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What inspired your project?



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Wed Sep 25, 2019 2:58 pm
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mellifera says...



In the spirit of LMS and everyone working on new projects, I was curious about where everyone's ideas came from!

Whether you're doing LMS or not, or if you have a project you've been working on for a while, what sparked that first inkling for you? Were you watching a movie, reading a book? Did you see a prompt somewhere? An experience in your own life? What drew you to your project?
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Wed Sep 25, 2019 4:45 pm
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ExOmelas says...



Cool idea Melli!

I was reading A Clash of Kings by George R R Martin and there was a fool in it called Patchface who had this metal hat that clanged a lot. I'd also just seen 'As You Like It', performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and it had a fool in it called Touchstone. In renaissance plays, there's often a fool who is able to speak harsher truths than anyone else at court, and sometimes narrate the plays in this way, because anything they say can be brushed off as fool's nonsense.

That birthed the idea of Bucket, the most conniving fool in Resador. He works with his duchess to carefully craft the words he will use in court to best advance her politicking ends. Bucket is named after his bucket, which is put to more uses than Patchface's, which is simply an amusing hat, but most people call him Buck. I thought it would be the kind of quirk/gimmick a fool would have to make himself memorable ^.^

What fools these mortals be!
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Wed Sep 25, 2019 10:34 pm
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Mageheart says...



Joshua & Micah has a slightly confusing and random origin story, but it mainly started when I realized I had no idea what my versions of God and Lucifer were up to in my novels. I established some gods of older, ancient religions, but I really wanted to have my own versions. That led me to figuring out how the mechanics of my more Christian side of my story worked - and especially how the gods interacted with demons and angels.

Watching Supernatural made me flesh that out a little more, and then I decided to create the sadly dead Wake Me Up Inside roleplay, where the characters lost their memories and became younger. It gave me a chance to figure out the pasts of certain important characters in the more Christian side of my fictional universe - more specifically, it's where Micah and Joshua's story was born. I still have a lot to decide on, but the majority of their story came into my head when I was trying to come up with drama and angst for their younger selves.

I was rereading another roleplay today when I realized how much I loved their early dynamic, so I relented and decided to write my very self-indulgent novel. <3
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Thu Sep 26, 2019 8:34 pm
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keystrings says...



For my newly titled Flares & Fragments, my inspiration has been long in coming. I've always wanted to write something akin to a story with two different sides - having a sort-of criminal/gang-involved background, but be able to focus on relationships and family dynamics and all that good stuff as well.

Plus, I like redemption stories and stories that people can't redeem themselves or characters have to knock over people's heads to make them realize the truth. Not to mention I love learning about plants and weather and I want to toss in as many references to that in this as I can.

My two main characters, Joanna and Carolina, have to make it back to a somewhat friends-side after being estranged for years and then in a close relationship for years before then, and I think it's interesting to really get into how lives can change with kids and responsibilities than just being in high school or college.

These are people who had to mature regardless if they wanted to or not, and now they have to buckle down and save their whole city if they don't want it burned down.

{And now I'm rambling so I'll leave it at this: I've read way too many crime stories over the years XD}
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Thu Sep 26, 2019 9:19 pm
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Miraculor77 says...



I don't remember the exact moment when I got inspired to write Code: Delete (my ongoing novel). Over the late summer I really started getting more into mystery, science fiction and dystopian books--notably, The Last 8 by Laura Pohl, The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, and Warcross by Marie Lu (I never finished the second book), and quite a few that I can't think of right now-- and I think that this considerably affected the feel of my story, even though I had started the book in March. The idea for the Government was inspired by the Inquisitor Prigg from Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard and possibly the Inquisition Axis from The Young Elites by Marie Lu.

As for the characters, Ashe is basically a better version of me. :P This means that I can write her point of view the way I see things in real life, which is extremely convenient. My second lead, Kyre, is a fictional character. I don't know how he came about, or how he turned out the way he is now, but I'm pretty sure I had a dream once where Kyre knocked on this door and came in, introducing himself and asking if he could stay for a while. The area he came into was an imagined room in my head, and there were two other characters there too, Ashe and this other person. It was weird. But Kyre's been around ever since, and I'll just keep writing him, trying to figure him out. :)

The name of the currency, lunae, is the Latin word for "moons" (plural). I just thought that it would be really cool to have a currency that looks sort of luminous.

The rest just comes from around me.

Also: What is LMS?
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Thu Sep 26, 2019 10:01 pm
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mellifera says...



It's really cool to hear how everyone's projects came around! It's wonderful to hear so many cool story ideas and where they started ^^

@DougalOfBiscuits That's fascinating! I love the idea that the role of a fool could be manipulated into being used for politics and spreading influence! I've never thought about that before, but it's a really neat concept!

@Magestorrow I had read your excerpt you posted on your wall and thought it sounded really interesting already, but the idea of recreating a story of God and Lucifer really grabs me! I'm not a religious person myself, but I eat up those kind of origin stories, and I actually enjoy learning about different religions/deities.

@fraey I adore redemption stories as well! I've always been a fan of crime/mysteries novels and tv shows, but I've never liked how so many of them feel very impersonal? (I'm also a fan of the opposite haha) It'll be really exciting to see where you take something in a crime/gang related setting and add personal connections to it!

@Miraculor77 LMS stands for Last Man Standing! It's an event that just kicked off, and it's pretty much what it says on the tin! A bunch of people participate with novels or poetry and whoever is the last one remaining at the end wins! Here's the thread about it if you want more information :D
Also, I love the idea of a character coming to you in a dream? That's hilarious and also amazing! And I agree, having luminous currency would be heckin' cool!


*rolls into also contribute* My current project that I'm writing for LMS, which I'm tentatively calling "Children with Stars in their Veins" (or "Starry Veins"), was an amalgamation of a lot of things. LMS was coming up, and I had a bunch of story ideas lying around in folders, but I didn't feel really motivated to write any of them. I had no intention of discovering a new story before LMS started.

Before that, part of it came from when I was re-watching Game of Thrones with my dad, and I realised I was kind of bummed out that they introduced this supposedly really powerful magic in "King's Blood" and never mentioned it again? (I haven't read the books so idk how it's played out there) Then I started listening to The Two Princes on the drive to going camping, and not only did I adore the podcast, but it got me in a really big fantasy mood (I've had a fantasy story planned out for years but,,, didn't feel like writing it yet oops). It all kind of came together when I read The Golden Compass (and also adored it!) and I was like "I want to write about children in a fantasy setting now." (also made me want to fuse fantasy and technology together!)

So, bam. I had a new idea for LMS. It kind of rear-ended me out of nowhere but I'm super excited about it (I've been doing sO MUCH WORLDBUILDING it's crazy and amazing. and fun fact: speaking of worldbuilding! I've just started taking a class on lost South American cities/cultures and it's been giving me some massive inspo FOR said worldbuilding).

edit: I forgot that the Gilded Wolves was another big one for the whole trueblood/blood ritual concept but I had a memory lapse and completely forgot about it when I wrote this post
I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people that do.

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Fri Sep 27, 2019 1:08 am
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Horisun says...



To put it simply... A McDonalds Happy Meal.
So, don't judge me, but I still get happy meals, (It's easier for my parents, or something, also, I like the car toys you sometimes get) And I was messing around with this one, I don't remember what it was, but suddenly, I was like, "Why don't I write a story about one world that's split into three realities, where characters have to make difficult choices about themselves and others, and realize they write their own destiny?" Sooooo yeah.
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Wed Oct 02, 2019 11:15 pm
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Fishr says...



The short answer? Insanity. XD
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Wed Dec 18, 2019 2:59 pm
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Mageheart says...



I was going to write an entirely new post about my latest WIP here, but then I realized the wall post I made yesterday did a great job at explaining it. So here's the post:

I have an idea for a novel.

It's not a lot. It's just an idea for two characters, the vague beginnings of a conflict, and a theme about friendship and trust. But I feel like I'm on the verge of something really fun to write - something new that I've never truly done before, but I've always wanted to see more of in stories.

It combines two of my favorite tropes. I'm not sure if either one of them have official names, but both are ones that I've seen in a couple of places.

The first is something very specific to anime: a mysterious boy shows up in the (female) main character's life and shows them a side to the world that they've never seen. Kyoukai no Rinne is the first example I can think of, even though I haven't seen it in years. It might show up in books, too, but I got that specific trope from the anime I've seen.

The second is something I've only really seen Jonathon Stroud do in his books. A female protagonist lives in some kind of supernatural, but has never really interacted with that supernatural side. For his Bartimaeus Trilogy, it's Kitty Jones, and for Lockwood and Co., it's Lucy Carlyle. Both the protagonists somehow get involved in a supernatural being's business, and that being is either a guy or leans towards more masculine pronouns. The protagonist spends the majority of the series seeing him as what he is - a demon or a spirit - but then in the final book realizes she's been doing things all wrong and sees him as a friend deserving of her trust.

Other key details of this last trope: there's a noticeable age difference between the protagonist and the supernatural character, the supernatural character is snarky/sarcastic/has no problem with grossing out the other characters, and there's a symbolic act that represents her showing him trust.

I thought it would be fun to combine those two tropes into a story. A high school girl runs into a supernatural entity. The two are forced to work together for whatever reason, only to slowly gain each other's trust. By the end of the novel, the protagonist has to do something that proves she trusts the other character. They save the day, the girl goes back to "normal" but has the supernatural character in her life, and it's happily ever after.

Now, if I could just figure out what the plot is, I'd be getting somewhere with this idea. :P
mage

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Thu Dec 19, 2019 8:52 pm
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Lib says...



For Unlucky 13... I can't remember it clearly but I'm pretty sure it was the day when Papa was out and it was in the winter. He went out for work - and the hospital is a long way from our apartment.

When he came back home he told us that the car slipped on the ice. And then later that day, we had a party to attend so we went there. All my friends and me we're having problems (I've made crazy long posts about them on my wall but now we're all in the same boat. We're all good now.) and it was ridiculous.

And then since I was super annoyed at them all, I just started texting my cousins on a group chat. And they started telling me the weirdest stories. They were all funny and unbelievable.

The accident sparked the idea of Julia's parents. The friendship problem sparked the idea of Ella, Maryam and Maddie. Imogen wasn't sparked from my friends, she came in waaaay later - like a few days ago (This entire thing was from January 2018. I actually started writing it July 2018.). And the talking to my cousins thin sparked the idea of Julia visiting her cousins. Raven, Grace, and all the things revolving around them, also wasn't a part of that day.

So yeah. Super long. Super weird. =)
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Wed Jan 01, 2020 11:58 pm
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tgham99 says...



The holidays and the idea of starting a new year/new decade of my life were both serious motivators. While I'm not writing a novel/working on one specific long-term project like a lot of you guys are, I've been hit with the inspiration to compile some poetry and see if I can branch out with my writing in general -- which I'm hoping will lead to a collection of my works by the end of 2020 (fingers crossed!).

I guess the best way I can describe it is that, while other people are struck with the inspiration to hit the gym as their 2020 resolutions, I was struck with the desire to write and write and write.. and see where it takes me..
"Writing well means never having to say, 'I guess you had to be there.'" -- Jef Mallett

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Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:43 pm
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TinkerTwaggy says...



Huh, this hasn't had a reply in a while.


The current idea is to get all my StorbyBook characters to be revamped and have their own concepts to walk inside of. Right now, I'm working on the world-building section of project Criniell!
As for what inspired it, well, I have this handy reference pool right here that answers that question.

The Invincible Tubba Blubba

Summary below!
Spoiler! :
Chapter 3 of Mario Story, AKA Paper Mario 64, has always been my favorite. It begins when Mario is summoned by a literal ghost butler that informs him about the location of a Star Spirit: seven of which must be collected if Mario wants to stand a chance against Bowser, since the latter has this rod that makes him permanently immune to damage.
Mario treks throughout Forever Forest, and meets Lady Bow, a ghost noblewoman who says that she'll help Mario in his quest if he helps her defeat Tubba Blubba, a monster that freaking eats ghosts.

There's a whole mystery about the fact that he, too, is completely immune to damage, so you have to find out that it's because he can magically carve out his heart and hide it somewhere: so, as long as you don't find it, his body is essentially immune to everything. You then discover that the whole reason he's doing this, is because the ghosts just wouldn't stop bullying him because scaring people is what they do, so, he figured out how to use his powers and is now eating them as revenge.

Which reeeeally puts into perspective the fact that Lady Bow is just not a good person (not that Tubba Blubba is, either), but she is a woman of her word, so, after you help her, she does accompany Mario for the rest of his adventure and ends up helping him save the world.


I always wanted to use this story as inspiration for something, because honestly, you could make a whole novel/book/fairy tale out of just this chapter. And guess what: it's actually been done!

The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body

Details below!
Spoiler! :
The entire plot of The Invincible Tubba Blubba is actually a reimagined version of a classic Norwegian fairy tale made by Asbjørnsen and Moe. As a result, I started getting interested in Norwegian nomenclature, and every magic tool, weapon or chant is definitely going to have Norwegian connotations within the world-building of Criniell. Gotta respect the OG stuff somehow!


Spain; La Mancha

Details below!
Spoiler! :
Gusty Gulch, the place next to Forever Forest (as well as the place in which Tubba Blubba's castle exists) has serious Spanish vibes, and that's because it's based on the region of La Mancha, in Spain. That region also happens to be where Don Quixote comes from, and that fictional character happens to see windmills as giants for him to slay. Yet another giant-related reference for Tubba Blubba, and good material for me to base Criniell's geography on!

I've also personally studied Spain quite a bit, and I did want an excuse to use that one time three religions co-existed in the country, and Arabic architecture started mixing with the European style.


All three of these references serve as pretty awesome foundations for world-building, fictional geography and ideas for the formation of a magic system unique to Criniell, and something I've rarely had the chance to experiment with. I'll definitely make a topic about that in the Writer's Corner, but the point is: a game, a fairy tale, a popular fictional character and real-life awesomeness were the inspirations for Criniell — that, and past ideas I had written down for later.


So, uh, there you have it. Fun stuff!
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