What inspires you?

[G. Novella]

So, I see some strange ideas and stories once in a while, and some are good, some are terrible. Often I wonder why didn't I think of that? Other times I wonder why would anyone think of that?

Then I have people asking me what sparked my story ideas, or where I get mine, and sometimes I know the answer, other times I can't really explain.

Some of my ideas, like my RTB was sparked with my fascination of Harry working with people his age and having his own army.

Most of the time though, I get my ideas for character traits from people around me, and sometimes I pick up ideas from things I read or other fics. Then I sort them out into something original.

So, how do you guys get inspired?

[viralic1]

My mind runs at a couple hundred thousand words per minute, so I actually have stuff planned out for three years ahead.

[G. Novella]

Seriously? Like beginning middle end? I can never do that, I lose track of all my ideas and have nothing connecting the ideas at all!

[viralic1]

Yeah. Like I already have several major events for the fourth and fifth year planned, but everything is subject to change if I think of something better. The hardest part is keeping track of everything, so sometimes I'll recreate like nine scenarios for the same time period.

[Kitty279]

Some of the stories I did write over the years were sparked by books I have read, or by scenes that suddenly popped into my head. These were all original fics.

With my own fanfic, it was the dissatisfaction with the end of OotP and the last two books, particularly HBP, that got me to finally try and write an ending I liked better.

[G. Novella]

I do that where I have events for my RTB I have like a million different things and avenues I want to explore when I change things, and I haven't even gotten to the end of fifth year because I can't pick a central idea or choose what I want to do. And I still have to actually finish the reading still

[physicssquid]

I find that when I write, I'm thinking of five different things the characters could say, but not in response to the section I'm writing in, so have to find the section and get those comments in, otherwise I forget about them.

I also find that I'm planning events and scenes for after the reading is over, half-way through writing out the comments for the first book, which irritates me to no end, because generally, those scenes won't work with the way the reading goes.

[Kaiserin]

I got hooked into Rtbs by reading randomreader and for a while tried to think of situations with Hermione or someone else going back in time and I just couldn't make myself get into it. it kept feeling forced. and then I realized that what I had to do was change transportation end date and people. once I thought of using the veil of death, as well as death himslef I knew I had something to write about.

[Ithiarel]

I was never comfortable with the whole "the fates are intervening" or "someone sends books back to tamper with the past - but there are no consequences to it" set-ups. They just seemed too... easy and convenient. That's why I took so much time to set-up my fic.
I wanted to have a clear reason for the Founders to be at Hogwarts during Harry's fourth year. And I knew even before I started writing, that I was not going to lock them away in some handy room (of requirement). Which means, of course, that they will be inetracting with lots of people during their stay. Actually, my story could work well without the RtB-parts in it.

Personally, this might be because I'm more into writing original fiction than fanfiction. It's just easier for me. *shrugs*

My ideas come mostly from long years of practice (I've been planning and GMing rpg adventures for over 10 years, now), good preparation (always have a notebook on me) and general knowledge (I took quite a few creative writing classes at university; where I learned how to get and develop ideas).

[G. Novella]

I love writing original fiction, but I have no confidence in it, or a method to finish my story. Thats what got me into fanfiction writing. I just wanted to see if I could write a story and finish it, with a clear point to it. But then I got obsesssive and it sprouted into this monster that I constantly battle for the best ideas...

[Ithiarel]

I love writing original fiction, but I have no confidence in it, or a method to finish my story.

Ja. That was the most difficult thing for me to learn, too - decide which idea goes into the story, and which should be discarded, and which idea is big enough to become a short story all by itself.

By now, I have an obscenely large collection of books on writing (some ebooks, some paperbacks) but only a handful of those were really useful in that regard.
Way more useful was the support my creative writing teacher gave me. There's simply no good substitute for working closely with someone who learned how to write and who knows what common mistakes you have to look out for...

[G. Novella]

For me its the same problem, I just can't organize my thoughts well.

I want to take a course in writing, but the one experience I had put me off entirely. The teacher was horrible, and didn't encourage writing. I have read mostly articles and journals on writing, no books as such, and like to practice using different media.

[Chameleon]

Well, I'm writing once in a while, and I get my inspiration mostly from books, fanfiction and movies. I'll got a lot of time to just 'think', and then ideas comes sprouting in my mind. Unfortunately I only begin with the beginning, before I lose interest, and to something else.

[Ithiarel]

G.Novella: I know how you feel. After doing my classes at university, I went to sit in at some "public" creative writing classes, but they all were some kind of self-adulation groups. *shudders*

Organizing my thoughts... hm... I think, I mostly learned that through rpg - as strange as that sounds. There are some great places out there, where one can learn to create rpg adventures. And what are those, but the basic plot of stories?

Other than that, I think the books that helped my most were Ansen Dibell's "Plot", James Scott Bells "Plot & Structure" and "Conflict & Suspense" and Christopher Voglers "The Writer's Journey".
Google them, if you find the time. They are well worth the read.

[Ithiarel]

Aug 5, 2012 13:39:30 GMT -5 Chameleon said:

Well, I'm writing once in a while, and I get my inspiration mostly from books, fanfiction and movies. I'll got a lot of time to just 'think', and then ideas comes sprouting in my mind. Unfortunately I only begin with the beginning, before I lose interest, and to something else.

Maybe you'd benefit from making mind-maps of your stories beforehand.
One of my friends who had the same problem, started sitting down with a large paper, wrote her starting point in teh middle and then proceded to draw a mindmap with all the possible (probably and highly improbably) resulting situations around it. It helped her a lot...

[Chameleon]

Ooh. That sound's like a great idea. Should do it next time I'm having trouble with it...
Thanks Ithiarel.

[Ithiarel]

You're welcome. ;D

[G. Novella]

I'll definitely check those out Ithariel! That sounds like it may help

Ugh, don't even get me started on the class. That teacher just kept trying to sell the book she had yet to start writing...

[Ithiarel]

Ugh, don't even get me started on the class. That teacher just kept trying to sell the book she had yet to start writing...

That's bad.
The one I sat in, people actually wrote texts (and poems), but the teacher had obviously no clue what was good style and what was not. All she did was to keep telling people how great and wonderful their works were - even when a child could have seen that they were really bad. She should have started to point out at least one thing that the writer could have done to improve their writing, but instead she just kept enforcing their bad style (probably only to make sure that the students paid for another "course"). It made me so angry I had to leave.

[G. Novella]

She was so awful. Even the writing exercises had some relation to her book, and everyone was either too young to write, or not practised enough and should really develop their ideas like she did for her book.

Ugh, that sounds awful. People like that shouldn't be allowed to teach at all

[Ithiarel]

Aug 5, 2012 14:08:06 GMT -5 G. Novella said:

She was so awful. Even the writing exercises had some relation to her book, and everyone was either too young to write, or not practised enough and should really develop their ideas like she did for her book.

That's actually quite pitiful. Makes me wonder if her self-esteem was so low she had to re-inforce it like that?
Or if she was just so pathetically blind that she thought she was the alpha and omega of writing?

My very first creative writing teacher enforced the "sandwich" feedback rule in our class. Which means that while we all got more than enough motivational feedback, we also always got one point told that we could work on to improve our writing. I think, that approach has shaped my way of giving advice and reviews even to today. I was lucky there, because he was a good teacher. Looking back, I can say that he might not have given plot and structure enough space in his class, but he was very good at motivating us and at teaching us the fundamentals. And for a beginenr class, that is way more important anyway.

[G. Novella]

No idea, but it was damn annoying.

That sounds like a lovely class, even if it wasn't about plor and structure, it's a great introductory method.

[Kaiserin]

it was not about writing perse but when I was 11 or 12 my class spent a long time deconstructing story lines and how fiction worked. they did a good job cause hey twenty years and I still remember parts of the class.

[Ithiarel]

That sounds like a lovely class, even if it wasn't about plor and structure, it's a great introductory method.

It was. The very first class we had, he only did two things with us:

• Invent a character. Any character will do.
  
• Imagine a place in which something important happens. Might be on a street corner, or a hospital, or a living room. Then, place your character into the place and make him experience the event.
  

I've borrowed the basic principle of his approach for the first lesson in my own classes (I occasionally teach creative writing classes, too). But I go about it in a different (more teamwork oriented) way.

[Dimcairien]

Aug 5, 2012 12:08:40 GMT -5 viralic1 said:

Yeah. Like I already have several major events for the fourth and fifth year planned, but everything is subject to change if I think of something better. The hardest part is keeping track of everything, so sometimes I'll recreate like nine scenarios for the same time period.

I do that too. I have quite a bit of my 'after the reading' universe figured out and a little bit written, despite the fact that I'm not done with writing the reading part. I also have a lot worked out for my canon universe writing, in fact, I have a time line I've made on excel to keep track of it all.

As for inspiration, sometimes it comes from the strangest places. My two most recent one-shots were inspired by discussions here, I've been inspired my music (my song fics), other authors, and obscure references, both in my writing and in other author's writings. Also, every so often, I get really good and somewhat insane ideas in the middle of the night.

For me, I started writing when I was about seven. I don't know if we still have the first story I ever wrote, but I do remember it was about a couple of children playing at a park and that I was very proud of it. I've had various creative writing assignments over the years and have always enjoyed doing them.