Weird Inspiration: What inspires you?
 

I was just thinking about things that inspire me to write some of my stories and I have some pretty weird places I draw from. For example I based a character in one of my stories off my cat because she acts sassy and confident on the outside but on the inside she really is loving and insecure. I also based another character off of things like chairs and tables.

So Mene, what is you inspiration for writing?

Oh jeeze. Is absolutely everything an okay answer? xD

I think the weirdest was probably recently. I designed a character based on what the silhouette of a pile of old clothes looked like in the dark. Everything from his physical design to the way he seemed to be sitting to where he was sitting all really defined the character for me.

...Jeez. I think you just out-weirded everybody, Lori. ANYBODY WANNA TRY AND TOP THAT

Usually my ideas are one idea and then another idea thrown together. Often it's something aesthetic because I draw-- like "cute little Asian girl in giant glasses and oversized clothes"-- along with something plotty-- like "serial killer for hire." The funnest inspirations are the ones that make no sense ;D Aesthetic ones are often from comics I read or people I see on the street.

I have created muses based on personifications of my own creative impulses. I guess that's pretty weird if you step back and think about it, but it wasn't my idea, sooo [/shrug]

@Meguzu: I think your inspiration is much less weird than anything you come up with. I know ?! is basically just a muse but she is one weird mamma jamma.
Granted you do a lot more on the creepy side (more like OHGODWRY side) than weird. I am still scared of Atticus and what he will do to poor Al.

Also: Wanna guess what character my pile of clothes was? Maloch! Which should probably explain a little about him. xD
[/end talking about things nobody else gets. Sorry.]

I'm a comedy writer as well as a fantasy/sci-fi junkie ever since watching my first outlaw Star episode so naturally shows like Scrubs, Glee (guilty pleasure show), The X-Files, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, and cartoons like Kids Next Door (very imaginative humor), Ed, Edd, N Eddy, Storm Hawks (Sci-fi theme was nice), Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain (fun characters), Courage the Cowardly, and Dexter's Lab were my power shows for inspiration.

Games like Sly Cooper, Jak and daxter, Kingdom Hearts, Tales of Symphonia, Arc the Lad, Odin Sphere (beautiful fantasy game), and etc gave me new views on different themes and character types to play with.

Also old literature like Dracula, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice are tons of fun. I like some new stories, but some new books on the shelves seem to only be stupid vampire books brought on by Twilight.

You get the point. everything i take in is my inspiration. My little brother helps also.

I'm usually inspired by my dreams...the one's i can actually remember.

I'm a huge Bram stoker fan, so seeing Felia's post made me smile!

I draw a lot of of Victorian Gothic literature, and a lot off of legends (Like Lilith in the book of Enoch, the Nazi 'Thule Society', The Illuminati and the Gormagon, Vlad the Impaler) I like the idea of secret societies and things kept secret from the world.

I'm a huge Harry Potter fan (even after 10+ years), and quite a bit of my ideas for keeping things secret comes from there.
It has enough history to legitimize things, and since I'm a huge history buff, that makes me happy.

I also draw a lot off of J.R.R Tolkien in tone and well, I just love his work...

I also draw ideas a lot form anime. I write a lot of vampire-themed stories (not the teenage 'Twilight' kind, but the dark, 'Vlad the Impaler' kind.) and so Hellsing (Ultimate OVA) is a huge insiration to me, as well as things like Trinity Blood and to a small degree Inu Yasha and Naruto, if I'm writing a story about japan or with Japanese influence.

Everything inspires me -- strange things, mundane things, it doesn't matter. There is a story everywhere...

For me, it's usually random art pieces or video games. Sometimes music inspires a story all its own. But really, anything can inspire me. Anything from a particular feeling to something someone said or an event that I was at/took place that I wasn't at. ^^; It really depends on the day, I guess. Sometimes a thought just randomly pops into my head. But often times I need what I mentioned above to keep myself motivated.

I take my inspiration from just about Everywhere! I get a lot of it from music. I'll be listening to s song and I can imagine the whole story that goes with it, like that song was written for that story (The same goes for pictures. Just show me a random picture and I can put a story to it). Another one is dreams, or the ones I remember, I get some bizarre ideas that way. I am pretty imaginative though, so sometimes I get them from my daydreams. =)

I also draw my characters from mundane stuff. Usually just stuff that happens between my family or between my boyfriend and myself. The rest of the time my inspiration comes from the music I listen to. Also I get inspired by my dreams, if I can remember them lol. :XD Sometimes I also get inspired while riding on the bus or in the car. I tend to write stuff down in my note pad on my cell phone and then from there I can expand on characters and stuff.

I get inspiration from everywhere (and I mean everywhere), but normally I get more from something that's wrong. A tragedy in someone's personal life, a national disaster, something on the news.... I seem to work from sadness the best. I guess it's because I tend to find beauty and the optimistic parts in bad situations and "darker art" in general.

Everything. From dreams to real life. Hell even the D&D campaign that I'm in could work as a story.Everything has hidden inspiration.. if you know where to look

I get inspiration from a lot of different sources too.

As for "weird" sources - I've written about colors talking to each other before.

I am the kind of female that grew up playing with dolls, lost interest in them at some point, then got interested in them again as an adult...and later on again I have come full circle....meaning I've mostly lost interest in dolls again. Whenever I was "playing around" with Adrift to work on interactive fiction games....since I always give my dolls names and personalities anyway, they were the inspiration for at least one of my personal game projects. And two of my Bratz dolls are a lesbian couple. Hahahaha.

Whenever I come up with an online nickname I always end up making a character for each nick.