Ideas

[David@2011]

I'm pretty sure we're all aware that we all get very weird and unique ideas from time to time but, how do you come up with your story ideas.

 

[Finchbearer]

I think I’ve always told stories to myself, but only recently actually thought ‘hey maybe I could just try writing one and see how it goes’. Turns out I enjoy it very much, and maybe I could see publishing something in the future. I was also driven by many influences, including my desire to ‘experience history’ so I thought why not just write it? Then I get to experience it in a more immersive way. Another influence for me is books I’ve already read. One book in particular, a non-fantasy book was the catalyst to want to tell a particular type of story.

 

[pmmg]

When I was younger (more in my RPG days), I used to get ideas watching horror movies, or strange surreal stuff. Today, I still watch them, but they don't support the idea factory much anymore. Today, I get ideas from things I watch, things I see in the culture around me, things I am just interested in. And sometimes it is still horror movies. I do enjoy religion, and dark things, so I tend to see a lot of paranormal and exorcism stuff. I am also influenced by the many things I've read before, and some of the nuggets I have taken from those. Especially world mythologies (Greek and Norse most notably), The Stories of the Bible, and authors like Cs Lewis, Robert E Howard, Moorcock, and Eddings (Tolkien too, but he's not my fav).

I also have muses (people, real or imaginary, that make me want to write), and people that I am writing for, such that, I want to produce good enough quality that they will not think it poorly done.

 

[Penpilot]

I get them from the idea service in Poughkeepsie. A dime a dozen.

But seriously, they come up to me. I don't go up to them. All I have to do is live my life and be aware when something comes strolling into my thoughts. I have an idea file with dozens of ideas for stories. They accumulate faster than I can use them.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Same place as everyone else. Everywhere. Music, K-pop videos (worked out an entire phase of a series on the juice from one video), books, the Collective Unconscious. The truth is, none of us really knows. We just hope we can keep up.

 

[CupofJoe]

For me it is often two half thoughts/ideas running around inside my mind screaming "look at me!". When I do pay attention I have to make them fit together...

 

[Prince of Spires]

I find that people generally just leave them lying by the side of the road, a bit like stray kittens. If you pick them up and cuddle them, they can grow to become ferocious lions.

Or something like that. Like everyone else, I get them everywhere. Some I write down, others just keep bouncing around in my head until they collide with another idea and form a story. Currently I'm writing a story that started with an idea I got when I misread the sentence "a knight or heroine" as "a knight on heroin".

It's things like that. Interesting phrases, weird sentences, pictures, landscapes, movies or books where I think "I can do that better" or where I think "I wish I could do that."

A particular problem I have is that as I write more story ideas tend to come up. With each novel I get ideas for at least 2 more. Which makes writing all my story ideas an exponential problem. I need more life-times...

 

[Karlin]

Ideas just come. If I try to analyze how or where, it's often trying to connect two things that are not related. Is a Wooden Fish related to space travel? Not yet, but it could be...

Wooden fish - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Alliyus-Arigona]

War is an idea. Lol.
I have several ideas flowing through my head. >:3

 

[pmmg]

War is a start. War about what?

 

[Alliyus-Arigona]

Idk
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Dies.

 

[Miles Lacey]

Where do my ideas come from?

■ History books, especially those about the period between the two world wars.
■ Questions that pop into my head like "What would society be like if bisexuality rather than heterosexuality was the prevailing sexual orientation?"
■ Personal experiences of being poor and working in menial, minimum wage employment.
■ Books I've read from a variety of genres and authors.
■ Anime and cartoons.
■ Obscure or old books about various cultures and places.
■ Making lists of things I love and hate about certain books and TV shows.
■ People I encounter.
■ Political propaganda.
■ Random pictures.
■ Dreams and nightmares, usually the nightmares as they are the ones I remember when I wake up.
■ Old movies.