Thread: Inspiration for writing

I have a long short story going on at the moment which was inspired entirely by a line in the film Trois Couleurs: Bleu. Half a dozen words giving birth to several thousand. Whodathunkit?

Rumour has it that Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment was envisioned after he read a newspaper article of a local murder.

I don't really know what gets me to write to tell the truth. Sometimes an idea just sparks in my head and I get and urge to write. Sometimes reading does inspire me to write, but most of the time I just start wanting to write at random times throughout the day. I daydream a lot and sometimes I just have to write down what comes into my dreams.

I also sometimes get ideas from reading couple lines in poetry or song lyric, but movies and songs are too passive for me. But it does get me in a calm state to think in.

Originally Posted by philistine

Rumour has it that Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment was envisioned after he read a newspaper article of a local murder.

These vicious rumours. They'll be the ruination of us all.

but movies and songs are too passive for me. But it does get me in a calm state to think in.

Exactly. The ideas come when your mind is open & not focused on something. Not in trying to get an idea from movies or music, but the idea came because you happened to be watching or listening.

One day, I was eating in a diner. This diner had a PA system with music, & I don't remember if it was a local radio station or sattelite radio, but in the middle of my meal the song 'Wildfire" came on. The song about the girl & her love for her horse, who ends dying in the snow. The little ideas came up behind me as if trying to catch up, then by the last verse of the song everything solidified. The passage I wrote was about a daughter who is trying to see her father & help him get better, but he's eventually lost to her because of a years-long prescription drug addiction. In this particular passage she sneaks out of her home (she's 14 at this point) to go see him at his apartment. They spend the day together & make plans for the future - eventually her mother tracks her down & she goes home - but she doesn't know yet that that's the last time she'll ever see him.

I left the diner that day, went straight home & wrote two pages, just because by chance I heard 'Wildfire'. I keep it in a separate document for future use when I get to that part of the story. Most of the time that's when the best ideas happen. When you're not trying.

I write to pump up my ego. Then, I see what I've written and I get all deflated, so ...

Music, and other stories, doesn't matter if its from reading, or from watching a movie. Music is my main influence in my current writings because the book has a lot to do with a certain music subculture. However, the other day i just started thinking about Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings, and it truly inspired me. The thought that Tolkien, and Rowling didn't just write stories, they created entire worlds, its amazing. When i think of stories like those, i think it is awesome that someone had such dedication to write that much, and create such dynamic worlds.

Reading doesn't inspire me nor does watching movies, listening to music, or during any activity. What always gets me is the end of the above mentioned muses (so to speak). When I read, I'm too absorbed in the story to think. When I watch a movie, it's the same thing. When I listen to music, once again, same thing. Only at the end when the last sentence has been read, the last scene has faded to black, and the last chord has faded to silence do the ideas begin to form. For instance, I watched the movie "True Grit" and I was so absorbed in the story that all I could think of was, "Wow, this is awesome." Only after the movie did I get an idea. I sat down, wide awake, unable to sleep until I put fingers to keyboard. I ended up writing only a few pages but I felt satisfied and was able to sleep.

I have some pretty fascinating dreams, if I do say so myself, and they're so clear and unrelated to my life that I find myself writing down the dream, and then writing little snippets about the people in my dream.

Why do I write? Because I see something I like (usually an especially moving or profound movie), and think, "I want to do that." What inspires me to write? Often music, but sometimes quotes, scenes, or characters in books, movies, and TV shows. Basically, my writing reads like a "best of" collection of all the media I've experienced.