How would you go about finding inspiration to write? - Page 3

OnixxFilth · 05-10-2005, 09:35 AM

I've just recently started writing a story about a goth guy who moved to a bigger city because there was no other goths where he used to live. I have kind of a creepy flashback where his boyfriend gets killed while he's sleeping. No, I don't have it on disk to send to anyone. I sometimes wonder, though, why I seem to write about so many gay characters.

illuminatti · 05-27-2005, 05:37 AM

I haven't had any inspiration for a few weeks and now all of the sudden i began writing a stroy about a guy that ended up trapped in a brick box with a statue....emmmmm.....no clue where i got the ispiration for that. It just comes when least expected....damn it. Instead of writing a reflexive article about a book we read on a german test i began writing a story anout a schizophrenism.... now the teacher must have been surprised when he opened my note book! I got an A for it never the less and was advised to sent the story to a journal for publishing. Awkward...kinda...

xragdollroox · 05-27-2005, 09:12 AM

Inspiritation, I find, can often be particularly elusive. I usually find I acquire mine through music, or sometimes through something that I've read. Occasionally, it will be a line from a film, although that doesn't happen quite so much.
Having said that, inspiration of any kind has deserted me of late - I have to actually force my pen to the paper, whether it be artwork or just a story. Most frustrating. :roll:

OnixxFilth · 05-31-2005, 12:09 PM

I always advise others to not force yourself if you have writer's block. If I try to write when I don't have any real inspiration, my stories turn into shit. I just try to put myself in potentially inspiring situations. Take for instance, the story I mentioned earlier about the gay goth guy. When I want to work on it a little more, I put on a Sisters of Mercy album (usually Floodland) or one of my goth compilations.

Kali Maxwell · 09-04-2005, 06:19 PM

I have to have music. Nox Arcana or Tristania usually does it. Either that or classical.

That, and action, such as jogging, or the two combined. I'll often jog in place with a CD on in the living room. The ideas just sort of come to me. That's how I get ideas for comic stories and artwork.

But if it's prose (I always suck at poetry, no matter how inspired I am), and that doesn't seem to do it, I'll go read some Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice, or some Poe.

OnixxFilth, I'm always writing about gay characters as well. Especially gay vampyres. There's just something sexy about it that I can't help thinking about.

dreamydancer · 09-04-2005, 08:17 PM

First I would read some Byron, Poppy Z. Brite, William Blake --- anything that arouses my interests. Then I would probably recall all my painful and embarrassing moments. And relive how intense my sorrow felt. I’d focus on everything that has gone wrong in my life.

Perhaps I’d experiment with some illegal substances to really heighten my imagination and senses. (Yes it is very stupid and desperate)

xx_i_like_black_xx · 09-06-2005, 09:46 AM

hmmm. inspiration for me comes from some other books, movies, and my personal experience. ideas, though, are harder to find. they always seem to find me in the dead of night, so i have to get up and write them down, for they are brilliant, unlike the ones i get during the daytime. thus my vision is impaired from hours of crouching in dim light, writing.

Glenn Chappelle · 10-01-2005, 06:57 PM

I gotta go with what others are saying here...The story will find you...not the other way around. As writers, that is all we are(In my opinion)...We are guided and instructed as to what to write down...Then we fill in the missing bits n pieces in the middle.

The closest I would say I get to forcing inspiration, would be to take a walk in the woods at night, or daytime...close my eyes and just imagine various scenarios that may have happened there over the centuries. Sword-fights, murders, animals grazing, blizzards, highwaymen, nobles and wenches...etc. If I am looking into some of my fictional scientific reasoning(If you can follow that drivel) Then I would consider the medical possibilites of not just humans, but also things like Mosquitos, leeches, fleas, ticks and vampire bats...etc.

Little tricks like that, if done properly, work well. Even the most unlikiest sources...If you know that bimbo "Nigella"...I managed to integrate EVEN HER into my Vampire novel in the form of tips on what type of victims to have for when friends drop in...it also describes what their blood types would taste like, who is a sure bet for a meal...etc etc etc.

My book btw...just incase you are curious, is called "Nentres Drystan: Journal of a Vampir".
You can get it direct at: www.lulu.com/GlennChappelle

With a support/forum site at: www.nentresdrystan.com

The forum also has sections for new British bands to push themselves, as well as Vampire groups etc etc etc. Well worth a look, even if you don't buy the book.

Cheers,

Glenn Chappelle.

Akuma2636 · 10-07-2005, 01:35 AM

hmmm, my inspiration comes from many places. Some comes from books ((David Eddings Novels mainly)), some comes from music ((Dir en Grey, and various others ^_^)), but most of my inspiration comes from one person, one of my best friends, he sparks a lot of emotion in me, and makes me feel like I just have to write. I've written about 10 songs with inspiration from him, in that past week. Most of the have to do with darkness, love and death -_-', but he is my inspiration. ^_^, My Dark S&M Muse <3

dramaelf · 10-07-2005, 12:54 PM

I find inspiration in odd places. It can be a candle, a song, a sound, a smell, a place, a moth. Has anyone here read my story Song? It's in the Literature section, but anyway, it was inspired by a sunset, a hot day, and a Kenny Chesney song about a woman with blue-blonde hair. It can be one character I made up, just a little thing in the back of my head, and it's a story.
The book I'm writing was inspired by a white moth.

chancre_sore · 10-07-2005, 03:53 PM

Inspiration...I don't know. Usually a good poem gets my juices flowing (the creative ones, that is), but right now I have major writer's block. It's not fun.

ExistentialDisorder · 10-08-2005, 09:46 PM

Trees seem to inspire me a lot. I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with a game called Tree People that I use to play outside with my cousins when I was a little kid. Though I'm not sure what that would have to do with anything.

If I get stuck on one point of a story, I try to work on other parts of it, which usually helps. I also spend a great deal of time driving for my job (nearly 1k miles per week), so that gives me a lot of time to think about whatever plot I'm trying to develop.

The story I'm currently working on has taken nearly 10 years to flesh out. It started with one idea and has grown from there. I haven't spent the entire time working on it of course. Sometimes I don't touch it at all for months on end. But I'm glad that I didn't try rushing the whole thing, as it wouldn't have been anything like the story it's become. I just hope it doesn't take that long to write the next one.

Demonista_Ravenesque · 10-08-2005, 10:02 PM

Anything that triggers my emotion or amplifies my senses. I am instantly inspired.

ExistentialDisorder · 10-10-2005, 11:23 PM

A side thought that doesn't really require its own topic.

What do you do when you've written yourself into a corner?

The muse has been fiddling away and all the plotting has been going great the last two days and now suddenly, due to a series of very good twists and turns that I don't want to change I've run into a road block. Nothing I can come up with for this hurdle seems to be a plausable solution or work-around. And a rewrite is not an option. At least, I refuse to let it be an option...

Anyone suffering from this?

Demonista_Ravenesque · 10-10-2005, 11:28 PM

Thankyou Dear Tstone.

mortalitas incomitatus · 10-13-2005, 06:16 AM

depression..........

i can never write whilst i'm manic, i dont think i've ever written anything happy in my life.
i always write about my life, maybe thats why its always so sad.
my writting usually brings people to tears.....so i stopped sharing so much.

and muses......

i met a guy a few months back and all of a sudden after months of not writting a word bam...the words were just pouring out onto the paper.
then i stopped seeing him and my inspiration dried up .... so i decided he was my muse and i need him back in my life.
back to the writting.

childe · 10-22-2005, 12:37 PM

I always look for inspiration in alcohol and drugs. Sometimes, I might find something like it.

But in reality, I can only find it at a party when I'm having a smoke at three am, and evreyone who was at the party is either gone or sleeping.

I have no idea why, but that's when it really works.

The Minister Saint-Fond · 10-22-2005, 08:59 PM

Does the "Food/Wine" category cover Xanax and Tanqueray?

nonfatsuperjesus · 10-26-2005, 01:13 PM

Sleep deprivation.... many a A papers have come from lack of sleep. At least for me thats the way it is.

Bride_Of_Satan · 10-27-2005, 12:43 PM

I can only write after something has happened to me, like when I'm filled with emotion. A lot of it comes from bad experience rather than good.

emeraldlonewoulf · 10-27-2005, 01:29 PM

Writing, for me, comes under two types of inspiration. One is that insomniac/coffee/cigarrettes/three a.m. type, where your mind just sort of reaches out for that other reality, and the words just flow. It doesn't matter if you are in a restaurant, a smoky bar, or out on the porch under a starry sky. It is all one type. Another is where you have a specific time to write or whatever, and you must create that particular mood. Sometimes you end up staring at a blank screen, writing and rewriting the same paragraph or sentence over and over. that's when you just have to let go a little bit and start writing crazy shit until an idea hits. It doesn't have to make sense, or even fit with whatever project you are working on. Just try to let your mind run wild a little. Write something stupid, or obvious. It is amazing what kinds of things emerge when you do that. you will probably end up deleting most of what you write in sessions like these, but some original ideas, or at least an original perspective on old ideas can come forth. As for the notebook on the hip, I keep a little notebook and pen in my pocket at all times, to write down everything from appts. and phone numbers to intersting quotes and story ideas. Every once in a while, when the pages fill up with miscellaneous junk, I go through the old book, put the current info into a new one in some sort of organized manner, and have the rest of the pages for more miscellaneous junk. If there are good ideas I use them, or put them in my larger notebooks at home. For some people writing is a hobby. For others, it is a lifestyle.

Fried Mullet · 11-04-2005, 01:19 AM

I have been writing since about 12-years-old. I have published a few articles in local newspapers and I have left all of my journalism teachers in awe. I'm more into poetry than anything else. I can't really say I get inspired by anything.....it just comes out. The weird thing is, I don't know where its coming from!

Fried Mullet · 11-06-2005, 02:16 PM

Do you believe in destiny? I keep hearing in my church about how God talks to you in your mind. That everyone on this planet has a purpose. In poetry, personally, I hate it. I can't seem to stop though, everything just spills out and I have no sense of where its coming from nor the meaning. My Journalism teacher recommended me to an Advanced Writers Camp next summer. Should I go?

Juliet Bathory · 11-12-2005, 07:30 AM

Inspiration is one of those fluid things you can't pin down. Just as each individual writer would put a different spin on the same topic, what inspires us is just as unique as our fingerprints or DNA. One thing I do know is when I have a lot of editing to do, I find coming in here first is a great warm up. It's strange but I think it's fun to practice on the nOObs. Gets me in the mood!

joyslayer · 11-25-2005, 11:15 AM

Inspriation comes when there is no adrenaline left in the mind, it comes when we actually stop to notice the different individuals that make up something we know but tend to over look. Like a friend, or a dark spot. Inspiration is so simple, its complex.