Young Writers Society

I looked and couldn't find this topic so I'm hoping I didn't overlook it.

Where do you get your ideas?

I got one of mine in a dream last night: A young girl peers down at an old man, who is smiling. "You're still old." She comments and walks away as his smile fades.
Then it switches to the girl in her teen years and how what she says to the old man affects her life now. My dream also shows a little of the old man when he got older. It was a wierd dream.

That's as far as I got. I got another idea while waiting for my doctor's appointment yesterday.

-alwaysawriter

dreams are what made me start writing...

Dreams are pretty big for me too. I usually get most of my scenes and settings from dreams. But stuff you here and see as a kid helps me too.

I usually don't remember my dreams well enough to gain much from them, but I do love to sleep.

But I had a dream about a week ago that I remembered very vividly...I'd better write what it was about now before I forget it.

I'm not really sure where my inspiration comes from. It just comes when and where it comes. I don't question it, lest I scare the poor beast away.

I generally just set to thinking about what I'm going to write and suddenly a new idea comes to me, although I occasionally use dreams.

I get my ideas from real life experiences and wonders. I'm also inspired by interesting people, people with memorable appearences or personalities. Also, right before bed. At that time, my mind wanders the most, and often into random thoughts that sometimes don't make sense.

[quote="Kelsey"]I get my ideas from real life experiences and wonders. I'm also inspired by interesting people, people with memorable appearences or personalities. Also, right before bed. At that time, my mind wanders the most, and often into random thoughts that sometimes don't make sense.[/quote]

Yep this pretty much sums up my thoughts thanks Kelsey (:

-Max

Like Kels and October Girl have said, I usually get my ideas from my experiences and just by thought. Actually, today something happened that I really want to turn into a story... I just need to brainstorm and twist it around so it can be enjoyable.

Prompts, suggestions by people, daydreaming, dreaming in general, experiences with certain subjects, out of the clear, blue sky. Inspiration can hit you like a ton of bricks at any given moment which is why it's good to carry at least a small pad with paper and a pencil to jot notes/and or erase quickly if you made mistakes. If you're like me and can memorize, then maybe you won't need to be so dependant on the pad of paper senario if you're able to train your memory.

Conversations, reading, big issues at the moment (eg. Abortion is in the news a lot where I live, and I recently had an idea that has to do with abortion), things I hear people say, things on TV, etc.

Yeah, that's pretty much where my ideas come from.

Not dreaming. Dreams are pretty useless. But daydreaming! There's a whole different thing. My daydreaming has concocted some messed up things.

The daydreaming tends to happen after reading things that get my creative sparks going - book summaries in Book Club pamphlets, Wikipedia entries, my Descriptionary dictionary, poem books, lyrics... fun, fun!

Dreaming, daydreaming, that's all the same for me, but it does work. I heard the author of Twilight got her idea from a dream and look where she's at now.
I, however, get most of my ideas from life and from living. I try to feel as many feelings as I can possibly feel because then it's much easier to write about everything.
But whatever, who knows what works best for others?

I've gotten a couple of interesting ideas from dreams, but I can never seem to make them work in a plotline. I can never twist them into anything realistic enough (yes, realistic enough even for fantasy.) Usually, I'll get my ideas at a specific moment in time. I'll be walking somewhere, or sitting somewhere, thinking about something unconventional (as I usually am), and a scene or a line of dialogue randomly pops into my head. Sometimes, my mind takes the idea and runs with it. Sometimes, it doesn't.

I don't remember how i started writing. Or when.
All i know is that it's making me fail my exams.

I get my ideas from every day experiences. Fights with friends, romances, first kisses, annoying teachers, first crush, last crush, death, animals, horses, obesity...

When that tap runs dry i turn to books i have read and recreate it my own way.

My most successful stories have come from them, weirdly enough.
My inspiration for my current novel of 50 pages size 10 font was from Twilight Series - incorporating New Moon and Breaking Dawn while skipping that nasty virus called Eclipse.
It's completely different but has vampire-and-human relationship, vampire leaving her, rahlala but she goes to Australia rather than across a few states and SHE leaves HIM. So ha. I've had enough people tell me i'm copying twilight to be proud it's completely diff. hehe

*shut up nichola*

I get inspiration from looking at the leaves on the ground.
Cute boys too - especially them!!! I just look at one and bam got a great story.

Mostly real-life experiences, sometimes historical events or something in the news. Very often I am inspired by another writer's work, as I'm sure most (if not all) of you are.

Dreams do occasionally give me some ideas, but most of the time they are way too bizarre and nonsensical to really work, especially since almost all of the fiction I write tends to be driven by realism. Thats what I shoot for, anyway.