Strange Inspiration

[Foxbat]

Where does it come from? How does it work?
It sometimes seems to be like the flick of a switch. Sometimes like the gestation period of......an animal with a very long gestation period.
I am currently working on a Sci-Fi short story which was inspired by a dispute on a golf course a few years ago. I had a story in my head somewhere (I could feel it scratching around in my brain) and, when I read about this dispute, things just started to fall into place.
Anybody else got any strange inspiration? Or am I just in need of some serious medication?

[Twelve]

Well, medication can also lead to great inspirations. (smile)
I'm with you. I get great ideas out of the blue, and I have to write them down or make it a point to remember them. I had a very strange dream one night that involved a young boy, a fairy, and an old-fashioned robot. The dream played out like a movie...but my dream only showed the introduction of the tale.
Since then, I've written a sci-fi story that starts off exactly as my dream has shown. I've gotten a couple of artists to work on it and I'm trying to put it into a comic. Who knows? The dream was certainly special, and I never forgot the dream, though I forget all of my other ones.


12

[brian]

Sometimes I wonder how close creativity comes to the processes of spirituality.

By that I don't mean that writers are Divine - simply the concept - of feeling as if you receiving information from an external source. No wonder the Greeks perceived their Muses.

Happens in different ways, though. The best writing is where you are not actually aware of what you're writing, other than you know you must keep moving your pen (or keep typing). Then afterwards you look and see what a complex peice you wrote and wonder: Did I really just write that?

Then there's seeimg images. You see a pciture and simply have to communicate that vision.

I guess generally, though, creativity comes like a flow of liquid, and you have to know that when the words begin to flow you absolutely need to be able to write them down - and when they do come, they do not stop for ages. And sometimes they do not flow at all for months.

Funny thing, inspiration.

[littlemissattitude]

I've actually quit trying to figure out where I get the inspiration for writing ideas. Sometimes I can identify where a specific idea has come from - something I've seen or heard makes me think of something that cries out to be written down and stored for later reference, or else to be put into something already being written. Other times, I have no idea where a particular notion comes from - it just seems to pop into my mind from nowhere in particular. And I've decided that is just fine with me, that I don't have to know where it came from. The important thing is that it is there. Sometimes I'm afraid to analyze where my ideas come from too closely, for fear that they will quit coming.

I sometimes have the experience of writing something and then, later, when I read it over I just sit there and think - "I wrote that? Interesting." It isn't that I don't remember writing it - I do. It just seems strange to me that some of the things I've written actually come out of my mind. This happens particularly often with poetry I've written.

The thing I find really interesting - and sometimes a little frightening - is when something I'm writing just starts flowing. I've had this experience fairly often in writing non-fiction. I'll not know how to put my research or my ideas together into a coherent whole. I'll play with it endlessly, and the writing is all right, but it just doesn't flow right. And then, all of a sudden, I'll just know, just know, how everything should fit together. Intellectually, I realize that this is probably just a function of having lived with the material long enough that I can finally recognize how the parts best fit together. But instinctively, I really feel like there is something more mysterious going on sometimes, some sort of writer's sixth sense or something, because it sometimes happens so suddenly at the point I feel most confused about how I should proceed.

[Foxbat]

This idea of 'flow' is something I have also experienced.
Looking at the replies: there are distinct similarities between them all. It makes me wonder if there is something common or constant to the way we all receive inspiration. Maybe one day, I'll be able to bottle it, stick a label on it and make a fortune!

[scifimoth]

A great many writers and artists were inspired by the green fairy ;D
With me it's often a simple image that catches my eye and leads to creation. I am working on a poem now that comes from finding the road home littered with dead butterflies...(they were sitting on the road in droves this summer and not all of them survived the experience).

[Foxbat]

Absinthe makes the heart grow stronger ;D

I've just finished a short story called 'The Butterfly Collector'

Synchronicity 8)

[scifimoth]

Love that title ;D
Did you know that they legalized the green fairy again in parts of europe...

[Foxbat]

I've yet to get some. It's retailing at £40 a bottle. That's probably about $70. Expensive stuff.

[scifimoth]

Yep..but if I read my history right it may be well worth it ...LOL

[Foxbat]

I do believe that Van Gough had a liking for this stuff....which probably explains the lack of an ear. ;D

[scifimoth]

That is what I read somewhere too...I have a list of famous people somewhere that used the green fairy as their muse.....now I just gotta find it LOL