R. Leib's Blog: Dream State - Posts Tagged "inspiration"

I read something in a book, a newspaper, or a magazine or see something on TV that gets me thinking about how it could be different or have an interesting twist to it. From there, I try to flesh out the idea into a complete story concept. These are "what if" story ideas.

There are things that happen to me or people I know that trigger ideas about how these things might be handled in the future, how they might affect our descendents or an alien race differently, or how they could occur in a different way or for a different reason. These are "why is it that way" story ideas.

Sometimes ideas just come to me. I am doing something completely unrelated, and "bang" there is an idea in my head. (This is the most infrequent way I get ideas.) These are "off the wall" ideas.

I learn about some science fact or theory or some technological advancement, and that gets me thinking about how it might factor into our lives, how it might change our future, or how we might have to adapt to deal with it. These are "technology driven" ideas.

On rare occasions, I have gotten story ideas from my dreams (mostly nightmares). These are definitely the eeriest story concepts.