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What's the weirdest thing to have inspired you?
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A website selling homemade rag dolls made for children with disabilities. In particular, a rag doll with omphalocele. Totally wrote an entire book based on that one inspiration.
I found a tiny plastic model of a turtle, painted yellow, designed to fit on the end of a pencil. It looked odd to me, as it stood upright on its hind legs. So I decided it was not a turtle at all but a being that looked like one. Thinking of a name for this being, I simply changed the second t in turtle with a k to get turkle. I then gave this particular turkle a name, Klubbe, which rhymes with tube and cube. Klubbe and his fellow turkles lived on a planet called, Ankor, I then decided, and he was the inventor of the first space craft on his planet, the Golden Star Coracle. Eventually, I wrote my story, Klubbe the Turkle and the Golden Star Coracle. My book was a Finalist in the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards for 2015, I am pleased to say. It amazes me to think that if I had not found the tiny plastic model of a turtle, I never would have written my story.
Klubbe the Turkle and the Golden Star Coracle
Back in the '70s a popular song was The Raven by the Alan Parson's Project. It was a musical interpretation of Edgar Alan Poe's poem. It started giving me ideas that eventually resulted in my most recent novel, To Summon The Blackbird. I even include a few lines of the poem just to give it mood.
I read about how explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the pineapple when he visited Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. He was impressed with reports of its therapeutic properties so I had to integrate this into a story.
Once I found a creepy doll, hidden in a chimney of an abandoned house...
One time, I was visiting my grandmother in the hospital after she'd undergone colon cancer surgery... and one day we're just sitting around in her room talking, and for some reason, my eyes are fixated on her IV drip. For some reason, that sparked the idea in my head of a fight scene in which the IV drip becomes a weapon... and lo and behold, such a fight scene made its way into my latest novel, Blood Ties.
I have an undying love for tiny, overstocked, out-of-the way gas stations. Every time I see one I want to write a story about it, and I'm not sure why. I did write a short with the gas station as a prop, but I'd like to use the same place for other stories as well, hopefully taking more of an important role :)
Back in 1978 I was at Heathrow, on my way to catch a flight to JFK. I walked past the gate where Concorde was boarding and began idly calculating in my head:Wright Brothers, 1910, 40 MPH. Concorde, 1976, 1350 MPH.
That’s over 30 times faster in less than 70 years.
Another 30 times faster is over 40,000 MPH. That’s almost escape velocity.
And in that moment the eighty-footer, the light spaceship that is the mainstay of the Confederate Space Fleet was born.
A paint chart!OK, so it was the book that sounds more like a paint chart that everyone read.
But reading it made me think, "This is so awful, surely even I can do better than this??" so I tried.
And thus TL Clark was born!
:-)
I love psychological case studies of long forgotten crimes. They come ready made with terrific characters and plots.
I read something about drug addiction, losing reality and how addicts are used and conditioned. I took it to the extreme and wrote a story about a police investigator who does anything to infiltrate the underworld and catch the masterminds with dirty hands, but the changes he voluntary does, start to destroy the original person.
Mod
The mods suggested I write a story... I can't remember the name of the story, now.
But, here's a bit of that collection. They're @#*%ing cute.
don't know if it's weird or not but H.R Giger, Clive Barker and Van Gogh have all played a part in my stories, and there tends to be no relation at all to any of their paintings lol. i just look at them, and think of something completely off subject from the art.
The name of a doctor I didn't like very much, coupled with a medical study (in which he had no part).Riding along in the car, I saw a monkey scooping water out of a farm pond with a plastic pail.
Something I am sort of working on now was inspired by watching a lizard sitting in the sun.... Something about the look of its skin made me wonder about cold-blooded creatures with reticulated skins
Dwayne wrote: "I was telling a couple of the other mods about my Kurt Vonnegut doll when I first got it."Oh, these are cool. I would like to have Vonnegut watching over my writing. :-)
The most recent "strange" thing to give me inspiration for a story was a number plate on a car, and the odd thing is the story has nothing to do with cars. It is about a man thinking about a girl he knew years ago. Funny how the mind works sometimes.
Warhol and Vonnegut were obviously made to be immortalized as muppets. I want them both!I'm actually having trouble thinking of my strangest inspiration, which is odd because really, all of my inspirations have been strange. I will say that the Royal Blend coffee shop in New Orleans was what inspired my first ever completed novel. I was sitting in their courtyard, drinking coffee and reading a magazine when I looked around and thought, "this place should be in a book."
Christina wrote: "Warhol and Vonnegut were obviously made to be immortalized as muppets. I want them both!I'm actually having trouble thinking of my strangest inspiration, which is odd because really, all of my in..."
i think it's hard to think of anything weird, cuz it seems normal at the time haha. in hindsight a lot of it is weird, but....not really at the same time haha
NSFW I was at a gathering the other day and overheard this statement, "Pedro had balls surgery, and accidentally got half a vasectomy."
The short story is forthcoming!
I had a dream when I was a really, really little kid about my brother and me having superpowers. It's always stuck with me and is the inspiration for the book I'm writing right now.
Mod
He's a very nice companion, not only for the reason you mentioned, but he eats very little, never pees on the toilet seat and he doesn't snore.
He also never tells me my writing is shit, although I can tell he secretly thinks so.
Mod
I was at a gathering the other day and overheard this statement, "Pedro had balls surgery, and accidentally got half a vasectomy."
The short story is forthcoming!"
*cringe* Poor Pedro.
Hákon wrote: "The most recent "strange" thing to give me inspiration for a story was a number plate on a car, and the odd thing is the story has nothing to do with cars. It is about a man thinking about a girl h..."That happened to me as well. I saw a car in a carpark. The model was a (something)LX and the registration ended 1NE.
I now have a race of aliens called the Laxanae.
Orcs. Specifcally when i was Tumblr'ing drunk and I came across a so-many number panel comic strip that was gay. Not like, bad gay, but like a gay orc and an gay orc having sex but in a funny way. I found it remarkably sweet. The 4 or 6 panel mid story lead up t the last panel of gay sex. Super hopeless romantic where any sort of lik,e long lost love, the one that got away, boy meets girl, being dorky, falling for someone, or like, long established relationships that go new places and I get suckered into it and an unmanly squee escapes me no matter the oreintation. Even animals i'm like, gah fuck. That elephants or buzzards mate for like or some shizz. It's one of those things. Anyway, that inspiderd me add to this world I've been writing. Its super "adorbz as fuck." As they say. I finished the character's Bio because of it. Which turned out to be kinda coolio.
He's a very nice companion, not only for the reason you mentioned, but he eats very little, never pees on the toilet seat and he doesn't snore.He also never tells me my writing is shit, although I can tell he secretly thinks so.
He was such a good writer. One of the few that I have read almost complete. :-)
That happened to me as well. I saw a car in a carpark. The model was a (something)LX and the registration ended 1NE.I now have a race of aliens called the Laxanae."
I was so sure I would be the only one, but it's good to know that there are others that have also found inspiration in license plates. :-)
More of a parody on the topic, but some years back there was a short-lived sketch comedy show on Fox called The Edge where one sketch had "Stephen King" running around his kitchen while frantically working on a manuscript and needing more ideas because the closet full of finished manuscripts will be released within a few months. Then he looks at the egg timer on the table and muses about a story involving a satanic egg timer and the sketch closes on him shouting "Not the egg timer!"
Dwayne wrote: "I was telling a couple of the other mods about my Kurt Vonnegut doll when I first got it. I told them that he's part of a collection called "Little Thinkers" and listed some of the other dolls in t..."adorable little characters!!!
Dwayne wrote: "I was telling a couple of the other mods about my Kurt Vonnegut doll when I first got it. I told them that he's part of a collection called "Little Thinkers" and listed some of the other dolls in t..."OMG I'm ordering at least one; I love these!!! :-O
Mod
They sell some of them at a local book store here. That's where I bought Vonnegut. I've seen the Charlie Chaplin, the Gandhi, Jesus, Einstein and a few others there.
The name of one of my future novels came from a conversation on a show I watch, General Hospital. The name wasn't the exact phrase, but it was a variation of it. Odd that it was a soap opera and the book is paranormal romance. ;)
I went to the bathroom late at night and didn't turn any lights on, just walking like I know my way, which I do :) Well, maybe I was still half asleep because I ran into the wall going back to bed and that needless to say woke me up pretty good. I had a deep cut on my forehead from it. Hurt like hell too. Got me thinking, though. My character does the same thing but feels a hand push her in the back. Nobody is in the house, or is someone? Real person or ghost? I'm going with ghost and that's what happened to me too ;)
Haven't written this story yet, though. But it's still there waiting to be written.
Just today I had the weirdest conversation with my father in law, I was very angry with him because he wanted to get another dog and he barely takes care of his current dog (whose eye is badly injured), and while i was busy getting a vet he was busy looking at pictures on Facebook for a new dog!! and this kind of character inspired me for my next book.
haha A computer game called Heroes of Might and Magic.
My supervisor in Cambridge set a question about Planck's constant. Years later it triggered this idea:http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/...
I woke one morning with a voice in my head shouting, "Halley's Comet". This continued for a week and it forced me to do research on all things associated with Halley's appearance. Always Here is a result of that voice's persistence.
I woke one morning with an internal voice shouting, "Halley's Comet." This continued for two weeks and it force me do to research on all things associated with the comet's appearance to mankind throughout time. Always Here is a result of that voice's persistence.
A frog sitting on a lily pad catching bugs as they flew by until it was full. I remember thinking are you just going to sit there or are you going to get off now? It sat there a little while longer then suddenly jumped off. I looked around and an even bigger frog was swimming toward the same lily pad so the smaller frog just made way for him but he found an even nicer spot in the shade and was as content as ever. It made me take a look at myself and I decided to get off my lily pad before a bigger frog comes along and takes it from me. I published my first book and couldn't be prouder of how well it's doing now. Thanks little froggie.
The adage that truth is stranger than fiction harbors ideas ready to incubate. My first novel was driven by my own fragrance addiction and stint of time I spent on a forum for like-minded individuals.Sometimes, the vignettes in a song will inspire me.
Underlying Notes
Angelmovingonup wrote: "A frog sitting on a lily pad catching bugs as they flew by until it was full. I remember thinking are you just going to sit there or are you going to get off now? It sat there a little while longer..."Aww; I'm now earworming the Little White Duck song:
"There's a little green frog swimming in the water..."
:0
G.G. wrote: "haha A computer game called Heroes of Might and Magic."You've talked about this a few times, so I decided to check it out. I am now playing it every couple of days or so. Fun game!
My husband bought it for him yesterday. He wanted to play too. ;) glad you like it. :)
The idea of committing suicide .... no joke, but, luckily in such a dark time I found inspiration and through that inspiration the will to go on and become my somewhat happy self! :D
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Books mentioned in this topic
Underlying Notes (other topics)Always Here (other topics)
Blood Ties (other topics)
To Summon The Blackbird (other topics)
Klubbe the Turkle and the Golden Star Coracle (other topics)
One time I was at the hardware store, and I glanced at the electric sanders and totally got an idea about how I was going to torture this one character in this one story :D Lucky for that character I ended up not writing that story. But the inspiration is still there, floating about in my mind, waiting for a new fictional victim to torment. Mwhahahahahaha!