Jerry MaGuire inspired me to write. What a film! What a lover he was! Show me the money! And now I want to become great by hanging my balls out there too!
What inspired you to write novels?
- Thread starter RikkiKane
- Start date
- Status
Well I have no balls. I'm just in it for the creativity, the recognition, the money and the groupies.
In that order.
In that order.
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2007
- Messages
- 2,962
- Reaction score
- 629
- Location
- Bay Area, CA
- Website
- www.geardrops.net
Somehow I expected groupies to head your list, SP 
As for me, I came up with a story too big to be anything else. If you're asking why we write in general, pens and paper are cheaper than art supplies, cameras and editing software, or musical instruments, and I gots stories.
As for me, I came up with a story too big to be anything else. If you're asking why we write in general, pens and paper are cheaper than art supplies, cameras and editing software, or musical instruments, and I gots stories.
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2009
- Messages
- 11,732
- Reaction score
- 4,650
I don't know. I don't think I ever set out to write novels, actually. When I first started writing I'd aim for a short story and end up with sixty pages and realize I was going to have a novel by the end of it. Writing novel-length hasn't ever really seemed that difficult to me as a result. I just wanted to write, and novels just happen to be what comes out.
When I was a little kid I wanted to make video games (yeah, I was a hardcore nerd). As I got older, and started acting on my dream, I realized the only part of the video game I wanted to do was the story part. So, with some sage advice from a perfect stranger, I scrapped my video game dreams and took up literature.
The very first thing I wrote (other than stuff for school) was an awful Warhammer 40K rip-off space marine SF novel, which got to 35k and mercifully floundered. Then I just did short stories for a couple of years.
Now I think about it, it was Nanowrimo '08 which made me realise that I, too, could write a novel (even if I didn't finish it).
And I also made a switch in my reading habits, from exclusively SF to more mainstream fare. (With SF, I would get an idea and write a few thousand words exploring it. With mainstream stuff, you have to be in for the long haul.)
Round about January of last year I had just finished Bonfire of the Vanities and I had that buzzing in my head. I wanted to write something as detailed and snarky as that, which meant novel. I took a look at some pieces I'd written for my Writing Fiction class and realised that they would work pretty well if I joined them together as a narrative, and suddenly I had a decent-sized start on my current novel.
Good question, this! Never actually thought about my reasons before.
Now I think about it, it was Nanowrimo '08 which made me realise that I, too, could write a novel (even if I didn't finish it).
And I also made a switch in my reading habits, from exclusively SF to more mainstream fare. (With SF, I would get an idea and write a few thousand words exploring it. With mainstream stuff, you have to be in for the long haul.)
Round about January of last year I had just finished Bonfire of the Vanities and I had that buzzing in my head. I wanted to write something as detailed and snarky as that, which meant novel. I took a look at some pieces I'd written for my Writing Fiction class and realised that they would work pretty well if I joined them together as a narrative, and suddenly I had a decent-sized start on my current novel.
Good question, this! Never actually thought about my reasons before.
... Raskolnikov. Axe murders aside, he just seemed so incredibly cool to me. So I figured if I wrote, like him, I might become cool too. Sadly that never happened, but I do like writing. So thanks, Rodion, and best of luck to you and Sonia!
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 24,466
- Reaction score
- 12,761
- Location
- Enchanted Forest and/or editing cave
- Website
- bettielee.wordpress.com
I write what I want to read... and I was reading a book that had an alternate world in it. I found myself desperate to go there. I wanted my own "other world".
It changes according to my whim. At the moment, yeah. Ask me again tomorrow.That order? Really?
In general: Catharsis. I'm compelled to write. Maybe it's instinct, maybe I'm just a crackpot (but aren't we all, just a little?)
Novels: After writing lyrics, poetry, then short stories, a novel was, logically, the next step(unless I went into screen writing.)
Novels: After writing lyrics, poetry, then short stories, a novel was, logically, the next step(unless I went into screen writing.)
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2009
- Messages
- 24,466
- Reaction score
- 12,761
- Location
- Enchanted Forest and/or editing cave
- Website
- bettielee.wordpress.com
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2009
- Messages
- 44,834
- Reaction score
- 2,929
- Age
- 42
- Location
- The exact centre of all of existence
OMG, I used to love WH40k.
I played Tyranids. Munch munch.What inspired me to write? I don't know, it's hard to say. What got me writing is an easier question. I was home all the time on disability, and I liked writing various things, such as battle reports for video games, and so I wanted to try a novel. That's what GOT me writing.
What inspired the original ideas? It's hard to say. Perhaps neurosis, or a means of coping with being in a bad place.
It's funny though. I realised I wanted to write long after pursuing virtually the polar opposite of physics. In high school English I had always loved the creative writing assignments. It just took until I was in a really bad place that I decided I wanted to pursue writing in the big leagues.
(As for those battle reports, it was Starcraft games
They really introduced me to writing on my own time, and taught me basic html, which I then turned into a website, gone now.)Strangely enough, I had a comedy article published in my Uni's magazine. I was studying physics and maths, and I still wanted to write something, but I didn't stop and think, "Well, maybe I like writing more than I like science?" I do, by the way.
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2006
- Messages
- 207
- Reaction score
- 16
- Location
- Santa Clarita, CA
- Website
- www.davidwisehart.com
I read Lord of the Rings when I was eight, and wanted to the story to keep going. So I started writing the sequel. I dropped it after a few chapters, when I started getting ideas for my own stories.
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2009
- Messages
- 251
- Reaction score
- 13
For two reasons:
a) I got to the point where I can predict story lines in movies and books, so I decided to write a better one than those I was reading.
b) to, hopefully, make enough money to run a new and used bookstore.
a) I got to the point where I can predict story lines in movies and books, so I decided to write a better one than those I was reading.
b) to, hopefully, make enough money to run a new and used bookstore.
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2009
- Messages
- 422
- Reaction score
- 23
I've loved reading since I was a child and I've always had an active imagination. So, I thought why not put the stories I made up on paper...or now in my computer.
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2008
- Messages
- 777
- Reaction score
- 151
Emily Dickinson. I read her and said "WOW" and felt enlightened. Then I thought about how awesome it would be to do that to somebody else.
I'm nowhere near as good as her and I know I never will be, but she and other great writers have driven me to give it my best shot.
I'm nowhere near as good as her and I know I never will be, but she and other great writers have driven me to give it my best shot.
No one real trigger that I can think of. I've been trying to write novels since middle school, at the least. I would guess it stems from my innate love of reading, writing in general, and needing outlets for my crazy imagination.
To be come Immortal through the medium of the written word
Really its for the money - practically guaranteed to be a millionaire when you write, right?
right?
Really its for the money - practically guaranteed to be a millionaire when you write, right?
right?
- Status