# What inspired your current work?



## ThePinkBookworm (Mar 22, 2010)

I know that we all get inspiration for books, articles, poetry, short stories, etc. from some of the most random places.  But where did you get the inspiration for your current work that you are writing/have written?

Li Li:read:


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## C.M.C. (Mar 23, 2010)

From myself.


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## kingkurtus (Mar 23, 2010)

I get a lot of motivation from music.


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## NaClmine (Mar 23, 2010)

Motivation? Lust, fear, desire, anger, boredom, envy, creative overflow, money--I have written with each of those motivations behind my effort at one time or another. Lust did not sustain. Fear ebbed and flowed, again without producing a final product. Desire was a little better because it lasted through an entire manuscript. Boredom and creative overflow seem to go hand in hand. They produce lots of "starts" for me but they often lack depth and rarely come to fruition. I confess, envy of successful writers has enabled me to complete several manuscripts. Guess that might also fall under "ego". When I see the kind of simpleton writing that gets paid big bucks, I know I can do better. However, the one motivation that has been most consistent and produced finished pieces and income is money. When I was writing for a deadline that had $$$ after it, I kept to a schedule and completed each project in a timely manner. Like someone said in another thread, it is nice to have an editor with whom you can brainstorm and work out details. Ultimately, motivation comes from many places, each with its own strengths and limitations. I also believe every writer must find his or her own well of inspiration.


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## PageOfCups (Mar 23, 2010)

I got the idea of what I've just finished (sort of, it's awaiting editing but I want to be a bit distant from it when I do that) from Ghost Watch and Most Haunted.

What I'm writing now came from the anger at how rubbish Final Fantasy XII is.

At least that's were the main ideas came from, the little refinments came as I was writing, reading, listening to music or just walking around.


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## RomanticRose (Mar 23, 2010)

I thought, "What if . . ."

That started the inspiration for most all my works for that matter.


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## JosephB (Mar 24, 2010)

From life. Through my own experience, I became fascinated by how differently people grieve and react to death -- how they often behave in unexpeted ways. That was the spark for my "what if."


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## seigfried007 (Mar 24, 2010)

Current WIP started with a nightmare I had about a ship that ate people.


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## Ungood (Mar 24, 2010)

Icewind Dale. My current work might as well be a direct copy, I even added in a black skinned halfling with white hair and called him Drizzle


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## The Backward OX (Mar 24, 2010)

Short answer:

It grew from a half-baked notion that I might be able to write a novel as a way to fill in time.



Long answer:

I’d been reading factual accounts of local major robberies in the bad old days of 150 or so years ago, including the details of a hold-up that netted the robbers 170 pounds weight of gold.

And I thought to myself, “There’s been heaps of non-fiction written about this particular robbery. It’s high time someone fictionalised it.” And so here I am, slowly cobbling it together.

With a little bit of luck, I might get it finished before I die.


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## Cornish Maid (Mar 24, 2010)

From life itself. Sometimes from dreams.


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## Eluixa (Mar 24, 2010)

Mine began simply enough as an escape from responsibility. And then I became attached to the characters, and feel responsible to them now.


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## Cefor (Mar 24, 2010)

My current WIP? Well it started as an English coursework piece in my last year of secondary school. That was two years ago now. Since then I've changed it many times, edited it with my father as editor and just recently decided on a complete re-write.

I liked my concept at first, but it contained Vampires, and there's far too many stories about the blood-suckers around these days.

I'd say my inspiration for this one came from my own need for something that interested me enough that I'd want to know what came next. I've also been reading the Codex Alera series recently, well the first two books, and I think that's had a small influence too.

Games. The ideas that me and a friend come up with for games constantly tumble around my mind, and I pick up cool ideas from those. We essentially brainstorm for games/stories every day. 

I've recently (about ten minutes ago) found that my MC is scarred, and can't use his left eye. Something I didn't even think I'd ever do to a main is disfigure them. But I just did, and I think it will add a different take on his character, and may cause me to change his personality to the new look he has. It's exciting when my characters do things I don't quite expect...


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## Like a Fox (Mar 24, 2010)

Mine came from the unresolved issues I have about my parents' divorce and my Mum's ongoing war with bullshit cancer.

It's pretty angsty. I used a teenage protagonist to excuse that.


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## moderan (Mar 24, 2010)

Music and another tale. My wip is an offshoot of a throwaway scene in a short story, where a certain song is played while the first people land on Mars. The song was written and performed by Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, who never got to collaborate IRL (there were plans to do so before Jimi passed away), and that led to the concoction of an alt-reality, which is the wip.
I'm also writing the piece of music referenced in the wip and the short story, which wants to become part of _another_ novel.


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## Ungood (Mar 24, 2010)

moderan said:


> Music and another tale. My wip is an offshoot of a throwaway scene in a short story, where a certain song is played while the first people land on Mars. The song was written and performed by Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, who never got to collaborate IRL (there were plans to do so before Jimi passed away), and that led to the concoction of an alt-reality, which is the wip.



That sounds rather wild


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## moderan (Mar 24, 2010)

Ungood said:


> That sounds rather wild


Thanks. You folks will be able to read for yourselves soon-I'm planning to post the first draft on my blog. Would have done so already but the lion's share of my creative energy is getting eaten up by my so-far fruitless job hunt.


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## The Backward OX (Mar 25, 2010)

moderan said:


> Thanks. You folks will be able to read for yourselves soon-I'm planning to post the first draft on my blog. Would have done so already but the lion's share of my creative energy is getting eaten up by my so-far fruitless job hunt.


Lions eat fruit?


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## moderan (Mar 25, 2010)

no, jobs.


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## Susan Sto Helit (Mar 26, 2010)

My addiction for Britten. I met his music a year ago and the magnificent SOB made me nearly forget my old Italian favourites...  The fact his world is full of subtext helps a lot. Listening to his operas or songs while writing is really inspiring for the atmosphere.


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## RomanticRose (Mar 26, 2010)

moderan said:


> no, jobs.


 
I thought they ate gazelles.  Learn something new every day.


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## thewordsmith (Mar 26, 2010)

I have a mortgage to pay. What better motivation is there?

Actually, I am never at a loss for motivation - and that's not necessarily a good thing. I have a file cabinet with bits and pieces of paper with notes and scenes from more story ideas than I will ever be able to write in two or three lifetimes. Currently, I have just finished one manuscript and the inherent tweaking and editing and it's now waving a hanky at me as it begins its voyage into the great world of submissions and querying. But, so I don't go psychotic thinking about it, I also have two other manuscripts in various stages of completion that I will be working on and yet two more that are ready to start moving forward as well. 

The inspiration for any one of these can be as mundane as a snippet of conversation or news story or television commercial. And I hear it and say, "Do you know ...?" Worse is when my son makes some cryptic comment. He can tell from the look in my eyes that his words have just spawned a new idea and he will look at me and say, "You just wrote a book, didn't you?" Or I will stop in my steps and scream, "STOP THAT!"

So ... where did I find the inspiration for my current WIP? First I might ask, "Which one?" But to all, the answer would have to be, "In the air I breathe."


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## Wolfson (Mar 27, 2010)

Inspiration? Uh... I don't know. I knew I wanted to get a novel out, and I knew I needed to aim for current trends in the market. So I wanted a 'modern horror/fantasy' but didn't want to use a child prodigy wizard or a wizard private investigator, or a wizard _anything_, for that matter. Or vampires. While I'd once toyed with the idea, I didn't want to sell out to the idea of my protagonist being a pasty-skinned bloke with too much angst for his own good.

So I... uh... you know, I have no _idea_ where my specific inspiration came from. I guess I just needed to be working on a story that was cool enough to impress my wife, and good enough to impress my editor. My mind is a twisted enough place to come up with plenty of those. Usually the ideas start as dialogues between various characters:

"Um... Those sure are big teeth."

"Yep."

"Um... Any idea what it _is_?"

"Nope."

"So... um... what do we do?"

"Run."


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## The Backward OX (Mar 28, 2010)

thewordsmith said:


> The inspiration for any one of these can be as mundane as a snippet of conversation or news story or television commercial.


 
With this reply, you make as good a target as any for my question. Can you explain how your mind makes what I see as a huge leap from, for example, “Boy finds three-legged frog in creek,” to a 90 or 100k story? I mean, I hear and read these ‘mundanities’ just like you do, but they rarely if ever transform themselves, in my head, into stories. To me, they're mostly just static.


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## sisera (Apr 2, 2010)

Usually things just sort of leap into my head. It's pretty rare, but, for my current wip, for example, I just had the idea of a teenage couple running away to the big city and unwillingly getting dragged into crime just pop into my mind, and I sat down and fleshed it out a bit more. 

Usually I have to look it up and make sure it hasn't been done before, because the way the idea just hits me from out of nowhere makes me worried that I'm just remembering someone else's work. Luckily, that doesn't seem to be the case.


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## evadri (Apr 2, 2010)

The initial spark for my current work came while watching Elton John's Red Piano Tour on TV. As he played 'Daniel', they showed a video clip about soldiers in Vietnam. Through the combination of the song and the clip, I got this overwhelming sense of 'I want to write about THAT!'


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## Beja-Beja (Apr 4, 2010)

Well 1 came from a dream, another came from a song, and then there is one inspired by something a teacher once told me.


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## Destroyer (Apr 29, 2010)

Mine's kind of a mix of various sci fi films, a couple of fantasies, Lost Prophets and Muse.


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## silverwriter (Apr 29, 2010)

I spent a week in a small country town, staying at the local (only) pub and observing the owner of the place. With a pub to run, a boy just starting school, a new baby boy and a husband working long hours at the mine, she is very inspiring.


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## Himani (Apr 29, 2010)

The short answer: A complete dissatisfaction with 99.99% of similar genre books on the market (after complaining about yet another limp plot, pathetic characters, etc., my S.O. told me, "Why don't you write what you think it should be?" I think he just wanted to stop my belly-aching  ).

The long answer: A combination of dissatisfaction with the genre plus the two main characters I'd thought up which I wanted to put in a story (my story ideas usually start as just character ideas). Characters which allowed the  themes of the "Other" and whether that's something to be feared, and violence and when it became too much. Plus they were fun to write.


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## Chris Stevenson (Apr 29, 2010)

I had no idea if a dream catcher had been used in a YA fantasy.  Since I wanted to try a short YA book, I researched the web, looking to see if anyone had used a story that involved an old dream catcher that might have exploded from repeated use and sucked the user into a nightmare world.  I didn't find anything like that, and I was POSITIVE that it had to be out there.  I queried my writng group--they googled and came up with nothing.  Well, that was enough for me to start and finish Screamcatcher, which was just finished three days ago.  I just finished the first edit today and I'm going to ask my agent if she wants to see the first chapters.

Chris


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## silverwriter (Apr 30, 2010)

Himani said:


> The short answer: A complete dissatisfaction with 99.99% of similar genre books on the market



And who said 'necessity' is the mother of invention?


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## HarryG (Apr 30, 2010)

After spending almost an entire year on my last project, I finally hid it in a dark place and will never look for it again.  While feeling around in that dark place, I found several previous failures, and started going through them.

One of them wasn't that bad, at least the idea was a sound one, and I've learned a lot since I wrote those words.  So, I'm writing them again, with new enthusiasm and hope, and a new first chapter, new names and a new title.

Oh, and in the first rather than the third, which is a special challenge.


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## AA (May 1, 2010)

Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, George R R Martin, and their collective bodies of work. A desire to write something off-beat but accessible in the Speculative Fiction genre. Pioneers. The New Weird Genre. H. P. Lovecraft.


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## moderan (May 1, 2010)

Wondering what would happen if Jimi Hendrix hadn't passed away when he did.


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## S1E9A8N5 (May 2, 2010)

> What inspired your current work?


"1984", and a personal passion for holistic health.


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## Talia_Brie (May 2, 2010)

moderan said:


> Wondering what would happen if Jimi Hendrix hadn't passed away when he did.



I want to read that.


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## moderan (May 2, 2010)

You will have the opportunity. First installment posts Monday. Thanks for the interest


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## SilverMoon (May 2, 2010)

I take inspiration from my signature "Why do writers write? Because it isn't there". Of all the possibilities: people, surroundings, events, dreams and even music are sources of inspiration for me. For some sad reason, I'm rarely inspired by nature. I've written just a few pieces but incorporated the notion with the angst of the human condition. Laurie


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## caelum (May 4, 2010)

I've been fleshing out an idea now for several years, and began work about six months ago.  It has a unique central plot, so far as I'm aware; tonnes of vibrant characters, locales, and situations; and a truly horrific villain.  Several.  There's plenty of action, magic, and zaniness.  It's fantasy, but in a tightly controlled universe where magic is a very rare thing and the ability to learn and wield it very guarded.  And just as powerful as it is rare.

What inspired it was mainly itself.  When the ideas came to me, I really just thought they deserved being written, and that I should because as of yet I don't know of anything that compares and I want to be the first to make a story like this.  Where the ideas came from, I don't know, but if anything I'm trying to steer as far away as I can from everything similar out there.  Different enemies, different plot, different goal.


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## darknite_johanne (May 4, 2010)

My current WIP, two years working on now, and still not perfect. now batting 125,000 words, came out from discussions with my Atheist friends. As a more liberal Christian, I thought of writing about an Atheist who actually died and came back to know that nobody really knows the truth about God; He finds that everything people knew about God and how powerful he is is askew, and that how God works involves some aspect of science, he also finds the earth controlled by other gods as well. It's taking tons of research, from reading case studies about God and old world religions and discussions and plenty of rewrites. 

My editor tells me i'm going to rock the whole religious world but I doubt it.

Plus my grammar needs major rework.


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## Destroyer (May 4, 2010)

Now that one's got me interested.


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## MaggieG (May 4, 2010)

The last piece I drafted was inspired by a Whitman line " and you shall find me under your boot-sole" It got me thinking about specific types of souls as opposed to the all encompassing one everybody refers to. I have a "boot-soul" , rough, weathered, and yet enduring. I imagined Whitman pounding out his verse with my "boot-soul" strapped to his ever moving feet in search of sweet grass.


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## darknite_johanne (May 4, 2010)

Destroyer said:


> Now that one's got me interested.


 
Oh really? what part exactly?


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## alanmt (May 4, 2010)

I am currently writing a little fantasy short story inspired by Plutarch's quote:

Extraordinary rains pretty generally fall after great battles.


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## moderan (May 5, 2010)

Is the story set in Spain, by any chance?
*ducks yet again*


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## alanmt (May 5, 2010)

lol

shouldn't you being helping terri, mister?  stop mucking about, man!


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## wolfe:) (May 18, 2010)

I got inspiration for my current book when viewing the relationship i had with my best friend, i realised that the person i knew better than most people should be the one who i should turn to for inspiration.


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## thewordsmith (May 19, 2010)

I'm an airhead! Well ... sorta, anyway. I keep my mind open for whatever may come my way. I just finished one project and am currently working on two others as well as germinating a couple more. Where did the inspiration come from for each of these? I couldn't begin to tell you. Somewhere there was a pregnant pause and it gave birth to an idea.


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## LadyWolf (May 19, 2010)

One particular stanza from Whittier's poem _Maud Muller_, plus another from Longfellow's _Morituri Salutamus,_ together provide the inspiration/framework for my novel-in-progress.

*~ L ~*


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## Olly Buckle (May 19, 2010)

A few years ago I had a training officer say to me "But you are 61 Mr Buckle", now I am a pensioner. My wiP is about an Old people's home where the residents apply their skills and surprise those who do not take them seriously because they are old.


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## Kat (May 20, 2010)

The one I am editing- a dream, well a nightmare really. I tend to avoid horror movies and novels because my imagination provides enough nightmares. I don't need to see other peoples. 

The last piece I wrote was started with a conversation between some friends. 

Friend A: Another negative
Friend B: Aunt Flo still hasn't showed
Friend A: No
Me: Well I guess it's time to go to the Dr. get a blood test. 
Friend B: Did you know the cervix is blue in early pregnancy? 
Friend A: That's great, shall I get a flashlight so you can check it out?
Friend B: You would really need a speculum to get a good view. 
Friend A: Where do you get a speculum? 
Me: What you don't have one? 

Yes we are weird. The conversation ended with us all laughing so hard we couldn't talk. My mascara was running.


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## Loulou (May 20, 2010)

I'm trapped in the cycle of buying tea bags from a sweet guy who sells them at the door.  He has a cleft lip and such beautiful eyes.  I can't turn him away.  I'm a sap.  Now I'm buying biscuits too and don't know where it will end.  I warned my husband that if the tea guy looks at me any more earnestly I might have to buy his mock-antique van.  Or let him move in.

At least it has inspired the beginning of a piece.


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## fix (May 20, 2010)

just lately i started a short story about Confederate troops fleeing a lost cause scenario. The inspiration came as i was attaching the flag and streamer to a vignette of three guys from the 5th Texas i was finishing  This happens a lot.  I have lots of research material at home,as hubby and his pal are both American civil war fanatics


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## Loknar (Aug 5, 2010)

my finished book the preatorian was heavily influenced by my room mate who is like a god at roman history. also from games and from movies. i went down to the local library to look up some cool roman stuff when i found a very nice piece of roman history that could so easily be turned into a book! it had love, betrayal, power struggles, murder and war and loyalty all in 1! i researched for 3 months straight gathering every detail 
now my 300 page struggle is over!


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## mybloodyxxsweetheart (Aug 6, 2010)

My inspiration for my current WIP stems from one night when it was storming and I was on my whole insomnia issue and a movie came into my head with a girl narrating and her voice had been full of fear and she was running from something; so I had to write the scene down and since then, I started to make it into a story to see what had happened prior.

Otherwise, my inspiration for any of my works is an overactive imagination and depression with the lack of sleep and an overhaul of candy. And I can't forget music.


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## aquablue (Aug 6, 2010)

I am doing research on the Inuit Indians and I hope my study will turn into a novella. I was inspired by the the readings of Joseph Campbell; especially his classic, *The Hero with a Thousand Faces*. The novella will be based on myth (mainly) and adventure (mostly).


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## J.E. Blackworth (Aug 6, 2010)

My current work-in-progress was inspired by an actor. As simple as it sounds. Inspired by that actor, his delicate way of expressing feelings and his extraordinarily well shaped lips, I created the main character. David Bowie's song _Cat People (Putting Out Fire)_ and Rammstein's _Mann gegen Mann_ inspired the plot.


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## Rosette (Aug 9, 2010)

Human emotion, things that happen around me, stories I here, some books and movies bring on some ideas, and music is a big factor.


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## Grave (Aug 13, 2010)

Fallout, armageddon, nihilism and survival.
And by fallout I meant Fallout, the awesome video game series.


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## RM Americano (Aug 14, 2010)

beer


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## garza (Aug 14, 2010)

An email yesterday morning that said 'We need an article about (so-and-so) who will be at (such-and-such a place) this afternoon available for an interview. Expenses plus usual'.


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## funnygirl (Aug 19, 2010)

I got my current idea from a cookbook!
I remember flicking through the pages thinking "What kind of stuck-up, dried-up, liquored-up women actually cook this shite!?"
Now I'm writing about those women.


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## aquablue (Aug 20, 2010)

Sounds like a very interesting character. A cook book? Wow!

__


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## Fox80 (Aug 20, 2010)

My latest finished piece is "Obsession," which I posted in the fiction area. I once had a girlfriend who was a little bit obsessed with me; don't ask me why, I'm not very good looking at all (especially not now). One night I had a nightmare about her, one in which she killed a bunch of people I knew then me with a knife. I got out of bed in the early morning hours and started writing "Obsession."


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## thewordsmith (Aug 20, 2010)

The Backward OX said:


> With this reply, you make as good a target as any for my question. Can you explain how your mind makes what I see as a huge leap from, for example, “Boy finds three-legged frog in creek,” to a 90 or 100k story? I mean, I hear and read these ‘mundanities’ just like you do, but they rarely if ever transform themselves, in my head, into stories. To me, they're mostly just static.


 
I'm not sure the boy with the three-legged frog would transform me from newswatcher to writer mode but, well ... There was a bit on the local news that made comment on a contract between two guys, one of which was recently deceased. My mind immediately went ... "What a racket that would be! The surviving partner has a binding contract stipulating he gets all the profits AND they have mutual life insurance policies. The guy's already had one partner who kicked off. This one dies in a plane crash ..." The next thing you know ... there's a serial killer murder-for-personal profit in the penthouse idea swirling in my head. Then there is the case about to wrap up in federal district court about the bimbo ... err, I mean lady ... who had an affair with a well-known, not-to-be-named local college basketball coach. She tries to blackmail him and he turns the tables on her and files a complaint against her. She, as I already noted, ends up in federal court for extortion and a ton of other charges. Before I know it, I start formulating an idea for a serial blackmailer. I don't know how it works. (the brain/story idea connection. In my brain, if _anything_ works it's close to miraculous!) And I have always had more story concepts than I could ever fulfill. People have jokingly and otherwise suggested I dust off some of these bits and bites and share them. The problem with that is, I might see a story there where someone else would not. I find a story full-realized in my head at the first idea but someone else would not be able to conceive a full story. "Interesting but ..."

Addendum: Just to show you how sick my mind is ... two stories in the news today. First is a well-publicized recall of eggs for possible salmonella. Right next to that is ... "Model Confirms She's Pregnant". OMG!!! So here I see a medical facility that stores eggs for couples and THEY have a recall due to some possible contamination ......... Now where might THAT lead? (See? It's a sickness.)


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