Writer's Discussion

[Madbomber]

This board seems a little dead right now so I wanted to start a writer's discussion about story ideas. Where do you get the ideas for your story? Once an idea hits you, do you let it roll around in your head for a while, or do you get it right out of your head and on to "paper"? Do you like to actually write out notes, or do you just start typing and let the story write itself? Do you know how you want to end a story when you start it, or do you not plan that far ahead? How much do you base your story in real life? Are your characters based on friends or relatives? Do you bring up situations in your story that have happened to you?

 

Okay, I think that's enough questions for now, if you can think of any others to add to the discussion, let us know. If you guys can think of any new discussions for the board, please post them, let's keep this community thriving. Later, Me.

[reapersharvest]

I get my ideas from everywhere, conversations with friends, news articles, and my own experiences are all inspirations of mine. Once I have been graced with an idea, I usually spend more time thinking about it than actually writing.

 

For example, when I heard about the Helen Hayes awards for high school plays in Westchester, I first came up with a Christopher Guest- type story line, but it gradually evolved into two boys working backstage at the school musical whose lives begin to coincide with the events in the musical (I was thinking Les Mis).

 

Another I got from a conversation wth my own dad. A college grad is unceremoniously flung into the underground fine art trade after his inheritance from his father forces him to visit all his old contacts in the upper and lower tiers of the cultural world in New York in his attempt to wade through the task of selling it all according to his father's last wishes, expressed in a letter given to him by the family lawyer. Not a lot of romance in it, but sounds stylish.

 

My own current obsession with fashion magazines, Willy Wonka, and club kids/glam rockers and their eras have given me a whole new concept. A story of an It boy, maybe a spin-off about his growing up, and the adventures he has wth his best friend through the fashion subculture of NYC, portrayed in the surrealistic, childish way the past generations of youth viewed their spiral into drug-induced demise. What makes this one special from Devil Wears Prada, or anything by Candace Bushnell, is that it will be a daily updated tracker of all the latest news in sthis subculture. Actual events and parties will make the plotline, so it will hopefully become a source to some as a gossip rag of sorts.

 

Anyway, like I said, more thinking than writitng.

[Sparhawk]

It is strange that I do not do a lot more writing as I really enjoy it. I can not really tell you where the ideas come from, I will be sitting here and all of sudden there it is.

 

I usually just start writing, without doing a outline or taking any notes It just seems to flow out. If it ends up being a long story I do have to go back and make notes to insure that I keep the story valid.

[GoThica]

Well I'm one of the most non-creative people you could find, so it's not so easy for me. Getting a story idea, and planning out how exactly things will happen are two different things (Alteast, for me they are). The original story idea usually comes from other stories I've read. For instance, after reading Comicality's GFD I became interested in writing a vampire story. I took elements from other stories I liked and built them around vampires until I had my own unique idea.

 

After getting the original idea for the story I start thinking about the plot. I don't really write anything down on paper, so this is all just rolling around in my head on a daily basis The plot is the only easy part. Once I have the background of the story set up, it really just comes to me. Getting the scenes set up is really the hardest part. You know what's going to happen, but you don't know when or where. This is when I really draw on my life. A few weeks ago I was on vacation with my family at a theme park and we were wasting tons of money on those fixed carnival games trying to win a stuffed animal. As I was standing there watching my brother miss a three point shot into a too-small basket, I thought, "Hey, this could be a good scene for this plot development to happen." This just keeps happening until I have the whole story planned out. After that I get to work and make a character chart, etc. etc.

 

Some people can get a story started and decide where the plot's going as they write. I'm most definetly not one of those people

Edited October 16, 2005 by GoThica