Poll #71: Where Do You Get Your Inspiration?

[Shaun]

Alright folks, let's get down to business.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Books? Friends? Family? TV? Drug-induced comas? If your muse isn't on the list, choose other and leave a comment!

[Melo]

I like a mixture in my inspiration, I take bits from here and there. It's mostly dreams, books, disorders, diseases, syndromes and mental disabilities. I don't watch a lot of TV but I'm a total youtube zombie. My life...is interesting, but it's private so I tend not to write about it. When I read books, I usually try to invision them as movies, and if they just don't interest me on the screen, I can't continue reading. Other things that inspire me are certain forms of art, extreme emotion (on my part) and world problems.

[Carraka]

Why can we only pick one?

[Bowie20049]

That's what I thought.

[Morris]

Goodness. Video games isn't its own option? I'm appalled. :[

But, yes, that would be my "Other" choice. I would have never gained the passion to write if it weren't for roleplaying games. They are stories; novels themselves. I was told I have writing talents before I even cared for books or any other type of literature. Oh, how I adore epiphanies.

[abra~cadaver]

Literally everywhere. But I always only get hit with my "epiphanies" when I'm doing some sort of zombie task.

Washing the dishes...
Walking...
Showering...
Yeah.

[Rowenny]

Great question.

Usually, I get my inspiration for poetry from events that happen in my life. I get it from meeting with friends and family, sometimes just walking around the city or looking outside the window while going to the university.

It is different with the novels I write. Usually inspiration comes from music I listen to, lately I've had a lot of dreams that had a really good ideas for my stories in them. :)

[Lykaios]

Inspiration?

EVERYWHERE.

Anyway, nearly all of my stories begin as a snippet/scene in a dream, so that's what I voted for, and the story also usually cannot be related back to that dream after I've developed on it, either.

Other things that have influenced me, and that I have used to develop on an idea, are: telly, books, posters, pictures, overheard conversations, adverts, all kinds of music, friends, family, my life and experiences, and others' too. I also have got inspiration from random things like a ball of paper in the gutter, tripping on a stapler, a bird flying through a rainbow, odd smells only I can smell, family history stuff, old toys, something a teacher/someone says, or just the results of daydreams.

So yeah, everything and anything can inspire me.

[Majyk]

EVERYWHERE.

That's what I was thinking. I get inspiration from any number of things. I'll see some hillside (such as, there's this place on the way to my dance studio that looks awesome, and I've been wanting to use it as a setting in one of my stories for a while now), be driving through an old part of a small town, be watching TV, occasionally dreaming (though I don't usually remember my dreams), reading a book... Anything can give me inspiration.

[AvidAbey]

Typically I find my inspiration, such as it is, from schoolwork, absorbing conversations or good books I've read. These tend to stimulate my thinking more than anything else, and since I try to use my writing to understand the world a bit better in some way, they consequently inspire me to write more than anything else.

For example, the very first thing I ever posted on here was born from a long line of thinking I'd been doing about bureaucracy which was started off when I'd learned about the concept of the iron triangle and Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy.

[jordanisonfire]

everywhar.

[Gabby]

Every single place holds some kind of inspiration. Whether it be that dark alleyway I walked at night, those gardens I traveled through at nightfall or the first Summer's day. But also, video games do help a lot. xD

[Clawfire]

Fiction and sometimes dreams...

[FayGee]

My family. I ask everyone for words that would make a good storyline and they give me them. I write them down and later use them.

[FayGee]

It is different with the novels I write. Usually inspiration comes from music I listen to, lately I've had a lot of dreams that had a really good ideas for my stories in them. :)

Wow. Cool! :cool:

[dragonheart]

I get mine from books, life, family, friends, and dreams. We should be able to chose more than one.

[Quindora]

Hmmm...

Books, Movies, TV Shows, Dreams, Boredom, Other Stories...

That's all I can think of at the moment. It's mostly fictional books that inspire me, since pretty much all I do is read.

[lalodragon]

Dreams and life mainly. Since I can't select two I shan't vote; I've got to have at least those two. (Stories from dreams, poems from life.)

[wutheringheights]

I get my inspiration from anywhere really (I once wrote a book based on a dream, and I love that because it really feels like it's yours), but I'm not real into research and stuff, so I usually write fiction.