How do you find your inspiration?

[dios4vida]

Today I sat down at my desk with a few scraps of text I'd written over a year ago and began building a new WIP around it. I had the characters set already and a decent little chunk of the worldbuilding already finished. All I needed was a plot.

Hmm...a plot.

I thought, got a snack, did some laundry, wandered aimlessly around the house, pet the cats...and still no plot.

So I started looking through some collected pictures I have. They're just random things I've gathered that looked intriguing or inspiring, but nothing terribly specific. I passed several that looked interesting, but then I stumbled across a photo of a jet of steam that looked like a genie. It doesn't sound like much, but given my characters and the world I'd started - BOOM! That was it! I have a plot!

And it all came from a photo.

Where do you get your inspiration? Does it all come from your mind, or do you go to outside sources (TV, movies, internet)? Is there a place (real world or virtual) that you frequent for ideas? What's inspired you lately?

[craig]

Usually, I start with no plot whatsoever. I start with a few scenes in my head that just have to be written into a book -- I can't exactly remember which scene it was that led to my current WIP. Sometimes the scene I wanted to show so bad doesn't actually make it into the final product. Oh, wait! Now I remember -- yeah, the scene I wanted to show so badly isn't even close to appearing in this WIP. The same scene inspired my previous WIP but never actually made it into the final text. That same scene will probably inspire another story later (and likely not actually make it into the final text).

Anyway, I start with the scene and the characters in it. I build some character histories for them, which leads to some worldbuilding, which leads to some interpersonal conflict that will run as subplots, which leads to the development of an antagonist... and then after sitting on all that for a week or two, some inkling of a plot will begin to take shape. Plot is usually the last thing I come up with and it usually stems out of the prep work somehow.

[Down the well]

I steal a lot from history. Two major scenes in my novel, and the events leading up to them, are loosely based on actual historic battles. I just nudged everything into the future by a thousand years or more, added in some colorful characters with varying motives and goals, and voila! Instant novel.

Er, okay, maybe it took a little more work than that, and a fair amount of manipulation of the facts along the way, but it somehow all came together in the end.

[Leonidas]

My main WIP was first inspired by a dream, and then continually re-inspired by all the research I'm doing for it.

My second WIP was inspired when I saw an old radio on the show Pawn Stars and the idea pretty much leaped into my head.

My favorite character who has yet to have his own WIP was inspired by a picture of a model I found that fit his personality/character perfectly and that I wanted to name a character Roulette.

[stephmcgee]

Dreams, a snippet of a conversation, a tickle of an idea for a bit of mythology, the meaning of a name. It's been all over the place.

[Diamonte]

Anything that catches my interest. It's often a passing remark that someone makes. For example, I was watching a TV program about the 1800s and London. There was a short comment about some married woman who was at a party and met a gentleman who she believed was her soulmate. Little things like that can get my brain working. I start thinking about what would happen if the husband found out? If the man she met felt the same way, how would they express their feelings? Would they dare to risk an affair during the 1800s? etc, etc.

A little piece of trivia or an interesting fact can be great inspiration for me if I just think about it enough and twist it into a story.

[johndavid]

To be honest...most of my ideas come to me in the shower!

I don't know why. I guess something about the warm water "frees" my mind and the ideas flow.

Of course I don't work out the entire book in there(I would run out of warm water). I get the general idea in there,then build on it when I am going about my daily routine. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. But that is the genesis of most of my ideas.

[Sommer Leigh]

I collect things that inspire me. I actually started a weekly blog post on fridays called "Inspiration Point" to share some of these things, but I pull inspiration from all sorts of places. Articles about mysterious diseases, interesting stationary, photographs of new sea creatures discovered off the coast of Indonesia, artists, art, photographs, photographers, well designed websites, youtube videos, scraps of colorful paper, book covers, music, board games, costumes, period clothing, articles about ancient ships being discovered beneath Manhattan. Like I said! All sorts of stuff.

[sierramcconnell]

The story I'm doing for NaNo has been building in my head for just a few months. It came from a doll.

A lot of things it seems comes from my doll hobby. And from my health. It's not the best, but I find creative ways to make my characters ill. Bradley has a liver condition. But it's no normal one.

It's because when he lay dying by Nephilim attack, they sliced him open and chewed on his liver.

When the Angelic Underground pieced him back together and revived him, he still bears the marks of the attack internally. He's not 100% whole. So he has to be careful what he eats.

Sucks, when you're a bartender. Of course, he's only fifteen so it's not like he should be drinking in the first place.

I got the idea when I was told I shouldn't drink. I've never been a drinker. I was also told to change my diet. I never ate much either.

My liver's not doing so good. They don't know why. So I gave Bradley my condition so we could learn how to eat better together. Research for a character is more fun than research for one's self. XD

And I'm of the opinion SOMEONE had to have chewed on my liver to make it so disguistingly fatty...

EDIT: I got interrupted by work. XD I also get inspired by the littlest things. Like bottles. Random objects. If I need inspiration, I pop on the ol' soundtrack to the novel and go for a walk or go window shopping at hobby lobby with one of the characters to see if they react to something. I'm a firm believer in talking to your muses in your head and acting things out, so it's fun to pretend shop and go places just to see how they react for a fully fleshed out character.

And everyone says my characters are wonderfully developed. XD

I'm pretty much never not inspired. I carry notecards because of this. They usually have names or 'story idea: ___' written on them.

XD