Do seeing people inspire you?

I tend to be inspired by music more so than images or people. Maybe it's the emotion that the music creates that does it. Seeing people, in general, doesn't create that sort of snap, for me.

Both music and images work for me. I'm especially susceptible to facial expressions and hand gestures.

Over the years, there have been one or two characters/actors that have been so utterly compelling that I've felt inspired to take something of them and put it into a work in progress. Here are a few, in no particular order, who have made such an inspirational impact:

1. Kevin Cline playing 'Nathan' in the film, Sophie's Choice

2. Robin Williams as 'Garp' in 'The World According to Garp'

3. Anthony Hopkins as the rich guy in 'The Edge'

4. Richard Burton (the Victorian explorer) re-imagined in The River World books.

5. Nevil Shute's book 'Requiem for a Wren'...that girl, that wonderful girl.

Occasionally someone will catch my eye and I'll feel a mental 'click' as a character either comes out of nowhere or an existing one becomes more defined. Most of my inspiration comes from watching the world, though.

When I was in Florida on my vacation every park we went to sparked an idea of some sort. I love looking for the little details that make such places unique, especially those that are culture-based. I'm the kind of person who takes pictures of the scenery because I find it more interesting than the rides.

~DragonHeart~

My stories, or plots are never inspired from a whole dream, or thought. It is always that one word, that one person, or something that triggers me and I have to write it down. It then grows into something worthwhile, or it may just die and disappears in my slush pile of documents.

I think I am most inspired by people and images. In fact, as I am writing, I almost always imagine my characters in terms of actual people: family members, colleagues, actors, actresses, whatever. I guess maybe I just need to give the characters a face and voice, and this is the easiest way to do it.

I watch a lot of animation and it often sparks ideas for me, either of settings or characters. Occasionally live-action movies will do the same. Most of the time it's not even conscious, but later on I'll realize that my main character was inspired by a character in a movie--never the way the character looks, just the character's, well, character.

For me it's one of two things:
1. things I hear. Overheard bits of conversation or sounds that catch my interest

oops -
2. my "brain tv" that takes something I see, hear, etc. and runs with it.
A misty morning in the Ozarks inspired a short story that ran away with me and became a novel. A story about cricket mating warped into a story about crickets in love. Something my mohter once said became a short story.

Hopefully, we're talking about seeing living people and not dead ones, LOL. Ideas, events or objects inspire me, and I figure it's up to me to create more inspiring characters to frame my story with. During the writing, I avoid using actors, super models and other public figures as the faces and voices of the characters. It helps keep them original.

I find inspiration in anything. My YA novel came from an exercise where I was encouraged to form a story around the name of a character: Ryder. That's all I was given, and yet a story formed almost immediately in the back of my mind.

I once began a story based on the Nelson/Charles song, "Seven Spanish Angels", set as an alt. history in a free Texas.

I'd began an semi-autobigraphical novel in the form of a clone story. A man wants to raise himself and prove that he could have been given a better shot at life without so much adversity.

The previous two examples died in a computer crash and I didn't have the heart to restore them.

David

Puddle Jumper said:

I'm wondering if I'm the only one whose like this. I might be watching tv or a movie and see someone on screen who becomes an inspiration for a story. It has nothing to do with the show or movie that they are in, just the individual, their physical appearance and personality spark something and I can envision and entirely different kind of story with that person.


I'm wondering if anyone else is ever inspired by someone they see, either on screen or in person or wherever.

Click to expand...

Music, images, a bit of research. For instance, I looked at an article on Bog Oak, and am currently researching it to see what I can glean for a story or two.

Of course, I have often said I am an idea magnet, and there are times I think I get too many ideas (some of which are not healthy for me ).

One of my more interesting ideas came about from tying two unlikely ideas together and then forming them into a story. Basically, I wondered what it would be like if a dragon was a detective. Then I started filling in such questions as where was he from (Venus), why was he on Earth (to break up a black market smuggling ring in human flesh), and what was he like? I decided to have fun and make him a part-time couch potato who loved watching cop shows that his TV picked up in broadcast bleed from Earth. That also made him the obvious choice to send to Earth on the undercover assignment even though he knew only his own language and what he picked up from watching TV in English. Plus, his TV habit gave him a sense of paranoia about how humans would react if they saw him. Then I worked out other details such as how he made the trip and so forth. It's now published as Redwing, Dragon Detective from Double Dragon Publishing.

Anyway, the point of all this is that writers might want to let their thoughts run free especially when trying to put two disparate ideas together because the results can be fun, especially when they work.

Holy Unicorn, Dave! That cover concept is awe-inspiring. Did you design it???

cover

I know they say you can't judge a book by its cover, but that's a book I'd buy solely because of the cover art.