It's probably safe to say that we all have our own unique writing style and the way we brainstorm. My question to you all is, "How does your writing begin?" Do you lay in bed, trying to fall asleep, thinking about all the possibilities for your latest story? (That's me). Do you have sudden bursts of inspiration in a coffee shop, and frantically write it all down on a napkin?

I'd love to hear how it all begins for you!

This is a fun thread I'd have to say I'm like you. I just dream up possibilities at night when I can't sleep. I also get inspiration from other books. The only problem with that is that I don't want to copy it.

My problem is I dream up possibilities when I probably can sleep. Here's how it goes. I get it in bed, close my eyes and BAM! my mind is working. I have to intentionally be like, "Laura, go to sleep! Stop this story making!"

And I totally understand where you're coming from about the copying thing! I want to make a story my own, but there are so many great ideas out there done by other people.

Yeah...I probably do that too.



Yes! And I don't want to steal any ideas

So true! Definitely not the God honoring thing to do, and besides that, things could get messy.

I get ideas in the grocery store and when I'm watching math videos. And at one a.m.when I'm "sleeping"

True on both accounts when I first started writing I did copy stuff, but it never got any more than fun. Just practice


Interesting...
Haha, yeah. Late at night

I just got this picture of you standing in the grocery store and exclaiming, fist raised, "I know what they shall be called!" Only you and Jesus know what's going on in your head...everyone else thinks you're crazy.

And sleep really is a wonderful place to get inspired to write. I know I've had several dreams before and I was like, "That needs to be a story!"

A lot of my story ideas and/or settings come from dreams. I also have a bad habit of getting randomly inspired about a half-hour after bed time...and then of course my brain is working too furiously to be able to sleep and I have to get up and write it down so that it can STOP...by which time it's an hour or two past my bed time.

how did you know that is what I do?

Dreams, definitely...with my current WIP, I drew a map and developed a plotline from the map and a character web. It all depends. Or sometimes I am randomly inspired by some little thing I read about, see in a movie or experience first hand and decide to incorporate that as the main plot point in a story.

Haha, my dreams are way too messed up for inspiration and most of the time I can't remember them but that's cool

The book I'm writing right now began when I was talking to a friend of mine about sympathy, and a 'what if' question came into my head. I think it most often happens like that, though sometimes I get ideas from dreams or late night wakefulness too. Another thing I do is chase down inspiration with a club.... Sometimes I don't have an idea (or the right idea), and I have a handful of techniques I use for finding one when one doesn't come. It's fun.

I think it's great getting inspiration from other stories.... One way to be original (and not get into trouble either ) is to ask yourself 'what if it didn't go like that?' You know... you use a bit of the story, but when it gets to a key point, you make it happen a different way, and swap some things around, and have it all come out completely different. I've done that a few times before.

I can now imagine you running after inspiration waving a club


Hmm, that is a good idea

Oops, I didn't see the last reply O.o

Divine Revelation

Hmmm...the things around me...dreams, movies, books. inspiration comes easily for me. Music....but mostly an idea just pops in my head. As for the difficulty of copying....it isn't plagiarism if you are inspired by the idea of that author or screenwriter....if you get the idea but totally change it up, its different...that way you are stealing anything

That's what it feels like. I am an experienced inspiration hunter.

Yup.

Haha! I love this mental image. My Neighbor is running around in her front yard brandishing a huge knobbled club as she tries to catch a frightened little exhausted inspiration-bunny. XD

I should try that sometime.

Sometimes I take an interesting concept and turn it into a setting, and then the story comes afterwards. Like a couple years ago I thought "What if all my characters were named after the Hebrew letters?" And I added that to the idea of elemental dragons, and a story emerged.

For me, God usually gives me ideas when I'm working, watching a movie, or reading a book. I get a lot from watching movies. And then when I get a good idea for a story, I'll stay awake at night until all the pieces fit together.

Elemental dragons...that sounds awesome!



I just love getting ideas when they come out of nowhere. Last night, that happened to me right before bedtime.

Technically, they never come from nowhere. Every good idea comes straight from the mind of God. But, yes, I love getting those. And then you end up staying awake at night fleshing it out.

How long does that take?

That depends. If it's really good and I'm flowing with it, I'll just play it through my head for three hours or so until I get too tired and fall asleep.

Yes, you should. Maybe we could have a hunt together sometime!

Ooh, yes. I'll find me a club.

I'm finding more and more recently that I can't just lay awake developing stories at night because my brain is desperate to remember them and it keeps repeating the ideas over and over and over and it won't let me sleep. So I have to get up and write them down to make it stop.

Three hours... I can't focus that long ...not even for my stories


That's me sometimes

I have a cell phone I use for an alarm clock (I don't actually use it for calling people ), and I sometimes type ideas into it with my thumbs in the middle of the night so I can go to sleep.

I tend to also get a lot of my inspiration for writing. Also I started a part time job, and it's busy work but not always very challenging. When I dog groom my mind is filled with what I'm doing, partly because I love it I guess. In my part time job, I don't find it as challenging so I find myself thinking about my writing, plots and so on.

I do think I get a lot of ideas when I'm trying to sleep though. Which can be very irritating when you have to be up for work at 6am.

When I merge with the story and character and it's flowing good, I can focus on it for a long time before getting tired.

1. I get the story idea. Sometimes it's just a "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if..." or I think of the end of a story - a cliffhanger, and build my story around that.

2. Either way, then I map out an outline of events in the story, which generally looks something like this:

Davey wakes up
Davey eats breakfast
Davey plays with his dog
Dog gets lost
Davey finds dog

3. I put in as much detail as I can into the outline, and sometimes write a few lines ahead of time, for example -

Davey finds dog. "Yay! Puppy!" Or whatever.

4. I start writing. Generally, if I missed something while writing the outline (Important plot point, etc.) I edit it in, and then make sure I go over the outline and make sure the change blends in with the rest of the story, if not, I change what needs to be change to accommodate the first change...edit. (That was confusing, wasn't it?)

And that's pretty much how I get story ideas/start them off.