Thread: What inspired your current work?

I know that we all get inspiration for books, articles, poetry, short stories, etc. from some of the most random places. But where did you get the inspiration for your current work that you are writing/have written?

Li Li

From myself.

I get a lot of motivation from music.

Motivation? Lust, fear, desire, anger, boredom, envy, creative overflow, money--I have written with each of those motivations behind my effort at one time or another. Lust did not sustain. Fear ebbed and flowed, again without producing a final product. Desire was a little better because it lasted through an entire manuscript. Boredom and creative overflow seem to go hand in hand. They produce lots of "starts" for me but they often lack depth and rarely come to fruition. I confess, envy of successful writers has enabled me to complete several manuscripts. Guess that might also fall under "ego". When I see the kind of simpleton writing that gets paid big bucks, I know I can do better. However, the one motivation that has been most consistent and produced finished pieces and income is money. When I was writing for a deadline that had $$$ after it, I kept to a schedule and completed each project in a timely manner. Like someone said in another thread, it is nice to have an editor with whom you can brainstorm and work out details. Ultimately, motivation comes from many places, each with its own strengths and limitations. I also believe every writer must find his or her own well of inspiration.

I got the idea of what I've just finished (sort of, it's awaiting editing but I want to be a bit distant from it when I do that) from Ghost Watch and Most Haunted.

What I'm writing now came from the anger at how rubbish Final Fantasy XII is.

At least that's were the main ideas came from, the little refinments came as I was writing, reading, listening to music or just walking around.

I thought, "What if . . ."

That started the inspiration for most all my works for that matter.

From life. Through my own experience, I became fascinated by how differently people grieve and react to death -- how they often behave in unexpeted ways. That was the spark for my "what if."

Current WIP started with a nightmare I had about a ship that ate people.

Icewind Dale. My current work might as well be a direct copy, I even added in a black skinned halfling with white hair and called him Drizzle

Short answer:

It grew from a half-baked notion that I might be able to write a novel as a way to fill in time.



Long answer:

I’d been reading factual accounts of local major robberies in the bad old days of 150 or so years ago, including the details of a hold-up that netted the robbers 170 pounds weight of gold.

And I thought to myself, “There’s been heaps of non-fiction written about this particular robbery. It’s high time someone fictionalised it.” And so here I am, slowly cobbling it together.

With a little bit of luck, I might get it finished before I die.

From life itself. Sometimes from dreams.

Mine began simply enough as an escape from responsibility. And then I became attached to the characters, and feel responsible to them now.

My current WIP? Well it started as an English coursework piece in my last year of secondary school. That was two years ago now. Since then I've changed it many times, edited it with my father as editor and just recently decided on a complete re-write.

I liked my concept at first, but it contained Vampires, and there's far too many stories about the blood-suckers around these days.

I'd say my inspiration for this one came from my own need for something that interested me enough that I'd want to know what came next. I've also been reading the Codex Alera series recently, well the first two books, and I think that's had a small influence too.

Games. The ideas that me and a friend come up with for games constantly tumble around my mind, and I pick up cool ideas from those. We essentially brainstorm for games/stories every day.

I've recently (about ten minutes ago) found that my MC is scarred, and can't use his left eye. Something I didn't even think I'd ever do to a main is disfigure them. But I just did, and I think it will add a different take on his character, and may cause me to change his personality to the new look he has. It's exciting when my characters do things I don't quite expect...

Mine came from the unresolved issues I have about my parents' divorce and my Mum's ongoing war with bullshit cancer.

It's pretty angsty. I used a teenage protagonist to excuse that.

Music and another tale. My wip is an offshoot of a throwaway scene in a short story, where a certain song is played while the first people land on Mars. The song was written and performed by Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, who never got to collaborate IRL (there were plans to do so before Jimi passed away), and that led to the concoction of an alt-reality, which is the wip.
I'm also writing the piece of music referenced in the wip and the short story, which wants to become part of another novel.