# Where do you look for inspiration?



## Greybeard (Feb 5, 2011)

I'm populating my world with a plethora of cultures.  Creating them out of thin air is proving difficult, sadly.  The canvas of my mind isn't as broad as I had thought?

Where do you look for ideas for cultures and religions?


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## kjjcarpenter (Feb 5, 2011)

Inspiration is different for everyone. Personally, I don't go searching for inspiration. If I find something and by my calculations it fits into the scheme of things, I weave it in. All I can do is offer a classic field used for spawning new and interesting ideas: Ancient mythology. Egyptian, Greek, Roman. Dead cultures offer a range of interesting beliefs that can be taken and applied—you could call it post-modernising. I would definitely have a browse through wikipedia of a mythology-based website, there are some interesting characters and tales you will discover.


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## Black Dragon (Feb 7, 2011)

Yes, dead cultures are always rich sources of inspiration.

As far as ideas for religions go, I like researching ancient "heretical" heretical sects.  These groups were often highly unorthodox in their beliefs, and very imaginative in their mythologies.  Check out some of the Gnostic groups.


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## ScaryFairyPrincess (Feb 8, 2011)

i agree, dead cultures are useful, but everyone uses greek or celtic origins, i recommend that you go with some pizazz (is that even a word?) and use someone like the aborigines or chinese folklore, its alot more interesting and slightly easier to work with, also they have some amazing names just waiting to be used x


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## Legerdemain (Feb 8, 2011)

Black Dragon said:


> Yes, dead cultures are always rich sources of inspiration.
> 
> As far as ideas for religions go, I like researching ancient "heretical" heretical sects.  These groups were often highly unorthodox in their beliefs, and very imaginative in their mythologies.  Check out some of the Gnostic groups.


 

I actually wrote a story about a Cathar Illuminati.  It was awful, but it was interesting use of my knowledge of ancient France... GO CATHARISM!


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## Ravana (Feb 8, 2011)

Everywhere and anywhere. And don't assume that your inspiration needs to come from religious or mythological sources, either. Art, history, philosophy, any of the various sciences (especially if you're including non-human cultures), other works of fiction (ditto… science fiction will give you a far broader range of what's possible than the best reference works will). Law, which is far too often neglected: what is a culture without laws? You don't have to present a full legal code; you should be able to say, whenever the issue comes up, whether something is acceptable behavior in the culture you're creating, and how violations are punished. Consider, for example, how you would interact with a lawyer in a society that uses trial by combat.…


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## Black Dragon (Feb 8, 2011)

Legerdemain said:


> I actually wrote a story about a Cathar Illuminati.  It was awful, but it was interesting use of my knowledge of ancient France... GO CATHARISM!


 
Although you consider it awful, it sounds like an interesting reading.  The Cathars were one of the more peculiar varieties of Gnosticism.

Gnosticism never vanished, by the way.  It has morphed into various forms throughout the centuries.  The Heaven's Gate Cult were really a modern variety of Gnosticism, with a Star Trek twist.


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## Black Dragon (Feb 8, 2011)

Ravana said:


> Law, which is far too often neglected: what is a culture without laws?


 
Great suggestion, Ravana.  You can learn a lot about a culture by studying it's laws.  In particular, you can see what the people really valued, as well as what they feared.


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## Black Dragon (Feb 8, 2011)

ScaryFairyPrincess said:


> i agree, dead cultures are useful, but everyone uses greek or celtic origins, i recommend that you go with some pizazz (is that even a word?) and use someone like the aborigines or chinese folklore


 
I suspect that Greek or Celtic cultures are so widely used because they seem more familiar to us in the West.  Because we have common cultural roots, it's easier for us to connect with them.  Also, resources about these cultures are more widely available in English.

I think that there is a lot to be learned from Asian and Aboriginal cultures.  Can you recommend any good resources on these?


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## kjjcarpenter (Feb 8, 2011)

Black Dragon said:


> I think that there is a lot to be learned from Asian and Aboriginal cultures.  Can you recommend any good resources on these?


 
I am actually Koori, the Aboriginal people who dwelt in New South Wales and Victoria. Specifically, I'm of the Darug tribe who inhabited the entire Sydney region before colonisation. Apart from speaking with an elder directly, the best way to find information on our stories and our culture is by researching "the dreaming". You can find many tales on how the land and the animals were created, and I think they offer wonderful inspiration and present unnatural scenarios that intrigue and entertain.


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## Ravana (Feb 9, 2011)

Black Dragon said:


> I think that there is a lot to be learned from Asian and Aboriginal cultures.  Can you recommend any good resources on these?



For general overviews, the _Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology_ contains a wealth of information on a wide range of cultures. It may not provide the depth you want (though it gives more than any other encyclopedic work I'm familiar with), but it will give you leads on which things you want to research more. For that matter, if you just want a whole bunch of names and brief descriptions to give you a starting point, check out the _Dictionary of Ancient Deities_ by Patricia Turner and Charles Russell Coulter, which contains over 10,000 entries, ranging into cultures most readers will never have heard of. It does have its flaws (including occasionally frustrating cross-referencing to entries that only refer you back to the entry you're coming from), but nothing is going to beat it for sheer scope. And on top of everything else, it's inexpensive.

As for specific cultures I've drawn from: Indian (Asian) religion is particularly rich, exceeding even Greco-Roman mythology. It's also extremely well-documented, since unlike most other religious sources you might be considering, it's still a going concern: hundreds of millions of people still practice it. The _Mahabharata_ and the _Ramayana_ both ought to be readily available, through libraries and bookstores, in several translations—and, for the former at least, in abridgements of various lengths, as it is the single longest epic in the world (unabridged versions run several _thousand_ pages). 

One that few people are aware of, but which is also readily available: the _Kalevala_, the national epic of Finland. Finnish folklore is noticeably distinct from other European traditions—the Finnish language is not even an Indo-European one, and its only near-relatives are Hungarian (and they also have a distinct folk tradition), Estonian and a handful of dying ones scattered across Siberia (and they have some pretty nifty folklore, too, though it's harder to track these down: you'll probably need a university library). The closest thing I can think of to the _Kalevala_ is some Celtic material; there are a few echoes of Nordic tradition as well, which is probably to be expected considering their proximity. 

Native American traditions are also fairly well-documented, as these survived well into the period where things regularly got written down—though in some cases, such as the Mexican traditions, much was lost to deliberate attempts by Europeans to eradicate them. On the other hand, some traditions are still active today. For things most people won't be familiar with, check out Eskimo traditions, or South American ones, particularly from Peru on south. Unfortunately, I don't have any specific sources to recommend on those.


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## Black Dragon (Feb 9, 2011)

kjjcarpenter said:


> I am actually Koori, the Aboriginal people who dwelt in New South Wales and Victoria. Specifically, I'm of the Darug tribe who inhabited the entire Sydney region before colonisation.


 
Hey Kev,

That is extremely cool.  Do you often draw upon your own Aboriginal culture and lore in your writing?


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## Black Dragon (Feb 9, 2011)

Hey Ravana,

Thank you for this terrific list of resources.  You've definitely given us some new avenues to research.  This is going to prove helpful.



Ravana said:


> One that few people are aware of, but which is also readily available: the _Kalevala_, the national epic of Finland.



I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Tolkien drew heavily upon the Kalevala when creating Middle Earth.  Is that correct?


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## Vita Numinous (Feb 10, 2011)

Ooo!  I'm researching ancient Sumeria right now?  It's pretty fun.

Ideas come from almost anywhere when you let yourself pay attention.  I've had revelations while studying texts on archaeology and ancient religions, and I've had revelations while getting my nails done.  I won't tell if you don't.


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## Ravana (Feb 10, 2011)

Black Dragon said:


> Hey Ravana,
> 
> Thank you for this terrific list of resources.  You've definitely given us some new avenues to research.  This is going to prove helpful.
> 
> ...


 
You're welcome. I have a habit of collecting reference works; if you're looking for anything else, I might be able to make suggestions. And I can always check for answers to specific questions in the materials I do have.

Yes, apparently (according to the man himself) Tolkien found inspiration in the _Kalevala_, though more for the _Silmarillion_ and background material than for _LotR_. The emphasis on song that runs throughout _Hobbit/LotR_ in particular could well have arisen from the _Kalevala_… which is also why I said it reminds me more of Celtic tales than anything else. I think overall Tolkien derived more from Nordic traditions than anywhere else, but he certainly didn't feel any need to limit himself to one source. 

Moorcock's Elric may also have been based on one of the characters in the _Kalevala_, from what I've read, though the resemblance is only a loose one if so (troubled anti-hero who commits suicide with his sentient sword… but that's about where the similarity ends).


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## At Dusk I Reign (Feb 14, 2011)

Music has always been my main inspiration when writing. I won't claim that the books I've read have had no effect (they obviously have, even if it's been on the most subconscious level), but when I'm writing I usually have a big pair of earphones clamped around my ears (I tend to write in the wee small hours) and it's the impression these soundscapes create in my mind which have informed the tone of what I put down on paper (or, in this case, screen. I started writing on an old typewriter, back in the days when if you made a mistake you either ignored it or typed the whole page again. What joy it was).


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## Ravana (Feb 15, 2011)

At Dusk I Reign said:


> I started writing on an old typewriter, back in the days when if you made a mistake you either ignored it or typed the whole page again. What joy it was.


 
It did tend to make you very attentive to what you were writing. Liquid Paper was fine for drafts, not so good for submissions. Word processors encourage sloppiness: since you can always change things or move them around, you don't always pay enough attention to what you do change or move. And never, _ever_ trust your spell checker. Remember that your computer is no smarter than your pop-up toaster or power drill; the only intelligence involved is your own.


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## At Dusk I Reign (Feb 16, 2011)

Ravana said:


> Word processors encourage sloppiness: since you can always change things or move them around, you don't always pay enough attention to what you do change or move.


I can see some truth in that, but having only ditched my trusty old typewriter a couple of years ago I haven't yet become jaded of this wonderous new technology. I tend to write things out in longhand first, if only because writing in script seems to help my thoughts flow more freely, as well as being more pleasing to the eye than typing in block. The fact that much of what I write is complete drivel is neither here nor there.


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## Legerdemain (Feb 17, 2011)

Black Dragon said:


> The Heaven's Gate Cult were really a modern variety of Gnosticism, with a Star Trek twist.


 
BD, I have to say that's how I like my drinks... with a Star Trek twist... no cults though, I don't mix drinking and cults... ever...


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## Legerdemain (Feb 17, 2011)

Oh, and remember, word processors make people like me, with dyslexia, able to write at all... as I still have to proofread to make sure my typing came out like I meant to write, I don't have to worry half as much as far as my typing is concern... interesting points though...


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## At Dusk I Reign (Feb 17, 2011)

Legerdemain said:


> Oh, and remember, word processors make people like me, with dyslexia, able to write at all... as I still have to proofread to make sure my typing came out like I meant to write, I don't have to worry half as much as far as my typing is concern... interesting points though...


I'm dyslexic myself, though it's not at the most severe end of the scale. Strangely enough, I have more trouble typing than writing. This may be because when I write freehand there's no edit button and so I just go with the flow, but using a keyboard is a whole different kettle of frogs: I tend to spend so much time correcting myself as I type that I frequently lose my train of thought completely. Still, things could be worse. Some people I know have a much tougher time of it, much tougher: reading and writing is akin to torture to them.


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## Black Dragon (Feb 17, 2011)

Legerdemain said:


> BD, I have to say that's how I like my drinks... with a Star Trek twist... no cults though, I don't mix drinking and cults... ever...


 
Very good.  It's better to stay safe and cult free.  Unless the cult in question involves* blue oysters and cowbells*.  Then it's perfectly OK.

I hope that you had a great birthday, Chris.


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## At Dusk I Reign (Feb 17, 2011)

Happy (belated) birthday Leg-man. I really must pay more attention to what's going on with fellow members (in my defence, once I reached 30-ish such things kind of faded in significance, and anyone who greets me with a 'Happy Birthday' nowadays generally gets a mouthful of abuse - unless it's my mother). Hope you had a good one anyway!


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## Ravana (Feb 18, 2011)

At Dusk I Reign said:


> Some people I know have a much tougher time of it, much tougher: reading and writing is akin to torture to them.



If you ever want to see a "success story" among writers with dyslexia, look for the works of Samuel R. Delany… for whom learning to write was indeed "akin to torture," by his own description (which is also the most vivid description of dyslexia I've ever seen)… as far as I know, it still is tortuous, even with five decades of practice behind him. (He's not exactly what one would describe as "high-output"… which may be a clue there.) He's also written extensively on the craft of writing itself, and I've found his insights quite compelling–even where I didn't agree with them.  He made one of my all-time favorite observations about the interaction of language and genre: only in science fiction is the sentence "Her world exploded" ambiguous. Most of his fiction is SF, though there is a fantasy series (the Neveryon books) and some "mainstream" [sic] fiction as well.

Interesting that you two have opposite reactions to working on a keyboard. If I had to make a guess, I'd say that it's easier for some to work on a keyboard because as long as they know what letter they want, hitting that key is a very different action than writing it out. If you've learned to touch-type, that is; even then, it might depend on how you visualize words as you type them–i.e., do you "know," consciously, you want a 'b' instead of a 'd'? But that's just a guess, based on what I know of how the brain handles linguistic information. (One interesting thing I do know about how my brain, and those of many of my acquaintances, works: the most frequent errors we make involve phonological similarities: we don't transpose 'b' and 'd', but we _do_ transpose 'b' and 'p', 'd' and 't' or 'f' and 'v'–the latter two mistakes no dyslexic person is going to make, at least not due to dyslexia. We're reversing voiced (b, d, v) and voiceless (p, t, f) versions of otherwise identical consonants… the sound similarity, rather than the visual one, is what's interfering with our production. I'll do this even when writing longhand.)

And, yes, sometimes working on a keyboard interferes with the flow for me, too, though, oddly, at other times it works better. Usually depends on how much I've already worked out in my head before I start, I think: if I don't have something thought through, it's better for me to use pen and paper, but if I do have it worked out, I'm more likely to get it down "correctly" typing because that's faster for me.


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## Legerdemain (Feb 21, 2011)

Thanks for the happy birthday wishes!

For me it was probably not that I type, but the way I type that makes a huge difference.  I type without pauses for mistakes, and then I do most of my edits in drafting.  This way I can get a lot out knowing I will have a lot of mistakes but not caring, as long as the general ideas of the words are flying onto the page as fast as I can think them.  That said, I found with pencil writing that I make the same number of mistakes, though I have a harder time correcting my own writing (not that it is unclear, but because the errors do not stand out as much to me).


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## Mdnight Falling (Mar 6, 2011)

The inspiration for my ideas come from a multitude of things... Mainly though I think about things I wish I could do LOL or dreams I've had... and I've had some out there dreams . Children are a great source of inspiration their imaginations are so pure and unpolluted that they can come up with things we'd never even dream of. When I get really really stuck I look at my four year old and say "So... what should happen now" and I've used some of her suggestions >^.^<

As to cultural... Asian culture is my passion. I love all things fuedal Japan >^.^<


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## Kelise (Mar 7, 2011)

My inspiration comes from other fantastic books. The drive that gives me to do something just as good is probably the most drive anything gives me.

As for where I get my ideas... uhm. No where, really. I too have a fondness for Asian culture, forests and nature... but they don't always show up in what I'm writing - my main project is sky pirates and is... well, not sci-fi as I twist it into more of a fantasy style, but there's not exactly a place for forests and Tokyo unless I really work it in 

Most of my ideas come from... just picturing my characters and doing exercises I learned in theatre to kinda... become/live as the character, then I think - what would be realistic? My characters really do take control of whatever I write.


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## Mdnight Falling (Mar 7, 2011)

I've found that writing a book is ALOT like AOL RP or anykind of RP .. I've been roleplaying on AOL for almost 12 years and my oldest chars... Yeah never say "Sher.. Would Macayal allow this?" cause I'll look at you like you're stupid and shrug while saying "I dunno.. try and see.. if she kills you... I am not responsible" LOL I totally put myself in my writing and RP is just another form of writing.. You "live" as a char long enough they become damn near sentient and whiile you type for them, they are their own beings at that point. That's when you know you've got a good one.. when you have no idea what the char will do.. You let the char flow and use you as it's vassel to say and do what it wants  at least that's how it works for me


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## At Dusk I Reign (Mar 9, 2011)

Ravana said:


> Interesting that you two have opposite reactions to working on a keyboard. If I had to make a guess, I'd say that it's easier for some to work on a keyboard because as long as they know what letter they want, hitting that key is a very different action than writing it out. If you've learned to touch-type, that is;


I learned to touch-type in my early teens, but strangely enough I found no benefit. I suppose it all comes down to how your brain is wired. I find typing (such as this post) tortuous, constantly returning to words to correct them. It may just be that when I'm writing on paper I have no edit function and so I'm mentally prepared to make mistakes which can't be rectified (other than with a crossing-out and a scribble above). Even so, I know I prefer using a pen to a keyboard, even if I'm the only one who can decipher the gobbledegook.


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## Falunel (Mar 9, 2011)

I've found benefits and downsides to both typing and handwriting. The obvious benefit with typing is the ease of editing- often I'll come up with a new idea, or a better way to phrase something, and I can fix it quickly and get it off my mind. With writing, I can't without leaving a giant smudge (those cursed awful erasers), and it irritates me to no extent. If I don't fix it and save it for later, it irritates me even more.
However, OCD often makes typing a hassle, since I have to stop and tap each key a certain number of times, and often, when I'm done with the "ritual," I'll be too tired and defeated to continue typing. Not to mention that a blank computer screen feels more intimidating than a blank sheet of paper...

On-topic: I'm not as well-grounded in individual soceties as most other members. Often I take my inspiration from general trends in history- the rise and collapse of empires, the Industrial Revolution, colonization, etc. Sometimes I'll watch the news and ask myself, "How would it feel to live in the middle of that conflict? What if (person) didn't win that struggle?" and proceed from there. It's amazing how far a "what if?" question can bring you.


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## Ophiucha (Mar 9, 2011)

I take what I like and duct tape it together. I like the Victorian and Heian fascination with aesthetics, so I create a quasi Victorian England-Heian Japan setting that likes aesthetics. I love me some _Lolita_, so I have a scandalously sexual youth and an unreliable narrator. I just leave room for a story, and then look at what I've got to make it.


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