Getting Ideas

So, how and/or where do you get ideas for your stories?

I get ideas from strange places. For example, I've started a story set in hell (called The Secretary From Hell), and I got the idea for that from a dance I saw about a year ago. The people dancing were dressed in green, and they made me think of envy - you know, because of the phrase 'green with envy'. So I started to think of how Envy would act if she were a real person. Then I did the same with the other Deadly Sins, and how a person in hell would deal with them.

So, where do you get your ideas?

Sometimes from conversations with friends.

Sometimes from reading other books, like my story "Changed" is from a concept introduced in the book "Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey."

Sometimes I simply get ideas while standing in the shower or washing dishes or folding clothes - any activity that doesn't take any brainpower, so my mind ends up wandering.

I get my ideas from my dreams a lot.
It's quite strange, 'cause I'm mellow IRL, but I always have dreams involving extreme violence or sex. And sometimes the ideas are just too good to pass up.
:tehe:

To write a story, all I need is a character, and if I really can't think of one I'll get inspiration from a movie or I'll base my character around someone I know.
(Often, whilst I'm writing it, the character stops behaving like the person I'm modelling them on, so I can claim him/her as my own. :cute:)

Music 99% of the time, like little verses or lines that give me brain waves, The Birthday Massacre is good for that :D

I'm wondering if this topic is quite similar to this one?
I'm not actually sure.
That's why I'm posing the question.

druscilla's moon.:

I'm wondering if this topic is quite similar to this one?
I'm not actually sure.
That's why I'm posing the question.

I think that one is more about what you write about, where as this one, concentrates more on your influences. I don't know, fine line really. :/

I love taking things from lyrics and using a different idea to write about instead of what the song was actually written about. There's actually a lot of people on mibba who do that. I also love reading books with a lot imagery and points about life, because that always gives me ideas for my stories.

Gir Likes Tacos:

druscilla's moon.:

I'm wondering if this topic is quite similar to this one?
I'm not actually sure.
That's why I'm posing the question.

I think that one is more about what you write about, where as this one, concentrates more on your influences. I don't know, fine line really. :/

You're right.
This topic is more similar to this one.

druscilla's moon.:

You're right.
This topic is more similar to this one.

That's the same topic :shifty

Gir Likes Tacos:

druscilla's moon.:

You're right.
This topic is more similar to this one.

That's the same topic :shifty

I thought I had previously linked to the "Why Do You Write" thread.
-head desk-
I am fail.

druscilla's moon.:

I thought I had previously linked to the "Why Do You Write" thread.
-head desk-
I am fail.

Oh! Do you mean this one?
Hey you created that one! :shifty
Oh I do love that Shifty smilie. [/spam]

Gir Likes Tacos:

druscilla's moon.:

I thought I had previously linked to the "Why Do You Write" thread.
-head desk-
I am fail.

Oh! Do you mean this one?
Hey you created that one! :shifty
Oh I do love that Shifty smilie. [/spam]

That thread seems more about why people write certain genres, while this thread is about where people get their ideas and inspiration.

Gir Likes Tacos:

druscilla's moon.:

I thought I had previously linked to the "Why Do You Write" thread.
-head desk-
I am fail.

Oh! Do you mean this one?
Hey you created that one! :shifty
Oh I do love that Shifty smilie. [/spam]

No, I meant this one.

^ Ah, I see your point, very similar .

My newest story, The Back of a Gillikin Farmer's Truck, was inspired by yawning. I was at work today and I kept yawning these huge fucking yawns. Which lead to a thought which become the first line of the story.

Honestly most stories I write are made out of sheer boredom and needing a way to stop said boredom. My story Diary of Alicia Thomson was written because I had nothing to do one night last year. Most of my stories begin that way.

They usually come from daydreams, to be honest.
Sometimes I just have a rush of inspiration all at once, but usually, I'm sitting dreaming about it for a while.

ichabod crane.:

They usually come from daydreams, to be honest.
Sometimes I just have a rush of inspiration all at once, but usually, I'm sitting dreaming about it for a while.

Same with me. I'll be sitting in class and think of some funny situation among my friends.
Also alot of "What If?" moments help.

I get them from everything. The things I see around me, et cetera.

I find influence everywhere. Mainly when I watch people and see what they're doing. That helps. I have very character-driven stories.

Well, sometimes it comes from what people say. Like this idea I'm working, where someone said something about total government control. So I played on it.

Other times, I just get sentences that come into my head and I go "Hey! That might just work!" So, I write those.

I observe and listen, and it seems to work fairly well.