Inspiration

[raspberryhat]

Where does inspiration come from? This thread is to discuss the variety of sources of inspiration for stories. If you really want to write a story but are not sure what to write about, this thread may be of some help or a source of ideas.

If you have an idea but are unsure about how to open it up and develop you may like to try Initial Ideas.

[raspberryhat]

To start things moving...

I find two main sources of inspiration for W/T ideas.

1. Gaps in the show where we weren't told exactly what happened between two points in time or why something is the way it is. I never felt the show went into enough detail about why Willow was so powerful. That's certainly made me think a lot about stories to tell.

2. Music. I find some music just creates pictures in my head and that's the start of many a story.

I find that the real inspiration comes in the initial idea. That could strike at any time.

After that, it's all in the writing. I don't stare at an empty page for long because I often find little comes. If the words of the story itself don't come I start to bullet point. I find inspiration does come with those words.

I write down thoughts, edit, order, prioritise, refine, mutate etc. I sometimes use nested bullet points to structure thoughts and more detailed thoughts. I find after pages of that I've got a lot on what I want to do. Then the words of the text proper will come.

It's probably something to do with the fact I find I can't look too far ahead without planning. For me the ideas come when I am writing (almost anything) rather than staring out the window.

[Trom DeGrey]

As far as inspiration goes, I find it in the everyday really. I love the two characters more than the show, therefore, I write AUs almost exclusively in contemporary settings. Like with Laundry Diaries, that came at a time when I was working part time third shift and hated going out to do my laundry in the middle of the day. Part of what I love about writing in general is the need to become more observant of everything around you. Not only do the genuine details make a piece more believable for your reader, they make it more personal for you the writer. Look around. What situation can you put Willow and Tara into? I'm always surprised by the stories that start with simple situations that I observe around me.

[Insanity]

I think (and I experienced, too) that sinspiration often begins with the words:

[center] What if...[/center]

What if Tara and Willow hadn't met at wicca-group?
What if Willows parents send her away after the incident in the library end of second season ( *lol*)?
What if Tara was in the alternate wish-world of Vamp-Willow?

And so on....

And then you can start working, but it's the first "what if" that sets everything on start.

Insanity

[Auburn]

"What if..." That's a good one!

I find most of my inspiration comes from the situations of life... things that I've been through or someone close to me, like a fic I'm in the middle of now actually happened to someone I was close to, then I wonder if I could write about it... if it would make an interesting read.

I could be sitting on the bus and think... what if W & T met on the bus? Or my friend could be telling me something that happened to her at work and I'd think... what if that happened to W & T

Just look around you. Everything is possible!

[raspberryhat]

Definitely. Just by way of example, here's the little list I keep. I should perhaps cross post to initial ideas. Probably not very original, but I get all sorts of thoughts around how these could pan out:

The Film Noir. What if Tara was a femme fatale. Willow the cynical detective.

What if Willow was a college professor? The gentle romantic comedy

What if Willow and Tara were both, separately back packing around the world and meet in some far flung locale?

What if Tara had post trauma amnesia? She’s found by Willow in say an Orwellian future.

What if Willow keeps dreaming about a blonde haired woman whom she’s never met. Eventually, she meets her.

What if Willow and Tara never having met, both turn up for auditions at community theatre.

I get that whole everyday experience that always translate into what if W/T were...

[The_Lord_J]

I find that inspiration comes to me normally in the morning when I wake up, usually after a heavy fic-reading session the night before. I'll just have a random scene pop into my head in the ten minutes before my alarm goes off...and then I have to get to work. How damned inconvenient. So usually I end up trying to summarise what the scene was about in a reminder in my phone for when I get home

Then of course, it's a case of getting it all down on paper. I've got a bit of a library of "scenes that haven't happened in my fic yet" starting to build up. I keep them in a separate document so that I don't get mixed up in the main fic document. I can just slot them in when they occur naturally that way.

Funnily enough, I've found that sometimes it is bad to over-plan. My first attempt at a fic got forgotten about because I planned it all out right down to the dialogue that would happen, but as a result it all just happened to quickly, there were no 'in-between' bits, no filler scenes etc. I just got bored of the story because I knew what was going to happen next, y'know?

Recently I've been giving myself a vague outline and just writing spontaneously to see where it takes me. And then when I get stuck for inspiration, I start to work in one of the 'not happened yet' scenes. It's kept me going so far, we'll see how long it lasts

But yeah, reading (anything, not just fic), or even watching series 4 again (for the the thousandth time - you always notice something new every time you watch it, no matter how well you think you know it) does wonders for my inspiration.

Just ten penneth.

[raspberryhat]

I get a lot of random ideas come to me. I carry a notebook around as I've found I can't keep them all in my head.

I find travelling on the train a good time to scribble notes. Staring out the window seems to do something to my creative process.

[JustSkipIt]

Hmmm... Insanity's list looks familiar to me.

I often feel blessed with inspiration. Every time I've fnished a story or been close to finishing one, I've been struck with inspiration. Once it was while driving to Dallas (3.5 hours). Once it was just while crossing the street. Often I "see" a scene for the story and then I come to understand how the story is going to flow around it.

For Paths, I could see the epilogue of it and then the way to reach it. For Shadows and Sunlight, I got the entire thing in a flash. For Ash Island, I got the idea for the alternating updates and had the entire thing planned by the time I got out of bed in the morning.

I also love W/T so much that I want to know "what if..?"

[cosmic dancer]

I find that inspiration often comes to me when I'm trying to sleep! This seems to be my most productive time. As I sometimes have difficulty sleeping, it gives me someting useful to think about, and is far better than thinking about work issues! I try to start with a rough concept that I'd already had for a scene and I may take it in several directions before I finally doze off.

It can be rather annoying though. I sometimes find I'm coming up with whole scenes that seem to work well, dialogue and all, but don't want to get up / put the light on to write it down. Luckily I usually find that I can still remember an outline in the morning and will scrawl it down quickly before going to work!

The bonus of getting inspiration at night, if you're lucky you'll dream some of it too!