Young Writers Society

Honestly, my influences come in two forms: Inspiration from something that I recently came across, or the desire to write an anti-cliche.

It's mostly poetry that I'm inspired to write from the first form, and it's usually something like a combination of songs, stories, other poetry, etc. that I find myself thinking of together, though I have had character and story ideas come this way to. My poem "May I Have This Dance" was inspired by: “Velvet Shoes” by Elinor Wylie (poem)
“Ten Minutes Ago” from Cinderella: Rodgers and Hammersteins (song)
“Amid the Falling Snow” by Enya (song)
It was the combination of fuzzy and warm feelings that I got from these things that nearly made me burst wanting to write something equally fuzzy and warm and romantic.

As for stories, I have to admit that I like reading things on fictionpress, even though they sometimes bug me greatly with the repetitive themes and how the characters act. They end up bugging me so much that I just sit down and start going over ideas to write something that is not like those stories at all, something zany and different that I haven't seen from anyone.

I'm ruled a lot by the urge for anti-cliche. A fantasy story that I'm writing right now literally came to me like a light bulb over a cartoon character's head because I wanted to write an anti-cliche. I was just lying there, thinking of recent fantasy stories that I've read. You know: prince, princess, dragon, elves, the whole enchilada. And I started thinking about how the basic fairy tale story that everyone knows is that the Prince saves the Princess from the Evil Dragon. So how could I write something that would defy that completely? How could I write The New Fairy Tale?

In any case, those are my biggest influences XD

Ooooh, Kagerou, I want to read your anti-cliche fantasy! lol.

Heh, thanks, but you'll have to wait on that. I'm actually planning to enter it for a scholarship *crosses fingers* If it's a winner, it'll get published in a book of short stories. Wish me luck!

Oh, good luck! I know that feeling, lol.

Okay, I know I've already posted on here, but I just have a great story that I'm going to post on here soon.

I got the idea from watching Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back" video. I started asking myself. Why did he have IT with her? Why was he searching for bugs? Why the hell was the girl even spying at all. So I just started writing!

My short story "Encantado" is based off of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. He was always writing about these creatures that were powerful and beyond the reasoning of human beings. I always liked those stories, even if the vocabulary he used was often way over my head, so I tried to emulate that a little.

As far as the novel which I am writing in an on again, off again fashion, my influences on that front would have to be Madeline L'Engle and Stephen King. An unlikely pair-up, to be sure. I draw on the way that L'Engle injects a slight sense of the fantastical into almost every scene of her stories. King's dialogue and description are superb, and give me something to which I can aspire to.

My inspiration usually comes in one of three forms:

1) I'm almost asleep and coming up with weird scenarios to amuse myself until I fall asleep. Like, "what if little purple aliens were landing outside my window?" or "what if I woke up tomorrow and someone had removed all the metal from my house? Why?"

2) I read something really good or watch a really good movie, and it inspires me to write something, usually stemming off from a motif or a character in that fiction. This happens a lot when I read LOTR, et cetera - really good, epic stories.

3) I read something that I think is really bad and think, "man, that would have been so much better if..."

The one I'm writing right now was one of those plots I made up when I was half-awake, though it's changed considerably since then.

I was just lying there, thinking of recent fantasy stories that I've read. You know: prince, princess, dragon, elves, the whole enchilada. And I started thinking about how the basic fairy tale story that everyone knows is that the Prince saves the Princess from the Evil Dragon. So how could I write something that would defy that completely? How could I write The New Fairy Tale?

The dragon saves the knight from the evil princess?

Anyway, I have three novels - in - progress(A personal preference)

The Elements actually started quite a while ago. I was bored, and I was having an argument with my friend about what the elements were(I said there were six, and he said there were like, twelve). SO I asserted my point...by making up a story about it! I just thought about it all the time, and eventually used it for a six chapter novel project in 5th grade. Frankly, it stunk. Then I started seriously writing and decided to use it.

Betrayed and Plagued came to me because I wanted to make something similar to Harry Potter so I would be famous(It was a random thought). I thought of people in a fantasy military camp, then took some ideas from Fire Emblem, but made sure that everything was really subtle. I added my own ideas, and Betrayed and Plagued was born.

Winds of Change was inspired by a thread in the Fantasy Fools usergroup explaining different types of elves. Things began conjuring up in my head(I've always liked elves), and eventually, I came up with Winds of Change.

The dragon saves the knight from the evil princess?

Dude! Can I write this? That would be an awesome story.

I'm also inspired by songs, folktales, and ballads. All three of those tend to be good sources for inspiration.

The dragon saves the knight from the evil princess?

Heh. Close, but not quite. I actually thought of that one, but figured it would be a little tougher to pull off...which I have no problem with since I love stretching my creativity, but I simply got a brilliant idea for something else instead.

Lynlyn'll have to get thunder's approval for that =P Not my idea after all.

Go for it. Now that I think about it, that would be one of those things that Snoink would be good at.

nothing at first. i was just extremely bored and played with my barbies. I would create story lines for them and my friend would play along. Then when i was ten, i wrote the story Two words: forgetting or Forgotten. I only wrote five pages but it still makes me cry. When i was eleven i began to write Have Faith, Hidden Hope, and Purple Sneakers. I am still working on them. Earlier today, i had started my first fantasy called Take me to The Sky

What inspired me to start writing ideas in my head was the fact that as a wee lad I had an incredible amount of ADD and couldn't sit still long enough to do something, so I was often lost in my own head.

What started my first novella/novel/work ever was watching the movie Fight Club. I then had a dream that night that also helped. Inspiration comes to me on watching movies, reading certain books, and especially dreams. In fact, dreams are probably the main reason I'm still writing at all.

Right now I'm still working on my two pieces in the Advanced Critiques section: Keep it Cool and A Foggy Glass. I'm currently working on yet another novel that has no name yet; the only real way I can describe it is saying that it's a dark-humored "horror" book. Imagine Rob Zombie and Hunter S. Thompson pairing up to write a story, and you've got the idea.

A bunch of things influenced my current pet project: my best friend, our religious differences, an old NaNoWriMo dare thread, a new found interest in GLBTQ studies, and an article in Bitch among other things.*

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*sorry for the cussing~ that's honestly what it's called (see?; it's not dirty or angry or loaded with swear words, just the title is~)

Mainly D&D, in my case. The main villain is a guy I dreamed up when I was like 15, but he never had a story to live in until I started playing D&D and building up a repertoire of fantasy characters. As time went by, they just kind of coalesced into a coherent story.