Young Writers Society

Seriously don’t know whether this is supposed to be here, but it is discussion, isn’t it?

Well, my question is, as in the subject: How did you start writing you story/book/novel. What influenced you to do it? Was it a dream? Or where you just sitting in front of the computer screen/ paper and thinking fervently about something to write about? Maybe it was something someone said? School assignment? Or was it a good movie/book? I know, this can go on and on so I’ll just stop here.

So?..

-elein

At the moment I'm writing a fantasy piece called Weaver's Blood originaly inspired by my little sister. She'd drawn a map and wanted to write a story about it, so I drew myself a copy, came up with something and then told her she couldn't use it because I was going to. A lot of my ideas come from dreams too. Very strange dreams...

To Keep No Secrets: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. More of the style, I guess, than anything, because the stories aren't too similar. And I'd hope that no one would notice! In fact only the people who know I like Nabokov can tell I'm writing like Nabokov (though not exactly, I still have my own style!)

One of the pieces I'm writing (by writing, I mean staring at the screen for hours with not much activity), called Self-Immolation, was inspired by a camp I went on. It was a church camp, and me being cynically agnostic about the whole thing led me to think about a story loaded with religious dogma and brainwashing. Note that my opinion of religion isn't that bad, I just decided to take the it to extremes.

Another story I have partially written, called Zero, was inspired by the name Zero itself. I really like how the name sounds, but I was struggling to understand how someone could actually name their son Zero when it basically means he is nothing. Then I realized that some people actually believe that they are nothing, and it spawned the opening line that has greeted me each frustrating time I open that darn word document:
Zero, he named himself...

I considered adding the words 'banana tree', but it didn't have the same effect.

Last summer I took a trip to Nashville, Tennessee and fell in love with the city. The story that I am writing is set in Nashville. That was really my sole influence.

As it was me who started the thread, I suppose I should answer the question, lol.

My inspiration came from my family, lol. The Queen’ Family. No, seriously. I had this big argument with them, so basically I started to write about some family. Of course, it’s not about MY family (it would be just boring), lol. Basically, it’s about a girl who blah blah blah (no details, not here anyways) whose whole family at one point or another tried to kill one another. Lol. -It’s set in a medieval-like world, so I suppose I should mention my interest to the middle ages, lol.

-elein

I was sitting at the top of our street, thinking about a list of countries to set my novel in. I narrowed it down to 10, then 5, then 1. I chose Russia. Unfortunately, that story never took wing, and I'd had an idea set in Ireland that had been plaguing me when I was planning my other story. So, poof-Fineena O'Malley is born. I've been getting to know her, hate her, and love her all over this past year. And I plan to do much more of that over the coming months!

Little Tin Fish wrote:She'd drawn a map and wanted to write a story about it, so I drew myself a copy, came up with something and then told her she couldn't use it because I was going to.

A bit mean, eh, Fish? XD

My novel came from depression and memories I wanted to keep alive because they were horrible and scared me to death. Recently I've had a lot of nightmares but eventually they have been added as ideas, things go well when I'm afraid or feeling low.

For FREAK: I'm not writing it now, but I'm in the publishing stages, I guess. Anyway, I listened to Matt Drudge talking about genetically mutated humans and the idea eventually grew into a spare idea I thought was cool. It was originally going to be just writing practice, but then I had a slight nervous breakdown and wanted to write SOMETHING to do something else, so FREAK was handy. I wrote the beginning several times, was unsatisfied, and finally was kicked into writing it. Yay!


For Unicorn Killers: The novel I'm preparing now. It originally came by reading several unicorn novels and thinking, "OMG! I want to write a novel with unicorns!" But I have a twisted sense of storytelling and, though originally the unicorns were good, they eventually became... um... not so good. They were, for a little while, evil, but now they're neutral. Not evil, not good. I'm not quite sure how that was caused, but I think it had to do with FREAK in some way. Yay?!

So yeah. I have a bunch of other ideas on hold, but that's about it.

The influence for my novel came from a lot of places. The story, or plot came from a dream. But all the characters are based on my friends. Then the twists of the story came from watching to much anime as kid.

quote:
For Unicorn Killers: The novel I'm preparing now. It originally came by reading several unicorn novels and thinking, "OMG! I want to write a novel with unicorns!"

And the whole rest of the paragraph, lol. Sounds interesting! And good luck on FREAK, even though I've never read it

-elein

Basically, my novel (haha! I feel so professional! But, seriously, it's just an idea right now ) was inspired by a dream I had. I think. I have lots of dreams which become story ideas, because my mind is just weird that way. But I'm not sure if this one was. Um. I sound insane. Let me start this again.

The thing (whatever it may become) I'm working on right now was inspired by the germ of an idea that sprouted in my brain, either from a dream or from getting hit on the head, or something equally commonplace. Basically, I love fiction set in the Victorian Era. But basically I thought that most of the books I've read on the subject err in making their characters too modern, and giving them secret feminist personae under all the petticoats, or err in making them TOO Victorian - as in, they're more manners than people.

So I wanted to write something which would simultaneously show womens' power in the 19th century, and also womens' oppression. I wanted to show that they were people behind the frippery, but that they werent necessarily aware of themselves as such. I mean, being brought up to believe your entire sex is inferior does not just come out in the wash, you know what I'm saying?

Ahem. I'm ranting. Sorry. But simply put it was my frustration with the current literature and romanticized view of the Victorian era that made me want to explore what it was *really* like, through my main character (who does not, at this point, have a name). I wanted to explore the transition from girl to woman, and especially her journey to the realization that she's not as inferior as she once believed. Essentially I wanted to write a story about gaining self-respect. And I have stayed up past midnight to write this for no good reason, so I'm going now. LOL.

Interesting! Are you going to post it?

The, um, "novel" I've just started working on did sprout from a dream. Originally. Though I've tweaked it so much that it only retains some vague basic concept from the dream.
It's also influenced by some fantasy and historical fiction I've read, the first few scenes of King Kong... and lots of other random stuff.

I'm working on a trilogy now, and I'm still not sure what inspired it. I've always liked writing and I knew I wanted to write a novel- and then I just began reading, and reading- seeing the way so many authors created their own worlds made me want to do the same thing. So I decided I would start working on a fantasy series, and I began to develop the location. When I began doing that I realized I had no storyline...which was obviously a problem but then it just came to me, and now it's all falling into place. It's really complex, but I love it. I have all 3 stories planned and I'm pretty deep into the first now. I'll probably begin posting it when I am further into it, just to get a feel for what people think.

Inertia wrote:Another story I have partially written, called Zero, was inspired by the name Zero itself. I really like how the name sounds, but I was struggling to understand how someone could actually name their son Zero when it basically means he is nothing. Then I realized that some people actually believe that they are nothing, and it spawned the opening line that has greeted me each frustrating time I open that darn word document:
Zero, he named himself...

That sounds really interesting..is it posted here anywhere?