“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” – Jack London
What is your method for getting ideas? What gets you inspired to write?
20 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Getting Ideas and Getting Inspired”
99.9% of the time it’s research that spawns my ideas. Actually, research spawns TOO MANY ideas for me so I have to keep a lid on it. But there is absolutely nothing more inspiring than research.
I’m with BK. Research is the main source of ideas for me. I go looking for one item and stumble across 10 more. I keep every idea in a folder so I won’t forget.
Just reading the NY Times every Sunday here in the Midwest gets me inspired — there are always events that I think to myself “I could not make that one up” and then my mind starts writing the back story and the “what happens next” scenarios
Mostly I don’t go looking for them. They just start popping in when I’m not paying attention, usually during a run or when I am driving. Occasionally, I will brainstorm a for an hour or so, but that usually serves more to prime the pump for later.
We could use an edit feature around here for people who hit the Post button before their second cup of coffee.
Geez…it comes from everywhere. In fact, this is my post for this upcoming week, so I can’t go into it or I’d have to kill you all. 🙂
Please!! I have a family!! I can wait till next week!!
Walking through neighborhoods with which I am otherwise unfamiliar. I don’t recommend it, I just do it. There’s always a story.
I just got back from attending Robert McKee’s Story Seminar. It was great and more than worth the money.
If i remember correctly, McKee noted that an amateur looks for inspiration, a pro sits down and gets to work.
My inspiration – Type a sentence, repeat.
When I need story ideas, I often check out the Ancient Origins web site. It’s dedicated to fringe history, with illustrated posts about ancient murders, mysteries, and lost treasures.
My inspiration comes from people watching, so basically observations. I get most creative when I visit the local outdoor flea market. 🙂
My research illuminates so many amazing corners of history to delve into, I cannot help but get inspired! If only I had the time to finish writing all my story ideas…
Where do my ideas come from? Well, the idea funnel of course. Where else could they come from? I put the funnel in my right ear, a cork in my left ear to stop leakage and they just drain right in.
…isn’t that how everyone does it?
Well, Mr. Basil, actually not every was aware of the idea funnel until you mentioned it. That was kinda a secret of ours until you mentioned it.
Um…who exactly told Mr. Basil about the funnel? He wasn’t even supposed to know that?
It wasn’t me, I thought we’d lost that funnel thingy back in 1968, when Boffin fell from the tree that farmer’s field and dropped it.
Ya, that was the year Mr. Basil was bornded. That farmer’s field was owned by Mr. Basil’s Granda, the farmer there who founded it, and who saw us but didn’t say nothing, so we let him keep the funnel and his mum used it as a funnel for his baby milk formulas to gettem to the bottle.
Oh…I see. That displains alota stuff, then dunnit?
Somebody get a large mallet.
Ditto for “people watching.” Just when I think I’ve seen it all, I see a new and sometimes, outlandish character. Frances
99.9% of the time it’s research that spawns my ideas. Actually, research spawns TOO MANY ideas for me so I have to keep a lid on it. But there is absolutely nothing more inspiring than research.
I’m with BK. Research is the main source of ideas for me. I go looking for one item and stumble across 10 more. I keep every idea in a folder so I won’t forget.
Just reading the NY Times every Sunday here in the Midwest gets me inspired — there are always events that I think to myself “I could not make that one up” and then my mind starts writing the back story and the “what happens next” scenarios
Mostly I don’t go looking for them. They just start popping in when I’m not paying attention, usually during a run or when I am driving. Occasionally, I will brainstorm a for an hour or so, but that usually serves more to prime the pump for later.
We could use an edit feature around here for people who hit the Post button before their second cup of coffee.
Geez…it comes from everywhere. In fact, this is my post for this upcoming week, so I can’t go into it or I’d have to kill you all. 🙂
Please!! I have a family!! I can wait till next week!!
Walking through neighborhoods with which I am otherwise unfamiliar. I don’t recommend it, I just do it. There’s always a story.
I just got back from attending Robert McKee’s Story Seminar. It was great and more than worth the money.
If i remember correctly, McKee noted that an amateur looks for inspiration, a pro sits down and gets to work.
My inspiration – Type a sentence, repeat.
When I need story ideas, I often check out the Ancient Origins web site. It’s dedicated to fringe history, with illustrated posts about ancient murders, mysteries, and lost treasures.
My inspiration comes from people watching, so basically observations. I get most creative when I visit the local outdoor flea market. 🙂
My research illuminates so many amazing corners of history to delve into, I cannot help but get inspired! If only I had the time to finish writing all my story ideas…
Where do my ideas come from? Well, the idea funnel of course. Where else could they come from? I put the funnel in my right ear, a cork in my left ear to stop leakage and they just drain right in.
…isn’t that how everyone does it?
Well, Mr. Basil, actually not every was aware of the idea funnel until you mentioned it. That was kinda a secret of ours until you mentioned it.
Um…who exactly told Mr. Basil about the funnel? He wasn’t even supposed to know that?
It wasn’t me, I thought we’d lost that funnel thingy back in 1968, when Boffin fell from the tree that farmer’s field and dropped it.
Ya, that was the year Mr. Basil was bornded. That farmer’s field was owned by Mr. Basil’s Granda, the farmer there who founded it, and who saw us but didn’t say nothing, so we let him keep the funnel and his mum used it as a funnel for his baby milk formulas to gettem to the bottle.
Oh…I see. That displains alota stuff, then dunnit?
Somebody get a large mallet.
Ditto for “people watching.” Just when I think I’ve seen it all, I see a new and sometimes, outlandish character. Frances