Where do you find your inspiration?

[mken_writes]

Hi all

I've just been writing a blog post about where famous authors found the inspiration for their novels. Just wondering what you guys do when you're in need of inspiration?

Matt

 

[Carol Rose]

I'm an avid people watcher, but I've also received tons of inspiration from music.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Walk on the beach, garden, or go for a hike in the mountains if I need big inspiration. Little inspiration comes from the pile of interesting rocks that sit on my desk--each one has stories to tell. Some end up representing characters with related characteristics (the perfectly smooth rock with a long thin crack across its surface; the flat rock with one side dull, the other sparkling with pyrite; the rock that seems to glow from within, etc). If I need creativity (which is similar to inspiration), I talk a plot through with my husband. He usually comes up with some completely outlandish "Oh! You should do this ..." which I laugh off, but that completely crazy idea will often inspire a related, but more reasonable idea, to which he can point and say "that was my idea, but you wrote it all wrong."

 

[mken_writes]

Walk on the beach, garden, or go for a hike in the mountains if I need big inspiration. Little inspiration comes from the pile of interesting rocks that sit on my desk--each one has stories to tell. Some end up representing characters with related characteristics (the perfectly smooth rock with a long thin crack across its surface; the flat rock with one side dull, the other sparkling with pyrite; the rock that seems to glow from within, etc). If I need creativity (which is similar to inspiration), I talk a plot through with my husband. He usually comes up with some completely outlandish "Oh! You should do this ..." which I laugh off, but that completely crazy idea will often inspire a related, but more reasonable idea, to which he can point and say "that was my idea, but you wrote it all wrong."

I love the idea of having a pile of interesting rocks or other objects to represent characters. It makes me want to take a trip to the seaside tomorrow and go and collect some pebbles/shells etc. I do have three cactus in sunglasses but they came with pre-made characteristics!!!!

As you say, bouncing ideas of other people is also great for developing ideas.

 

[KateESal]

The bathroom.
Don't know why, but I often get ideas while showering or brushing my teeth.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

The bathroom.
Don't know why, but I often get ideas while showering or brushing my teeth.

Yes, that reminds me that driving is a good idea time for me. I'm always asking the kids to write things down for me in the car so I don't forget them.

 

[mken_writes]

Yes, that reminds me that driving is a good idea time for me. I'm always asking the kids to write things down for me in the car so I don't forget them.

These are great. I think I'm going to need to create another infographic. I try not to have ideas anywhere where I can't immediately write them down but inspiration generally just pops up when it wants to. Being out on long walks is another good one for this.

 

[Emily]

Walks in forests; utterly frustrating when I have anyone else with me as they want to talk and my head is bursting with inspiring ideas. And ditto the shower @KateESal!

 

[Nikky Lee]

Music and images for me. If I'm hunting for a prompt to kick-start the creative juices, I often go to Pinterest or Deviant art. As for music, I create Spotify playlists based on moods (e.g. Fight or die, Adventure awaits etc) and play those when I'm writing a scene related to that mood.

 

[Barbara]

Ideas tend to just pop in my head, usually at the most inconvenient times. It must be because the conscious is busy doing something else. And like KatiEsal and Rainbird, I'm also a bathroom writer. I need a waterproof notepad.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I get inspiration from all sorts of strange places, sometimes simply from a throwaway remark that someone made or a peculiar news story that was never followed up on by the media. For instance, thirty years ago, a serial killer took victims in Calcutta and Bombay by dropping heavy stones on the heads of sleeping homeless street people—he became known as the Stoneman. Consider the number of homeless people there are in the Western world, then imagine the same thing happening here.

I've also taken to keeping folders of ideas on my desktop, for flashes of inspiration are elusive sprites that zip through the mind in an instant, so it's best to net them immediately. I have folders holding character names, basic plot outlines and titles for poems, songs and stories.

Lastly, and not to be undervalued as a source of inspiration—read something that's totally crap, written by an author you despise, who despite their charmless personality and inadequate prose still got published! If that doesn't make you mad enough to do better, then give up.

 

[Rich.]

When I'm in need of inspiration I get on with my day and wait for my subconscious to throw up some gems. I also do similar activities to those mentioned above when I'm trying to get things straight in my head, but that's more of a conscious thing, something that happens after the inspiration has struck.

 

[Magicman]

I draw on memories. Things that happened that could have been much worse, or better. In the Everglades Nation Park, we had a rather large alligator sunbathing on the only pathway back. We were fine but what if?

 

[KateESal]

The mere act of typing can be enough, sometimes. If I don't feel particularly inspired, but start tapping away regardless, ideas will often start to flow. If they don't, I get up and make a cuppa.

 

[Tim James]

My general story ideas, the concept that kicks off the whole novel, tend to come from something I've read or seen. But it could be anything; an article about a new discovery, a news item, anything. The idea might lodge in my brain for a couple of weeks, just festering and then suddenly sprout an outline for a story.
When I need inspiration I go for a long walk in the woods or hills.

 

[Andrew Okey]

For me, it's single stray sentences from TV documentaries that pretty much write the novel for you**. I'm working on two such - one deriving from a brief segment of Waldemar Januszczak's series on The Renaissance, the other on a particularly unlikely truth that slipped out of the classic 1970s documentary "The World at War"

** ah, if only.

 

[Amber]

Everywhere.