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From where do your stories come? Is it something that you see or hear or read that causes a story idea to crystalize in your head? Do you require a catalyst or a muse?
I ask mainly from curiosity as it would be very interesting to learn of some of the seeds which germinated into some of stories on this and other sites.
But I also raise this question because it appears that I do need such a seed. For years I have had stories in my head, ones with fully flushed out characters and many plot points (often including the end), yet was never able to get them much beyond started. I find it so difficult to connect the different plot points, because they have spent so much rambling about in my head so that I instinctively think of them as the good parts. And I want to get to the good parts, so I cannot focus on the necessary glue to join it all together.
Then I came upon a picture on the good ole intrarweb and it served as a frame that I could feel in. And I found it so much easier to write a story about that picture, even though it soon jumped outside that frame become its very own picture of words. I will find it interesting to see if catalysts will continue to help me take stories out of my mind and put them to word processor.
What make me want to write?
It may be unsettling, but what makes me horny thinking about different ways that I could become the bimbo I would want to be, is what causes my muse to fuse.
So, what makes me want to write? Stimulation.
;D
Yes, the weird author with the boob fetish.
Yes, the weird author with the boob fetish.
Hoisted by my own petard
Well...umm...I was going to reply to my own topic with the picture that was the seed for Adventures of a Merchant. But I am not seeing any way to attach said picture, nor a way to edit the first post to include the picture. Therefore, this thread may not work out like I intended.
Hey look a pterodactyl.
/emote runs away
Attachments in forum topics
Okay, I've turned on attachements in forum topics. No one had ever asked for that before. :)
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Almost anything
I get ideas from almost anything but the greatest inspiration seems to come from a blank screen and letting my mind just go with the first thing that occurs to me.
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Do You Require a Catalyst to Write
Possibly.
Sometimes ideas just pop into my head and for the longest time, I had the same problem that you seemed to have - I had plots, endings, basically everything that was necessary to create a story.
I missed out on the glue. I'd ramble off in some direction or another and miss the plot by an eternity.
Then A Fresh Start came into my head and I tried all I could to keep to the plot and to a degree, learned to recognise when I was rambling (rather like now).
I don't know whether I have improved as a writer or not since that one, but I keep going.
Best of luck...
Nick B
Music
For me also there is all of the pieces for the story, but just putting on a appropriate musical piece and everything comes together. It's sad that my hearing has degraded so much, but for now the magic works!
Hugs!
grover
Re: Music
Me too. Throughout the four part story Finding Lisa, I had specific peices of music in my mind and some that I was listening to. The sub chapters were all labelled thus.
Even now, I find myself inserting lines from songs (often quite obscure), but yes, the magic happens.
Happy typing,
Nick B
Music can help
But it has to be instrumental, lyrics are too distracting.
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Agreed!
Yes, Definitely instrumentals. Movie soundtracks are very good for this, but classical and contemporary composers are also good. For example for "What a Christmas" was written to a combination of Mannhiem Steamroller, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and Paul Maurait's Love is Blue.
Hugs
grover
Wbat I Really Need Is. . . .
a catalyst-converter. I have many, many stories in my head and a finite amount of time to write them down.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Glenlivet
Two fingers of Glenlivet neat goes a long way, in helping me write.
Love,
Paula
When the lines between reality and fantasy blur, true magic can begin.
Paula
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
The Coda
Chapterhouse: Dune
But there is a downside to that method
Two fingers may help you relax.
After half-a-dozen. A cuple moor won't hurts ... hte keeyboard jas sooo meny moore keyps anf it wobbbles. Oooh my hedd ...'suse me.
--Urp!!! Ralph! Hurl! --
Angela, making wit' da car jokes are we?
As to me, I read, I listen to the radio, but not trash talk. I occasionally watch old VHS tapes and DVD's.
Sometimes the weirdest, simplest things inspire. My father telling me he'd traced all our ancestors back to at least the generation that left the Old World EXCEPT he hadn't a clue as to where in Great Britan or when the man I'm named for emigrated. All we knew he was probably married three times and arrived in the US between the 1840 and 1850 US Census. This inspired me to make him a 300 plus year-old magic user who visits my Timeout Whateley Academy heroine.
Conversion Tables, a Stardust contest entry I'll repost here soon was from a series of silly observations Itinerant and I had about magic. I may still do *that* version too. The flea marketing and the tech school rummage sale are events I attended or the sort of thing an Aunt did to raise extra money for her large family.
My family is a big inspiration. It could work for others I'm sure. Think of memorable things in your past and twist them a bit.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Glenlivet ?..........
I can't afford Glenlivet not at $24.00 a bottle I buy the cheep Raley's VIP rum. On sale for $6.99 for a 1.75L. As for what inspires me to write well that would be music! Long Hair Classical Music is the best!
Damn the torpedoes, "Full Speed Ahead"