are doing.
wD
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Post by gitchel on Jul 26, 2013 1:01:56 GMT -5
I have to ruminate. It's taken five days to puzzle out the basic plot for my book. Two days for the antagonist. Another two for the opening scene. Which is why I'm not writing as much as I'd like - though I now have 1500 words worth of outline ;-) Tomorrow, I start fleshing out the timeline. Today, for lunch, I pondered why the hell I wanted a telepathic cat for sidekick. I think it's because I saw another author with a talking dog.  I think I'll do without telepathy OR magic. Anyway, I seem to have to mull this over in my head bit by bit before I start writing. But it makes the actual writing much easier for me. |
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Post by Lib on Sept 13, 2013 10:22:55 GMT -5
I don't really know where my ideas come from. Everywhere. Anywhere. I tell people that's why I don't get drunk or do drugs, because I never know when I might run into another idea, and I need to be ready for it. I finally watched "The King's Speech" a couple nights ago, and it was amazing that they could take something as simple as the king trying to learn not to stutter, and make a whole movie out of it.
Lately, though, World of Warcraft has provided me with tons of ideas. I'm not sure why. Partly because the game has so many wonderful characters and stories, but sometimes I think it's because there are so many mistakes and contradictions and dropped storylines. It's like they've left all these blanks that are just begging to be filled in. Do any of you do that - find mistakes in stories/movies/etc and have to correct them? Or is that just my ego thinking I can do better, lol?
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Post by Bird on Sept 15, 2013 6:54:19 GMT -5
I don't think I ever wrote a story "filling in the blanks," but I can see where someone would. I guess once something gets published, filmed, etc. I feel like the biggest part of the story has already been told. Maybe I'm not imaginative enough to squeeze a good story out of the cracks they leave behind. |
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Now, where did I leave off at?
My latest edition of Straight From Thecliff Chamber 