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What’s an unexpected place, event, or person that you got a story idea from?
A couple unexpected things that happened to me that I got some pretty cool story ideas out of:
Waffle House. Went to a Waffle House once in my life and that was at 2am when I was eight years old. Never will I go again. It was a very creepy experience and all the customers lowkey looked like zombies.
Meeting someone’s Doubleganger. “Dylan? is that you?” No it was not Dylan. Despite hearing people call him a totally different name and spending five consecutive mornings with him, I thought he was Dylan from writing classes I took a year prior. Look, height, body language, voice… yes. He had to have been his doubleganger. No other explanation. Made a complete fool of myself, but at least I got a story idea out of it right?
I have some other unexpected places I got story ides from, but I’ll hand the question over to you. What’s an unexpected place, person, or event you got a story idea from?
*quickly skims all 50-60 story ideas* *looks up sheepishly* *decides not to tell Kathleen that most of her story ideas come from dreams or other books she’s read ’cause that’s too boring*
Oh, yeah, most of my story ideas come from real experiences. Like last week, when I fought a dragon in the backyard. You know. That sort of thing.
Did you write that Waffle House story? Because if you did, I’d love to read it! It sounds so perfectly creepy.
I get most of my story ideas when I’m reading or just from thinking of concepts I want to try out/mess with. But just the other day I got the very faintest inkling of an idea when I was discussing birthdays with my friend and she said it would be weird if there was a day that just one person was born on. Or maybe if there was a day that no one has ever been born on. I’m not sure yet, and I don’t even know what kind of story this could be or how I’d turn it into one. But I thought that idea was a bit interesting.
One time I was listening to “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence, and this urban fantasy/romance idea came to me while listening to the bridge. Then my dad was watching the highlights of Daredevil (the movie, not the TV show) and I saw the “All is Lost” scene for Matt Murdock – and a lightbulb went off in my head. I had a climax moment for my MC! 😀
But I’ve never gotten a story idea from a song idea before. That was new for me.
Most of mine come from my other story ideas that came from some book I read. I have gotten ideas from sermons, although that makes sense.
However, my family once attended a gigantic firework show (it would probably have been illeagal if we were any where else). I now have an air raid scene.
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Fork the GorkAn odd dream. Yes I know that dreams aren’t particularly unexpected places to find story ideas (at least not for me), but like I said, it was an odd dream. How many of you have had a dream were you were at a funeral and the family of the deceased through birthday cake at the corpse. Yes, you read that right. The inspection I received from the dream came f on the emotions that I got the see when the deceased’s sister was told of his death. Still, birthday cake?
You will love what you spend time with.
@kathleenramm I’ve never been to a waffle house at any time of day, so my imagination is doing a good job of creeping me out XD
And I totally know what you mean about the doppelganger thing!!! I know two people who are totally unrelated (well, we’re all human, so all related that way but you know what I mean) and they look and sound very similar, and even act similar, and their personalities are SCARY similar. thankfully they live like, miles apart so its not gonna be confusing XD
A weird thing that gave me an idea; abortion, world politics combined in a late night staring into nothing moment.
So it morphed over the next couple days, but the main thought is: what would happen if science advanced enough to add traits like ice or fire or electricity manipulation to humans, and it was made legal to use humans for science so instead of aborting babies, they used some to change their genetics to add these traits? what would those people be like?
Yeah, sorry, thats weird, but anyhow, I, um, sort of started a book with that, and I am enjoying writing it even though the actual thought is disturbing. I mean, the thought of one day the government allowing using people for science experiments is not that insane with the way our world is going.
Aaanyways, that’s my super unexpected story i never thought I’d write! Also, I am really enjoying writing. it has a theme of redemption and forgivness and learning that no matter what we think we are, we are loved by God, but we cannot save ourselves.
sorry if thats totally confusing or creepy XD
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
@kathleenramm Plenty of places that I don’t even remember. Probably something similar to your waffle house experience. If I remember I’ll let you know.
Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into daysI’ve got most of my ideas from titles. Of books within whatever book I’m currently writing.
It all started when in a fan fic I was doing, this character was binging a series called ‘The Prince of WalfKlau.’ One day, I just started wondering what The Prince of WalfKlau was about. And now I have a 5 book series about it😂.
And then, within that, there’s this book series called Falcon’s Eyrie, which inspired me to have an idea (which I think will be my next big project, it’s a pretty cool world,) to write a series called Eyria.
So yeah. Book title inception.😂
The end of a story, a beautiful picture; a feeling of longing yet hope~
That’s my wish to create.Ugh, I can’t remember…, but I have had many ideas from listening to music, especially worship/altar. For example, the soloist sings something like: “You didn’t think you’d make it through the night,/ It’s a wonder you survived,/ but you’re still here…” And a sunrise-on-the-battlefield scene pops into my head. Also I have a habit of listening for voices that sound like my character’s.
But a really strange place? Hmm. Would a history class work? Maybe a long trip in some dark, unknown woods? Or perhaps some Winston Churchill speeches would do? What are normal places anyway? Life is full of inspiration, and I think it’s often unexpected. I do get many ideas from other books, though, and that might be anticipated.
@koshka Sermons are wonderful places for ideas!You have listened to fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you... Are you brave again? -Aslan
So… unexpected place? Physical, or like, emotional?
Lol, but seriously, I get the best story ideas when I’m mad. Like, frustrated mad when I only get an awful 89 on my math test.
Sometimes I’ll be talking to my sis, we’ll be deep in a discussion, she’ll be mid sentence, then I’ll stand up, turn to her and demand she say a random word. Usually she’ll respond with whatever word is on her mind (I.E. avocado) and we’ll continue our conversation. At this point, she doesn’t even question it, until she finds that word plays a large theme in my next book; either it being a subplot, or the overall arch.
@cathrynv , @elishavet-pidyon
Yea! Songs inspire me quite a bit when writing. I have playlists upon playlists created just for my books.@kathleenramm I get ideas from all kinds of places. My first fanfiction was literally inspired by a picture of a boat I saw in a magazine. And I get ideas from dreams all the time, like the one about dinosaurs that were used by police when I had a dream I was at a police station and they had a whole pen of gallimimus dinosaurs to ride. That dream also involved me going onto a space station where there was a radioactive danger…..dreams are absurd, aren’t they? And like @cathrynv and @elishavet-pidyon said, songs are great for story inspiration! It happened to me once.
@elfwing Your idea reminds me of one of my favorite shows–in it, the MCs and the villain are sort of super-soldiers; they’re “genetically enhanced” (a nice way of saying mutated and then experimented on). I mean, they look like regular humans, but they’ve got hyper-enhanced abilities like sight, strength, intelligence, and one has this weird ability to sense electromagnetic fields, like a shark can. Oh yeah, and my brother had a similar idea–the villain group he created has a soldier named Kelvin, who was created in a lab and can control ice. He is part Hypersense, which are powerful beings who look human in all respects, except having different colored eyes, and I think their ear canals are wider, and basically they have hyper-tuned senses (hence the name). So I have dealt with elemental/genetically modified characters quite a bit.Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.
Honestly, I have no idea where my ideas come from!! 🤣 I think I had such an uneventful life growing up that I created people and places that were so much more exciting!
I know I do get some idea from books, movies, and music. I’ve also had dreams give me great ideas and one time gave me the perfect inciting incident!I think a lot of the time my ideas spring from visuals!
A yellow manor house in Ireland that I stayed in is now the setting that inspired my WIP.Also when I see interesting-looking people they trigger a potential character with a whole backstory attached! Lol
Or sometimes a quote I read can ignite an idea too!
Sorry for the rambling! XD
I just found this very interesting;)
INFJ/ChristianFiction/ IceCreamAddict/ StarGazer/ https://lamplighterletters.wixsite.com/mysite-1
@maryg3 I can relate to the uneventful childhood! I was homeschooled and we lived remote. like, the nearest city with a Costco was 6 hrs, and people think an hour is nothing to go visit each other. And we only had one vehicle that my dad drove to work, so the only real social interaction with people was Sundays and the occasional church potluck. XD
like, now I’m moved out and can actually go places and it’s like I’m breathing in something I didn’t know I was missing! I wrote my story about a young girl because I felt so small like I had a boring childhood, so I gave her one that was anything but boring.
sorry, long rant. XD
@Keilah-h you have a very cool imagination!!!! it’s useful for stories, isn’t it? Don’t ever let that die, keep writing!Just because some people may not think it’s cool doesn’t mean you should stop. I almost stopped reading and writing because all my peers were into horses of video games or sports, but then I was like “you know what? just because they don’t like it doesn’t make it wrong! I’m gonna do it til I can’t do it anymore!” and I haven’t looked back since.
sorry, long rant. I’m in a passionate mood today XDDDD
I'm 'a homeschooler' because cookie-making writing artistic animal-whisperer isn't a job title
Yeah, I can relate to Sunday’s being the only social days!
I’m just thankful I had a huge property to explore and spend time running around in and lots of pets/animals to play with!
Same! I have a protagonist who is 15 going on sixteen. It’s kinda like I write about the MC as if I was them and was put in a different and exciting situation and then had by MC respond to the adventure in a way I hoped I could. Like being more courageous or speaking up for oneself or having special freedoms that would be unrealistic in our modern world.
I think most well-known authors would agree with us on this topic;);)
INFJ/ChristianFiction/ IceCreamAddict/ StarGazer/ https://lamplighterletters.wixsite.com/mysite-1
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