Inspiration. Where do you pull it from?

[Dizwikz]

A little thread to discuss where you might get your inspiration from. We all draw from things consciously or subconsciously from things we've watched, heard, liked, disliked, our cultures, etc. List them out or go into something that really inspires you to draw or write or do whatever.

For my novel Tales From New Jump City, I draw a lot from anime tropes as well as drawing inspiration from my Brazilian heritage with the stories I was told as a kid about Cuca, the crocodile woman that steals misbehaving children and takes them away forever.
Also, take a lot of inspiration from the fun storytelling perspective of One and his works.
Also take from things like battle shounen, history, meditation practices, and other things like that.
So what inspires you?

[therosesword]

What inspires me? Everything.

I wrote an article for an online writing magazine about a little exercise I use.

This, of course, was when you could go and sit at a cafe safely but...

Take your coffee or tea and sit outside and watch people go by. Pick five people and create a story around them.
Just free flow it. Doesn't matter how outlandish, garish, horrific or bubble gum sweet it is. Pick 5 people and weave a scenario around them. Then, if you're ambitious, weave the scenarios together.

If you just let your brain go free you should be able to get an inspiration out of anything, from a crumpled flower on the sidewalk to a cup of coffee.

Write hard, write true.

[Dizwikz]

That's a really interesting method to use. I find it really fun to just throw characters in a scenario and let it play out instead of just charting everything.
That sounds really interesting though. Do you use that exercise often, to get you out of a rut, or just like as a fun thing to do? Or all of the above lol.

[Dysis]

Um...so...my stories came from my nightmares. (Does that count?)

[Dizwikz]

Yeah that counts lol. I've had some good concept dreams for stories.
Hwat are your nightmares like if you feel ok sharing.

[Dysis]

Oh, okay haha!

As far as I remember, book 1 was inspired from a nightmare where there was this girl who had to save her dog from being abducted but the doggo died by the hands of those abductors. I was so struck by this that I forced my lucid dreaming to make the girl go back in time and stop the doggo from dying, but then she went to the police to stop the abductors from abducting the doggo but the policemen were all involved.

Second story comes from a ghost haunting a girl.

Third comes from feeling suffocated when someone pushes my head in a cauldron in a magic class...

Fourth comes from...ah, I don't remember that one. Something to do with mass murderers.

Ok. This is morbid. I swear my stories aren't that bad ahaha...

[TheGentleArtist]

Music, anime, american cartoons, manga and real life are things I pull inspiration from. When I'm listening to music, it gives me an idea to draw and I go and draw it. From real life, I use: wisdom from others, things I learn and the beauty around me to get an idea what to draw and how to get my characters to be more realistic in my eyes.

My series has gotten inspirations from: Ed, Edd N' Eddy (from a feedbacker), Gintama, Life of High School Boys, Nichijou and etc,. So, it's a Slice of Life Comedy. The old school shows really inspires you and you never know they do until you think back on it.

[Crusoe]

Obviously my own bl story is inspired by a lot of the stories in my tapas library, but other than that it's also inspired by an old romance rp I did a few years back. Rps are pretty good inspiration for me since the person you're rping with may take the story into a whole other direction than you were anticipating.

My drawing is heavily inspired by cartoons I watched as a kid as well as bits and pieces of anime, but mostly cartoons. (Like Steven universe, gravity falls, etc.)

I wish my writing was more inspired by welcome to night vale, Douglas Adams and similar types of writing, because I just really like their surreal humor.

[Dizwikz]

Yo I love daily lives of high school boys. That show killed me. Gintama is super funny too. I've only seen clips but I enjoyed what I saw.

@Dysis It's all good lol. We take things from many different places and it can change a lot from the original source.

@MeLovesTacos I'm sure you can throw some of those elements into future works1

[therosesword]

Rarely use it, although I did write a murder mystery for the audio drama company I worked for called "Four Corners, Four Strangers, One Lie" where the people on the street corners all shared something.

Otherwise, no, it's just an exercise to get things moving if they're sluggish and to remind myself that inspiration can be taken from anything. I rare chart out anything, 99% of what I do is free flow. Sorry if you got that idea from the exercise, it's more mental exercise than anything.

[TheGentleArtist]

That show is a roller coaster. Gintama is funny, but can also get pretty serious and it balances it so well.

[Kiweevil]

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[cherrystark]

Like most people, from everything. I also like to draw connections and ask the big "What If" questions. One that I've been playing with is "what if there was a hero that only became a hero because they were genuinely nice?" That opened a lot of doors to let ideas develop. Connections, for me, are important and really define what's "relatable".

One thing that's really inspired me that I try to incorporate in my works is that people's "extra" abilities aren't curses, they are just a fact of life. Strong smells make me physically sick. I can't wear most perfumes and those laundry "scent boosters" they advertise make me sneeze for the entire wash/drying cycle. Yes, it's an inconvenience to have to walk away from someone or something because of smell, but it's also a gift. I can basically "track" and identify faint, faint smells. I like to show people adapting to their challenges instead of constantly griping about their lot in life.

[Leverance]

For my story His Obsession I gained inspiration from this Youtube video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8XuKg5zBHM ). I made some changes and worked out some kinks to make it work for a short duology.

I gain inspiration from music, games, book, manga, light novels, news, and actually sicknesses. And a bunch of other stuff. I write mostly mature stories so gore or lewd is guaranteed for the most part. Though, I've some books without it.

[silverraven0]

Some came from shower thoughts, some from me daydreaming randomly, sometimes from music, and pretty much everything else.

[rajillustration]

Hopefully this isn't too abstract, but for me it's when I have an idea for a story, I unintentionally build the plot around a theme. Not in a moral story kind of way--just in a "this is the thread that holds everything together kind of way." and then I kind of draw from things around me that have to do with that theme. So for Alchemist Burnouts, I had this theme of "why do you need to sacrifice so much of yourself in order to have worth and importance?" and while I don't think I ever need to answer that question (because that would make it a morality tale instead of expecting my readers to make their own conclusions) a lot of things around me suddenly started to click with it--books I've read, movies I've watched, and even things in history that I could echo in my work.

So in my writing I kind of think of inspiration in the same way I use reference when I draw art. It helps me get an idea of what works, what doesn't work, what's real, what's not real, and helps me to make a more realistic and personal connection when I write.

[Dizwikz]

The first things I saw from the show were clips of serious fights, so I was very surprised when I saw the show and its content in its entirety.

@cherrystarkI think that's an interesting way to tackle stories. Also interesting that you have such a strong sense of smell. Reminds me of Tanjiro from demon slayer. I've met people with the opposite where they can barely smell anything even if the smell is super strong.

@Looks interesting will check out.

@silverraven0 That's relatable. I've gotten some really good concepts for ideas in the shower before lol.
@rajillustration That's a very interesting and broad way to go about creating a work. Sounds like that can yield a lot of interesting ideas and story avenues.

[Eiranyx]

I don't know if this is pretty common but I usually get my inspiration from my dreams -- no matter how good or bad or even weird it is.
I tend to remember every details like the place, what am I wearing that time and how things went through the dream I had at night so when I wake up, I write it down immediately and then I turn it into a new story.
Other than that, i'm fascinated with old things like antique art and stuffs.

[TheBluester]

Almost everywhere but I mainly get it from the animes I watch. Whether it's considered weeby or not, my books are heavily inspired by certain shows I watch due to the creativeness and liveliness they emit and personally? I find those shows to be a pretty reliable source of inspiration if I ever want to quickly jot down a description of a character/setting or anything else.

[WhiskeyMadDog]

Just about everything inspires me, but where I get my inspiration the most is from movies, vintage posters, art museums, music, and cool stuff I find on the internet.

What I highly recommend doing is collecting books for reference (I have about 20 reference art books), and saving images that you find on the internet on a flashdrive or Google doc and put them into separate folders based on topic or theme. That's what I've been doing recently and it's very helpful.