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What Inspires You

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alistair Roberts
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Alistair Roberts

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This is a question I've been asked many times myself. I was wondering what inspires others. For me, in part probably as I write in a 16th century UK scene, most pictures of historic sites in Britain, be they castles, standing stones, stone circles etc. will often give me ideas. This was one of the reasons for leaving Australia and coming over here to get closer to the inspiration as I figure that touch such places has to inspire me more.

Still working on the transport side, so currently sitting in bonnie Scotland at a friends place, well Xmas is also close! So, what inspires you?
 
Nice thread Alistair. Writing guided me to start my shamanic training. Shamanism has become my main source of inspiration; connecting and communicating with the unseen, learning to listen and trust a new path. A year ago I knew little about my ancestors and I still feel I bit daunted by the ancestral work ahead of me. It's early days though as I've just started visiting the extinct volcanoes of the British Isles, Ardnamuchan, Glencoe, Arthur's Seat and Castle Rock ticked off so far. I'm inspired by the Spirit of quest, land and place if you like. I believe I have a personal prophecy to fulfil, I don't know what it is...that's what makes it exciting.
 
The usual. The problems of being human, and how we deal with our mortality, our connection to others and places. Connections and echoes. The cri de coeur.
 
For me, inspiration comes from a number of sources - my most successful short story was inspired by a cloud of butterflies that one of the locals called Christmas butterflies. I find inspiration everywhere: a song, a news item, a quirky name, a picture in an art gallery, and beautiful prose from writers like Elizabeth Nunez - they have all inspired stories that gnaw at me until I write them down. I write for adults and children so my canvas is a large one!
 
Hmm... animals and stuff. Even inanimate things. I think a lot of it comes from my mom being pretty mad, everything had to have a personality. I was guilt ridden for wearing odd socks because the lost one would feel left out, etc! Almost every story I write has an animal that communicates with people in some way, whether it's our language or one that the characters have made up between them. I guess it's partly because animals are also a massive part of my life, and uh, socks too.

What else... history and mythology thanks to my dad. I like places that hold a lot of stories and the holidays I went on as a child always featured castles or reenactments as the main attraction. :D And also, like Katie, just the nature of being human and the questions we ask. My first book deals with death, and being completely honest, although it's fantasy and actually pretty silly, I think it's because I don't know how to deal with death myself. :confused:

I dunno, if it's there it's there and if it isn't then I sure ain't gonna be able to find it by looking!
 
The lost one WOULD feel left out hehe. Well, if it doesn't, it's still an education in empathy, not that you needed one, clearly. Your mom sounds like a natural born story teller, too.
 
A good question :) anything and everything, it could be something as simple as walking through the park and watching the grass blow in the wind, or seeing two people meet in the street. I have a fairly active imagination and often live more in my own world than in this one, I have stories for everything from the most everyday thing to the most fantastical events. (I should really write a collection of short stories at one point.) For about fifteen years I kept a dream diary and had many inspiring ideas from dreams too.
I am certified in many holistic therapy practices such as reiki, crystal healing, colour therapy, sound therapy etc so these too are good sources to inspire and I also self study herbal medicine.
 
Katie-Ellen Hazeldine said:
The lost one WOULD feel left out hehe. Well, if it doesn't, it's still an education in empathy, not that you needed one, clearly. Your mom sounds like a natural born story teller, too.
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Absolutely! Just, not so much on paper. It's me dad that writes. I've been trying to convince him to send the last book he wrote off to agents, but he's not too keen. It's a shame because it's a hell of a lot better than the one I'm trying to get noticed! :p
 
If you like rock music and not too against the more metal side (ie judas priest/ iron maiden) you might enjoy listening to a German band called Blind Guardian, they write songs based on Arthurian legend, LOTR and other mythologies. 'Mordred's Song' and 'Valhalla' are my favourites.
As for my inspiration, some of my ideas are the bits of my dreams I remember in the morning, others are just random thoughts that pop into my head. An idea I'm toying with atm revolves around this concept- 'if a prophecy has never been spoken, does it still come true?'
 
Interesting. I think what is not spoken is not a prophecy, is maybe a latent destiny. Do we have destinies, if unprophesied? To an extent or there could be no possibility of prophecy.
 
Katie-Ellen Hazeldine said:
Interesting. I think what is not spoken is not a prophecy, is maybe a latent destiny. Do we have destinies, if unprophesied? To an extent or there could be no possibility of prophecy.
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what if someone saw a prophecy concerning you but didn't tell you? Or anyone? You would go about your life unaware, but this person would see your destiny unfolding, would they try to steer you in a beneficial direction or lead you onto a more destructive course?
 
Well, I don't know except from my own experience. I have occasional ESP or whatever one wishes to call it. I learned Tarot to see if this could be trained at all and yes it can BUT prescience flits like a bat as and when it likes. Prescience is NOT omniscience. I 'saw' my beloved father's death two years before he died. I saw he might have another two years and as it happened, it was about that. I did not tell anyone. I might have misunderstood, seen wrong. What could he or anyone do with the information? I used it to write to him, and to express appreciation for all the many things he gave me and to keep in touch. He wrote back to say how happy a letter had made him. He was 77. On the other hand, I once saw that a tarot customer was at risk of a nasty fall. I did not wish to frighten her, but I warned her as gently as I could to take extra care if climbing on ledges or step-ladders. The lady did not like my reading, not because of that, but because I could not see what she wished me to see in respect of another matter, and at the end of the reading expressed her doubts about my findings with some hostility. She fell soon afterwards and fractured her hip, months of rehabilitation required and came back again a year later for another reading. 'Seeing' is NOT the same as knowing. I'd say, the person doing the prophesying has no power, only responsibilities. Cassandra's gift was a curse. She could not change what she saw. But it's generally a case of something 'in a glass seen dimly' and as a writer, you can write the rules :)
 
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that's very interesting, i can cast runes but never known if any readings have come true. as i said i'm just toying with the idea atm, i'm seeing if it pans into a decent story.
 
Your question

what if someone saw a prophecy concerning you but didn't tell you? Or anyone? You would go about your life unaware, but this person would see your destiny unfolding, would they try to steer you in a beneficial direction or lead you onto a more destructive course?

is a theme in a recent novel, The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.
 
Like Alistair I am inspired by old things, especially antique objects, because I can't help wondering who the last person was that had that object in their possession, and imagining a story around that.
 
General life, the mundane on steroids. My husband is quite a good muse. My cat's, dog and herd of horses even more so. I like wondering what kind of people they would be if they were human... interesting things come from those musings.
 
I'm invariably inspired by dreams - I have quite vivid dreams which often don't make sense. However, I write down the details as soon as I'm aware that I'm awake and there's usually something in there that my waking conscious would never have imagined!
 
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