I'm always fascinated where inspirtation comes from.
I love going to author signings and listening to the authors speak. How they came about their first novel. Where the what if's lingered and where they wrote their first published novel.
For some it was in a van, a train, or a little kiddos football came. For others it was at midnight eating cookies with a glass of milk.
How does the writer's brain work? I guess that's a mystery to never be solved. I'm just glad I'm blessed with one.
So I'm curious, where did your last inspiration strike? What were you doing?
For those curious about mine I'll dish. I had a dream the other night that my husband and I were divorced (awful I know)... I signed a paper saying I'd move out of the state if that happened (I knew he'd never do that, he doesn't have family here so that helped)... and I ended up with a bed & breakfast and a group of divrocee's. I woke up to find my husband peacefully asleep, no sign of divorce.
There it was... that little seed that climbs in and gradually grows. I'm working on the outline now!
It's your turn! DISH!
31 comments:
I agree. It's fascinating to hear about the inspiration behind stories. A lot of my inspiration comes from research, comments people make, or an image I see. Sometimes real events. It seems to be different every time!
Inspiration is amazing. It's funny how those little ideas build to story length ones. Most of my ideas pop up when I'm supposed to be sleeping :)
I <3 the "how the idea hit me in the head and bowled me over" stories. I am addicted to blogs for that very reason. Dreams are HUGE for me too :) That's where I've gotten a lot of my plot outlines.
Good luck with the new one!
You know me--music, music, music. The right song can put all sorts of images in my head.
I have found that the brain works in the weirdest way. Either an idea will pop into my head when I'm doing something completely unrelated to the idea or more recently, I got the idea for my novel, through a dream I had. The dream was so vivid, that it stayed in my mind for days, until I just HAD to write it down.
Ha! My dreams never inspire. Like the one the other night I dreamed of a fireball plummeting from outer space and when it landed it turned out to be flaming cowboy boot. Good if I wrote sci-fi I guess.
Sometimes inspiration comes from a picture or a place. Once it came from a dream. A lot of times it comes from random research on the internet. I'll see an interesting tidbit and begin to think about the possibilities.
Inspiration comes to me from many sources. My last novel came to me in a dream.
A week later I started writing THE BLINDED GARDENER.
I'm almost done with the final edits....YAY!
Sometimes it comes to me out of thin air, and sometimes I have to pull out some index cards and play around with images and ideas until I have a plot or a character.
These things often happen to me when I'm listening to music. A song will come on, and then someone will walk into my head and put on a little skit. Usually without having the decency to introduce themselves first. First time I ever met one of my MCs (Amira) was watching a snippet of her execution. Talk about awkward introductions.
Most of my ideas come to me when I'm trying to sleep. A simple fantasy can turn into an epic story - fretting about life, death and the universe can invoke epiphanies that must be explored.
Nina
That was a scary dream!
I get my ideas from all over. The last one came from a song. Oh...the last two! I love that music muse. =)
My recent work is a combination of something going on in my life (It's showing me the law enforcement angle first hand.) and a nightmare.
A good deal of inspiration comes to me in dreams/nightmares.
I love those stories too! I wish I had something fun like a dream, but really I was just thinking about supernatural powers and what I think would be cool to have. Then I the elements of the earth came into play and viola a book was born.
The inspiration for my novel came from the past. The twenties to be exact. But bits and pieces of it are inspired by my own experiences too. The idea came while watching 'Clueless' for the thirteenth time!
I get inspiration at the most random moments...sometimes when I'm outside, or taking a walk - BAM! It hits me.:)
One I'm sort of playing with right now came from a conversation with my daughter on the way home from the library about geeks taking over the world. I'm working on trying to expand it. Yeah, it's utopia :)
My ideas come in the most random ways. Sometimes it's a dream, and then at other times they just pop into my head (unannounced) while I'm doing something completely non-related to writing or the idea. The idea for my current novel came from watching a movie (don't worry I didn't steal any plot points, just the setting). Thanks for the post!
Samantha
The original idea was so long ago, I don't remember the specifics. I wqas probably watching a science fiction show though.
What a fun inspiration dream! Haha, your poor husband! I got my current idea just from walking around in Boston. Not as exciting. :)
My current WIP also came from a dream! It was about a bunch of young mages at a sky-scraper school in an age before sky scrapers. It totally drew me in, and when I woke up (before I was really awake) I grabbed a pen and scribbled 'Amanda' on my hand (name of the heroine, since shortened to Anda). It didn't look like my handwriting at all. Creepy! :)
My inspiration is exactly like a muse whispering in my ear. Thoughts go off on a tangent and all of a sudden I realize I've just told myself the opening of a chapter/a conversation some of my characters will have.
Oh I hate those dreams, but you gotta love them if they inspire you:)
I get alot of my inspiration from dreams as well, and also just watching the world. Like last night I was leaving Meijer and there was this old couple in front of us. The man put his arm around his lady and patted her on the back. I fell in love with them and was totally inspired!
Well, we are farmers, I love fantasy, I've been watching too much of Disney's Princess & the Frog and maybe eating too many sourpatch kids. :)
I'm not sure if I would call it inspiration but I constantly have these horrible daydreams about what would happen if things went terribly wrong (like what if the mother standing on the side of the road holding her toddler's hand, had let go and the little girl ran out in front of my car). I won't go through the rest of that particular scenario. I do think, however, that people who write are also fairly prone to finding overwhelming inspiration everywhere they turn.
I'm glad you're not getting divorced.
I just posted about the exact same thing!
Love that idea, Jen! Fab!
My brain works like that, too. All it takes is one spark and then suddenly I have a whole story idea!
I'm an interior designer, NOT a writer, yet I had this idea that wouldn't leave me a lone. It was like voices in my head. I really had no choice but to write it all down.
My inspiration came to me via a song...Hurricane by 30 Seconds To Mars. Wham! A novel was born!
Very cool! I like hearing how authors get their ideas too. My favorite is how Sharon Creech got the idea for her Newbery Award-winning novel "Walk Two Moons": from a Chinese fortune cookie!
I always wonder about the inspiration behind the stories too. It's a question and answer that never gets old because the answer is always different. :)
Fun blog you have going. Best of luck with your writing ventures!
Thanks for stopping by my blog today.
Aimee
I usually get my inspiration by writing - I start off with a voice and keep going, and things happen to my MC. Then I figure out how the plot threads relate.
I generally dont get inspiration from dreams, and wouldn't I love to have the full technicolor dream experience. But, no, it hasn't happened, as much as I'd love it to.
But the other night, I kind-of had a dream aout plot. Except it was a dream about me telling somebody what I was writing about.
In this dream, I said I was writng about Cleopatra. About one small fact that seems to have escaped most historians: that she was a kick-ass vampire slayer, and Julius and Marc (along with most romans) were vampires.
I get the feeling that instead of being handed a full length novel, I was just given an Evil-Editor-Guess-The-Plot fake-plot idea. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, google Evil Editor and check out his blog.
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