Editio Self-Publishing discussion

Not sure this is the perfect section of the forum, but it was as close as I could get.

A topic I love discussing with fellow fiction writers has long been, "How do your ideas present themselves?" This may not apply so equally to non-fiction, though I could be wrong.

The common ones I hear seem to be:
- I sit down and calculate exactly what kind of story to write, then build it based on that.
- I have a thought of a scene and build the entire story around it.
- I have a thought of a character and build the entire story around them.
- I just put pen on paper (or fingers to keys) and see what comes out.

Before letting others reply, I'll volunteer how my muse works so no one else thinks theirs is too odd. :)

When an idea hits me...I usually think it was a nightmare. I wake up one morning with ideas that show themselves in my head like I had watched a movie, but I can't remember the details beyond where it begins. Very vivid, to the extreme of remembering smells, sounds, etc. I usually ignore these dreams until I start getting cranky from lack of sleep and my wife threatens me. Then comes the writing. Once I start writing, the dreams will move on, showing me each night where the story is going. By the time I finish, I have "seen" the whole story as if I were there...then poof, it's gone from my head and I can move on with my life.

Weird? Yes. But I'm betting others have equally weird ways of feeling inspired. Please share!

Jim

My handbag used to get completely filled up with receipts and napkins and random tiny bits of paper covered in tiny scribbles. Now I have half a dozen notebooks and I write things down in there when they spring up. I can't say what I'm doing when the ideas turn up, though, although I did do a series of posts about my writing process for Fantasy Book Review. Made me think, that's for sure!

The best I've come up with is that I get an idea for a character and a plot (very basic) and then I have to think about what the character is like and why (s)he's having to do this thing in the plot and it kind of grows from there. New characters pop up and say, I'm her best friend, or I fancy her best friend, or whatever, and the whole thing spirals madly. Or rather it did for this series. I have no idea how many books this is going to end up as!

I get many of my ideas while lying in bed getting ready to fall asleep. That seems to be my most creative state. I keep a notepad by the bed so I can write the ideas down. (I no longer kid myself that I'll remember them later if I don't write them down.) After repeatedly knocking the pen onto the floor while fumbling for the pad and having trouble finding it, I bought a notepad with a place to keep the pen. When you remove the pen, a light comes on. Luxury! :-)

That's awesome!! What a great idea! I used to find ideas leapt on me about twenty seconds after I turned the light out, often several times in one evening. Currently I'm writing full time so I think the muse is less panicked. And since I'm open for business all day, as it were, he doesn't have to leap on me at night in order to get my attention.

Hmmm, maybe that could be phrased better, but you know what I mean.

I enjoyed the phrasing :-) ....

Mhairi wrote: "That's awesome!! What a great idea! I used to find ideas leapt on me about twenty seconds after I turned the light out, often several times in one evening. Currently I'm writing full time so I thin..."

I knew someone would :D Honestly, as a YA writer, I'm always worried I'm going to offend someone with one of my less considered utterances. But there are so many of them... *sigh*

I once wrote a short story by thinking of the first sentence, and then crafting the story around it. (The instructor told me later that she had really liked the sentence, lol.)

Lately I've been mining mythology for story ideas. I'll run across a myth that resonates with me for some reason. Then I think about why, and how I could turn it into a story.

I don't think I've ever dreamed a whole story, tho. I'm jealous, Jim. lol

One of my favorite ways to get an idea is from a news story and ask myself, "What if it's not what it seems?"

I don't think I've ever dreamed a whole story, tho. I'm jealous, Jim. lol

It's not as fun as it sounds. After about five days of "reruns," you get kind of angry at your own mind. Never been a big fan of TV reruns, so these make me wake up and go "OK, OK! FINE! I'LL WRITE IT!"

BookieWormie wrote: "D.L. wrote: "One of my favorite ways to get an idea is from a news story and ask myself, "What if it's not what it seems?""

Oooooh, I like this... gawd knows there's enough craziness in the news t..."

Agreed. The inspiration for my first two books was the buildup to war with Iraq. I did the initial synopsis and plotting well before the war started, asking myself WHAT IF the WMD threat was being exaggerated and there was a totally different reason for the the US invasion. I took that premise, put it in a Sci-Fi setting and wrote it as a parody of epic fantasy adventures.

One day, I was sitting on the couch. I stood up and starting walking toward the sink to do the dishes. Before I reached the dishwasher, I was hit with the idea for my book.

... Wow... That sounded really dull. Oh well, that's what happened!

Where inspiration comes from or where your muse hides are certainly mysteries but they can hit you anywhere. The most famous is probably Archimedes in his bathtub. Bet that was a sight. Having it strike on the way to the dishwasher certainly seems safer, or at least less embarrassing.

This probably tells it best...

http://www.solacecreek.net/nethome.ph...

Usually ideas start out as a little tickle. Something you read, something you hear, something you see. Odd. Strange. Intriguing. You need to find out more. Sometimes you can't and that's when the stories start.
Oh but I wish I could dream a story too. One where a reasonably hunky guy meets a quiet mild mannered writer and whisks her off to a private island. Whoops. Sorry has that been done?

What does that have to do with your ideas pop into your head? Sounds like you're just advertising Wg...

Uh, okay. Back on topic, then...

Anyone else care to share where their ideas pop in from?

I was at a friend's house the other day. She recently had a baby, an occurrence I hope never to view from the inside, as it were, and it occurred to me that being around mothers with babies might help me add some of that parental aspect to my stories. I write YA and adults are usually portrayed as bumbling idiots, which I don't want to do. My point being, if I can understand where parents are coming from, maybe I can portray them more accurately in my writing.

Which then segued into an idea for a story centreing on baby poop.

Sorry, you did ask, although that was rather random even for me. I was surprised!

So to answer your question, sometimes things do come at you from real life. This was definitely the most methodical approach I've ever had to a story idea. Even if it was about poop.

Lol, great story. Wasn't expecting baby poop as inspirational, but then again, that's why I started the thread.

Jim

Jim wrote: "Lol, great story. Wasn't expecting baby poop as inspirational, but then again, that's why I started the thread.

Jim"

I know! Weird, huh? Technically it was the look on her little chubby face as she strained, because that caused her mother to inform me that she'd been constipated recently. Great conversations I have with my friends. Naturally the only pen I had on me died halfway through the third sentence, but I got enough down on the back of a receipt to not forget!

Jim wrote: "What does that have to do with your ideas pop into your head? Sounds like you're just advertising Wg..."

Are you saying Wg is a "ballsy advertising director"?

OK, back on point. I don't think I could pin down where the basic story idea comes from but the development of ideas and scenes for the story is an easy one for me and its become practice.
In order to sleep, I tell myself a 'bedtime story'. Generally I'll take the scene I'm working on and starting running out different permutations and exploring details and possibilities. The repetition puts me right to sleep (unlike my books, which are riveting).
What I found was, when I woke, I couldn't remember half of it. I started keeping a notebook by the bed and, if something looked promising, I'd jot down half a dozen words to remind me. Of course, being stenographer for myself doesn't do much for getting to sleep.

I'm not a medical professional of any sort but I want to write/am writing a story about a supergerm called mrsa. i know where I got it. How did I get rid of it? What is the stigma about people with skin infections not just mrsa? What is it like to be a skin cutter and get mrsa? this is ugly but should I include pictures???

Sonya wrote: "i know where I got it. How did I get rid of it?"

If I had a nickel for every time I've said that.

Over the summer, we took a family trip to Mammoth Cave. We had to take a bus to the new entrance which was about a fifteen mile drive. The bus driver was really creepy. He had a hard stare. I remember thinking 'Is this guy on work release?' There were woods on either side of the road and as we drove along I began to think about centering my next novel on a serial killer who stalks women.

"How Do Your Ideas Hit You?" Well, my immediate response to this was 'like a ton of bricks!' Although that's not technically true, lol. I daydream constantly, and sometimes a new idea just pops out of my head. I'm not sure what all goes on in there, but as long as it keeps churning out decent ideas I'm not going to knock it.

My ideas come to me when I am at work on the computer. Once it's in my head, I either have to type it up and print it or jot it down on a piece of post it in which I always lose. Shhhh, don't tell my boss! Hmmmm, I'm wondering I should have posted this....of course it's purely off the clock.

Usually when I'm reading someone else's work.

Kidding