Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Everything I have written has come from very strong characters materialising in my mind. I'll be in the middle of something and suddenly, they're there demanding attention in a very real way. I've yet to decide if these voices are a product of being crazy but for the moment, it's going well.
All my characters are very opinionated and come with a whole host of ticks, likes and peeves. If I try to make them go one way and they want to go the other, I'm powerless to stop them.

After my characters evolve, they introduce me to others in their world, usually through scenes when I'm drifting off. They educate me with their laws, settings, tones etc and with a little of my help and guidance, BAM! We have a story.

It's just annoying when I'm focusing on one of them that another will decide they've laid dormant for much too long.

I can find a premise just about anywhere. I have a list of them, actually, all ready to go. The trouble is, for me to actually produce, the story has to tell itself to me. When I try to force it, it stinks. Or, I just sit and stare at the screen. After it starts, though, I'm all done. I don't get to contribute much. It's magical. I've had several stories take me down that road, and I'm now hoping that's the case with my first novel. So far, so good.

I knew from the beginning that my WIP was about two couples. I incorrectly assumed that the primary MC would be the wife from one of the couples. The husband from the other couple gently corrected me by causing me to write 60% of the multiple pov story from his pov. Lucky for both of us he was right to point this out to me. ;)

For my first manuscript, I had the idea while taking a shower. I think the original thought was, "What if someone couldn't show love?" Which over a long and twisted thought process that lasted several years (during which I thankfully grew up a lot), morphed into a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

For my middlest manuscript, I started with the idea that I wanted to express my feelings about having Rheumatoid Arthritis and facing the possibility of deformed hands for the rest of my life. That morphed into a retelling of the Frog Prince.

The latest idea (still being written) was just in my head when I woke up one morning during Christmas break. "What if Robin Hood and the evil lord/sheriff were the same man? What if he's just taking everyone for a ride?" Which has since begun to morph into the most complex of the three stories.

(I'm in a fairytale/retelling phase, yes.)

sbs_mjc1 wrote:I came across this brilliantly hysterical English pamphlet from the 1740s, which insisted (among other things) that the Scots had enlisted demons and werewolves and Celtic fairy creatures to their cause.

For real? I could probably jump off into a story based on that too. It just tickles the imagination, doesn't it?

Heather B wrote:Everything I have written has come from very strong characters materialising in my mind. I'll be in the middle of something and suddenly, they're there demanding attention in a very real way. I've yet to decide if these voices are a product of being crazy but for the moment, it's going well.

This is why it's great to go to conferences or join forums: other writers understand the crazy. The family? Not so much.

midenianscholar wrote:For my first manuscript, I had the idea while taking a shower.

I could drain the hot water tank while I mull over my novel in the shower. Water seems to have some magical, conduit-like property for writers seeking inspiration.

For me, they just pop into my head whilst I'm doing stuff. Most recent idea came into mind while I was playing poker. Sometimes I stumble upon something that sets the mind a-running, but usually I'm just cooking breakfast, or mucking stalls, or something and I start daydreaming and eventually my brain hits an idea I can get behind.

Down the well wrote:

Heather B wrote:Everything I have written has come from very strong characters materialising in my mind. I'll be in the middle of something and suddenly, they're there demanding attention in a very real way. I've yet to decide if these voices are a product of being crazy but for the moment, it's going well.

This is why it's great to go to conferences or join forums: other writers understand the crazy. The family? Not so much.

Yes. Much better off finding a virtual family to adopt you. They don't give you weird looks when you start talking gibberish and get excited over something only you can see. (And if they do, you'd never know...)

My ideas come from random thought bubbles :)

The idea for my on-hold fantasy series just developed over time. In fact, I have no idea where it originally came from.

My current idea came from looking at pictures of original characters on deviantART.com.

My ideas really need to evolve on their own. I've tried thinking of ideas, but none are at all appealing to me.

My idea came a long time ago when I was thirteen. It was one of those brilliant 'Hey, we're best friends, let's write a story together!' things. So my best friend and I came up with the characters and plot etc. Of course, the two main characters we're us. :D

We worked on it off and on for about two years, never really making that much progress, and it eventually just died off.

Then, at the start of my sophomore year of college, a little voice kept nagging. 'You should go back and look at that story.' Let me tell you, it was HORRENDOUS beyond words! But something struck me, and I thought that if I stripped off all the juvenile crap, that the plot and characters could be rebuilt into something really cool.

So here I am, two years later and in revisions.

CV

CharleeVale wrote:Then, at the start of my sophomore year of college, a little voice kept nagging. 'You should go back and look at that story.'

I had one of those ideas that wouldn't go away. I originally tried writing the story about ten years ago and it never really went anywhere, but I remained intrigued by the idea. And, yep, ten years later I was able to work it into my WIP - not as a whole story but as part of a subplot.

CharleeVale wrote:My idea came a long time ago when I was thirteen. It was one of those brilliant 'Hey, we're best friends, let's write a story together!' things. So my best friend and I came up with the characters and plot etc. Of course, the two main characters we're us. :D

We worked on it off and on for about two years, never really making that much progress, and it eventually just died off.

Then, at the start of my sophomore year of college, a little voice kept nagging. 'You should go back and look at that story.' Let me tell you, it was HORRENDOUS beyond words! But something struck me, and I thought that if I stripped off all the juvenile crap, that the plot and characters could be rebuilt into something really cool.

So here I am, two years later and in revisions.

CV

Isn't it weird, my friend and I did the exact same thing. Probably about that age too. The story is long since gone by now but I could only shudder at how terrible it was. I still remember the premise and the ending though, and I have to say they weren't too bad.

I daydream or dream 'scenes' I can quite clearly see them in my mind much like other people would view something on the TV or a movie. I have lots of them stored away and have new ones quite often.

The difficult bit is to then put them onto paper so that the two match. Then when I have enough scenes with the same characters I start to work a plot around them eventually the whole thing becomes something I can give to my wonderful editors.

Phil

Most of my short stories come from overheard conversation, news stories (those severed feet that kept turning up on the coast in Vancouver!), and actions or scenes that I glimpse from a distance - usually situations that I don't know the context to so I have to figure it out for myself. The novel I just "finished" writing came from a smattering of these, but the two items that prompted me to start writing it were a letter written to an aborted child that I found in a second-hand bookstore (in Turn of the Screw) and a line I woke up thinking: "There was always a wall between us." I made the wall literal and went from there.

So far my ideas have occurred to me in three ways.

1. I dream the wildest adventures and hurriedly write notes upon awakening.
2. I meditate while showering. "What if" questions form into stories there.
3. I read the Bible. That book has some of the most amazing plots. I steal liberally.