What inspires/inspired you?

I've heard some really interesting and funny stories when it comes down to what inspires us to write. Dreams, commercial ads, other books, movies...for me, KFC. >.< I think it was the chicken. But my question is, what inspired you to write whatever you're writing now? Was it accidental or not? Was it a sudden thing, or did you think about it for a long time?

Discuss, please.

I tell my friends to say something random. I usually come up with an intriguing image for that. For example, there was this time today when I said 'Free the flowers' and my friend told me that she imagined a bunch of flowers in cages, begging to be released. Very fun. Otherwise, I go Google Images and search for a bunch of random words like lithium accelerate.

My first finished novel was inspired by a dream. My dream later became one of the main parts for my book. I'm not really sure what inspired me to do my current WIP. Most of my ideas just come to me at random times like during school or when I'm trying to sleep.

The night before last I had a dream that's probably going to be my next WIP.

I get inspiration from a lot of different places. My boring life xD,the internet,my favorite books or sometimes even just out of the blue because I'll remember something that happened a few days earlier. I don't really know where I get all my ideas, they just sort of appear.

I get the origional idea from a mixture of things. Like one day I was at work and this guy came in with hair dyed really cool and I thought "I should have a character have that kind of hair". And then like a couple weeks later I thought it would be fun to have a character with immature gestures and stuff but with a really bad potty mouth. And then I added in a BUNCH of other things I either saw or just came up with from random things and tada: my first finished novel. Haha.

Most the time I hae different seperate thoughts I like and then try to string them together within a story.

There are lots of things that inspire me. Usually, it's music, or something I watched on TV. or anything else going on in my life.
A lot of times it happens that I suddenly have an image in my head, like a certain situation, and then I develop a story around that situation.

I have a multitude of things that inspire me.

One story Idea came to me when I skipped class so I could sleep in and I had an awesome dream so I wrote it all down. I found an old bag of my mums and that gave me another idea.

In another story I was dropping off work at university and saw this woman in a red duffel coat and that set me off on a story idea. Then also for this story I saw an old victorian photograph and that set me off again. Then I saw an old suitcase in a charity shop and bought it because it inspired me.

Some stories are inspired by drawings/paintings my mum does or photographs that I take. Some by songs, some by just walking down the street and seeing someone or something interesting. Something someone says or does. Sometimes things will just pop into my head.

A whole host of stuff and that is why I always have too many ideas!!! and end up writing several stories at once lol

I always try to keep my eyes open because you never know when an idea will hit you

Anywhere and everywhere that is interesting.

I get my inspiration from a lot of things and they gave me so many ideas ( right now about... 7 story ideas )

I write Romance with a twist of tragedy and sadness. My story usually starts with the main character being miserable.

Songs like God Bless the Broken road, Untitled, and other love songs inspires me so much to write. As well as movies like She's the man, etc. And also games like the Final Fantasy saga.

I'm usually alone at school IRL and I watch Individuals come and go, Couples get together, break up and cry.

I guess being alone all the time gave me the desire to be loved and so I express myself through writing.

-John

Feeling. That's what inspires me.

I am inspired when someone makes me feel something. It doesn't matter what it is. When I read a book and I cry as if I am the heroine who has just lost her lover, that's my inspiration. When I laugh with the boy who has just triumphed over a great giant, that's inspiration. When I'm jealous of the cheerleader that gets the boy when he's in love with the girl-next-door, that's inspirational. As are powerful words, tears, kisses in the rain, the acts one must perform in order to keep someone they love safe. That's what inspires me.

My current novel(s) are an accumulation of the touching things I've read, seen, heard. They all come together, so my writing is, for me, inspirational.

~Sunny

Another thing that inspires me is free-writing. I tell myself to fill up an A4 page (I have small handwriting) and I end up writing the first couple of paragraphs to a story. It really helps. And I also found that I cannot write to music anymore. It's easier for me to turn on the TV, and then start writing. Surprisingly, I don't get distracted by it.

If I ever need a quick idea for a project I've procrastinated, or an essay I need to write, inspirational quotes usually do the trick -- music works well too, or sometimes books that I read, or movies that I've seen.

Long car rides also generally spark inspiration. I dunno what it is, but whenever I'm driving somewhere I'm usually always musing over some random idea or get caught up in some reverie.

Once I went to pick up my sister from her busstop, and she's already five years old, but I'm so used to imagining her as the baby of the family because naturally, I'm thirteen years older. As we're walking back home, she's marching up ahead with her friend and the three of us march in a line because our sidewalks are so narrow -- and then I get a sudden queer thought because the little girls couldn't even walk in a straight line without wobbling along the path and I'm thinking "Young children are so drunk with life, they'll fail the line test" and that thought turned out to be the first line of a short story I wrote

Current events and what generally is right/wrong with the world.

Family and friends.

Beliefs, values and interests.

My Chinese culture.

Most importantly, my dream to be a real writer.

my belief was and will always remain that you have to believe in yourself, cause when the world tells you that you cant, only you can be your own inspiration.

i believe that my inspiration came from the fact that i dont like to give up. I wrote because it made me happy, and the ideas flowed to me without really a need of inspiration, and so my first novel was completed.

i have a few others on the go though which were strange, like the one that i dreamed about. It was a strange dream where i had fallen in love with a dream man and thats what sparked the idea for the novel. one of the other ideas was strange because i had randomly gotten it when i was watching much music. it just kind of hit my like a sack of bricks, and after that i never looked back.

so i guess thats where my inspiration comes from.