Young Writers Society

So at some point, the majority of people who write stories are asked this question, and the majority of this majority can't really explain where they get ideas for stories. A lot of ideas, as a general rule, come from a lot of weird places, and tracking down every weird place is virtually impossible.

So this is a slightly different take on the same question. Choose a story — the last one you wrote, the one you're writing right now, the first story you ever wrote ... any story. Where did it come from? How did the original idea blossom into existence? What inspired you to write it? Where did the subsequent ideas come from, the ideas that form the structure of the story?

For example: the short story I'm working on right now. It's partly (by "partly", I mean maybe 4%) inspired by Beauty and the Beast; the words "library", "staircase", independence", and "choice"; and a story of CL's. Oh, and the recent Tom Cruise/Paramount scandal.

So. Tell us about a story and where you got its ideas from (brownie points for being less vague than I was). Lather, rinse, repeat.

Right-o. I wrote my short story The Graffiti Wall for this writing class I took this summer. The idea actually came to me, as corny as this sounds, in a dream. The opening scene where my main character Angel and his gang are spraying graffiti all over this wall is just a snippet of this very short, random dream I had. I wrote it down in my notebook when I woke up, then ended up using the idea for the class. We had to brainstorm ideas and conflict and stuff, so I decided that my main character would be having second thoughts about joining his gang. And it all took off from there.

Nice topic, Smaur.

I was listening to talk radio, and then Matt Drudge is ranting and raving. For all those who are not aware of the rantiness (yes, that is a real word ) of talk radio, let me give you a hint:

Most of it is just a bunch of whiny people ranting on and on about how evil the government, society, etc., is.

Meh!

I mean, there's a couple of exceptions, but not enough to make it really... interesting. And the fallacies kill me.

I digress.

So we were listening to Matt Drudge rant and rave about genetically modified people. The example he said which stuck to me the most was him talking about someone with webbed feet who was genetically engineered to be the best swimmer. And then he said, "What if they don't want to do that?"

And thus, the idea for FREAK was born.

Also, during the same time, I was researching Holocaust (talk about meh!) and it was really fascinating in a very morbid way. So in the first draft of FREAK (which you DON'T want to see, trust me) there were some way too obvious references. Now, all that is left are the words "sent away" which are... well... yeah.

So hyped up crazy conspiracy-theorist and the Holocaust. That's rather depressing...

Oh, and then all the personal crap that I've dealt with in life. But we don't talk about that...

Snoink wrote:Also, during the same time, I was researching Holocaust (talk about meh!) and it was really fascinating in a very morbid way. So in the first draft of FREAK (which you DON'T want to see, trust me) there were some way too obvious references. Now, all that is left are the words "sent away" which are... well... yeah.

O.O Okay... *baacks away slowly towards door...*

The Holocaust?! Oh, your poor freak, lol. To be honest, I didn't even catch the "sent away" reference as pertaining to that when I read the first 6 chapters.

And moving on. I got the idea for the Chair from a free-write actually, in which I wrote (among other random images) the prologue scene with the Chair. And then I was sort of stuck there and - I'll admit, I've got no clue where Shan came from - I ended up sitting down one night and writing the entire scene in the rain off that one image. And I only figured out what I was doing with it when I fell asleep listening to Exodus and had this really awesome dream with the Idais and the Kasimovs and the meth-maratime... which combined into this whole great thing about revolution and insanity. ^_^ Weird, I know. And when I was sitting there at my desk trying to figure out how to make it all come together, I heard the TV in the other room, and Prosithion was watching this movie in which the one line I caught was, "You're a Karmitsar (sp?), responsible for the morale of the men, representative of the Party." (Guy nods) "Well then act like it! Set an example! Motivate them!" Soviets, thought I? Neato. And hence two totally random concepts ("the State is of the highest importance" and "the music of Exodus") for some reason combined to give me this pissed off Kasimov with a saber...

Hmmm... *flips through pre-notes* Lol, not sure how that happened. ^_^

Too obscurely complex...as DD has somewhat demonstrated. ^_^'

Sans Soleil (only a sketch posted on YWS) was a late night at the computer, or morning as is more likely now that I think about it. I had an odd feeling, everything so quiet. And my younger sister had asked me during the day about dying and never waking up. It didn't make sense. But the sketch worked well enough to make me jump when something creaked... 0o'

Tov's desultory wanderings on paper began with a few quiet moments. I started typing and a conversation was there. Now I still haven't gotten far from there. !_!

My ideas come from too much...language especially sometimes. ^_^ A word with more than one meaning, or a phrase -('kak shto zhye? eelee da fsyegda budyet solnstye')-can knock the oddest facets and fragments outo f my thoughts. The second in Russian started 'Zhaim' along with the FDWC.

But everyone loves Tov... ^_~

Sans Soleil? I've never read it! *shock* Might I have the link, perhaps?

Dream Deep wrote:But everyone loves Tov... ^_~

Sans Soleil? I've never read it! *shock* Might I have the link, perhaps?

Oh yes. Tov. #_#'' Ha...

Yes, a link - just another sketch, I'm afraid, DD...I haven't gotten to polishing a complete story enough to post. Sans Soleil

*reads* Ooh, I like it. Certainly not a complete story, but nicely done... ^_^

Heh, I'm looking forward to Vetern'iy, too... *winks*

I got the idea for Inscription from this one magazine called THEMA (which I'm submitting the story to). It had the theme "Written in Stone." Thus, "Inscription" and then "stone=heart=love". Therefore Inscription of Love. And then I think I had just read this email about some dude who died in a car crash. And just random little tidbits from everyday life.

My novel-I seriously have no idea. Prolly one of the numerous historical fiction books I have read. Actually, prolly form one of the Dear America books during that time period. And again, can't remember offhand where else but definitely a combination of all my past novels I've tried. (And I've still got ideas for more! ^_^)

Whee! Dear Americas are fun. Actually, some of them are quite lame, but there are some really awesome ones too. I love the one about the really young chick who comes to America to be a bride... there are mines involved... urgh, I'll ask Addie... The Coal Miner's Bride! That's a spiffy one.

Anyway.

The Twelve Days of Christmas... I'm not entirely sure. It was a random idea one day during the summer before ninth grade. I originally was planning to have the girl (who I don't think was originally named Addie) explain that the song wasn't just silliness; it was a story, specifically, her story. So she lost her madre and then was sent to live with relatives and her father sent her these gifts every year, but they weren't all these ridiculous birds and pear trees and stuff; it was all derived later. But then I found out that the song was actually a Christian analogy thing going on and it was like, "meh, whatever." But I never did manage to think up a good ending for it, so it's on hiatus.

The Four Princesses of Illyria's first inspiration was Snow White. Then the rest was sort of a combination of things that have happened to me (but like Snoink said, it's personal and weird and messy and we don't all want to hear about it) and other stories I've liked. I like stories where people start out in one place and events or situations beyond their control send them to another place, and they have to adapt to a whole new environment and way of living and thinking. You might call them survival stories, but not quite as physical as you might initially think. Again, though, I think that has to do with stuff I went through, so I'll leave that alone for now.

But Illyria's a fairy tale, though not strictly convential, to be sure. There are the heroines who are called out of their comfort zones, forced to leave home, made to find a new place, deal with new enemies and new problems, make new friends along the way, and eventually make it home. I like happy endings, so don't expect too many people to die. I'm just too sappy like that.

So do I get the brownie points???

Last year's NaNo was inspired by a picture I saw on DeviantArt that I wish I had saved because I dearly want to see it again. It was basically this chick with a pair of huge headphones and a cigarette, and the whole story developed from that character.

well the idea for my story i'm writing, "ash filled tears", came from katie (darkmoon) and i sitting in her room hanging out and writing a story together. she said "angel, did you see CSI last night?" and i did, then we started talking about it. it was an episode where people where being brainwashed and killing people and such. so i started writing a story about brainwashing. after a while it wasn't what i hoped it would be so i deleted it
about a month later i was telling my friend dani about it and she said "why don't you start it up again you have a good stoyline you just need more to it" so i did. i'm still working on it and trying to form it to what i want.

Well, my current novel-in-progress, "Delusion" (also known as Hollow Memories but I am too name-changey) actually was derived from a really random image in my mind.

It was of this girl, standing at the edge of a cliff, looking at the ocean and crying. Then some guy comes up next to her, snaps his fingers, and she is dragged away by these two big guys.

This actually was the first version of it, but after I got done writing it I was like "this makes no sense!" So I decided to try to make it more interesting. Then all of a sudden it's this sci-fi about a big corporation who uses a woman with phychic powers to make rings that can foretell the future.

It's wierd, because most of my stories usually start with a random image in my mind that inspires me.

(my previous attempt at at novel, "Why" actually started with an image of a small girl standing in front of a man who had a gun pointed at her )

-magicman

Hmmm ... I think I'm going to have to do some major rewinding.

Last year's NaNo came from one of my older ideas. I was doing something more ... serious, but then thought, nuh uh, let's do something like I was writing when I was 13. So the story evolved from the story I was writing when I was 13.

The more serious thing I was writing came from a bit of life expreience, but also some serious evolution on behalf of that story I wrote when I was 13. And I mean serious evolution. They're completely different. But anyway. I was pretty obsessed (rather unhealthily) with this bullying thing that happened to me once, so that was a major influence.

Now, the story I was writing when I was 13 came from a variety of things. Lots of life experience. Really, it was like a fantasy diary. Something would happen to me, and the very next day BANG! there it was in my story. Anything, really too. Teacher yelling at me for no real reason, well, some character would yell at my main character and she wouldn't get it. Really lame stuff. But actually very fun and not bad to re-read. It also was an evolution from a story I wrote when I was 12.

Ok, this is the tough one. The story I wrote when I was 12 was the original in it's series, so this is where the original idea began. I think it was a dream that started it. Actually, I'm pretty sure. It wasn't a real dream though. It was an image in my mind when I was waking up of a pixie runing up a driveway. Yeah ... pretty vague. But I got all inspired and I was off thinking of how it was some sort of James Bond pixie, and I had all these things that the pixie and other pixies used to avoid human encounters. And funnily enough there wasn't much magic, just a tad. Then I scraped the James Bond pixie thing. But I liked the secret world of these magical creatures I'd set up, and I liked the magic they had (which really wasn't much, so why'd I like it? Hmmm ... don't know). SO I used that world for all these silly ideas.

Then I thought "Ok, so where did these pixies come from? Have they been unknown to us for ages?" and I decided no. And I have no idea where I got the idea of Frank, creator of pixies, from, but there he was. I just don't remember. I think probably something mentioned in sciene, or maybe a lame yet imaginative documentary on the posibilities of genetic engineering has something to do with it. So that idea was there.

For awhile I toyed with this idea of God's involvement. Some said something about "playing God" and I though, "Oh! If Frank's messing with genetic engineering then God's got to be showing some interest!" so I had him showing some interest. But what I wrote on that idea was probably enough to get me in some serious trouble with the church for blaspheming, because God didn't really mind the whole thing. Well, he would have if everyone was doing it, but since it was just Frank it was ok. But I scrapped that. MAinly because I didn't want trouble over what God would do in the situation. He wasn't really very holy.

Lots of little world building things came from science, actually. It's the one use for science I've ever had. The teacher would say something and then I'd have to wonder if something I'd thought of was really possible. Or maybe they'd say something and I'd just mix that thing with something else. Kind of like being a bucket chemist, I guess (that is apparently when you just randomly mix stuff up and hope something interesting happens).

Um ... anything else to add? DOn't think so.

Well. My first story was chapter one of the Order of Atlantis. I had just finished a HP book and thought If she can do i can too

The orginal idea came from the fact that i wasgoing to be an archeologist. I wanted to find the lost city of Atlantis. So i decided to write a story about atlantis. then i thought of a game i played called legend of the dragoon. I came up with some idea of Dragons and humans breeded giving a new race of humans extraordinary abilities.

Then when i started typing the story it became Gaia gave humans the extra gene to control the forces of nature and unlock abilities of the mind. I like the old myths of the Greek gods so i made them build atlantis as a place to fight against the coming darkness.

Break that down into T.V. Video games and my own obsessions and we get The Orrder of Atlantis Trilogy and The Age of Light Trilogy.