Inspiration comes from all kinds of places for different people, but where does the lion’s share of ideas come from for you?
I’d say probably 3 of every 5 stories I’ve ever written started as a dream. Not verbatim to how the story ends up, but some governing theme or very specific scene in the dream always kicks the “what if” center of my brain into making it into a cohesive story.
How about you?
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Probably if I see a really good movie or talk to a friend about their ideas.
Brainstorming is really good to expand ideas
For my FFXIV fanfictions it's definitely the "what if" moments in the story. Where I think my character would act differently than what is written out in the story.
Or it would come from roleplaying and writing the background story for my character.
As a firm believer in the idea that "Everything Is A Remix", I get my inspiration derivatively. Whenever I see or hear a line (usually but not always dialogue) in a book, comic, movie, show, game or even song that I find particularly evocative, it goes into a notes file on my phone. Later (sometimes a day or two, sometimes a several months), I build a new moment or scene around that specific line. Then I start tracing out a general story where that scene can han happen, then the kind of world that story can be set in. When all is said and done, that original line may not even be included in the final result, but it was still the thread I used to start weaving the tale.
And if anyone happens to be curious: My favorite of these threads currently in my notes file is from the visual novel Arcade Spirits: "There's so few places in the world which are truly secret and hidden. But this one? This one's mine." And The first time I wrote something this way was with the line "Careful, your smile is slipping." from page 784 of Megatokyo (shoutout to fans of niche early-2000's webcomics)
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