Where do you all find inspiration for your books or stories? I’ve been wanting to write some short stories lately, but I’ve been having a hard time coming up with new ideas so I’d enjoy learning about how you think of ideas for new stories 🙂
Thomas Limon Posted new comment
I’d love to hear from lots of people on this, but I find most of my inspiration from other things that I’m reading and listening to. Usually when I find myself without ideas, I’m not really consuming good stuff. I have to be filled to overflow!
For me, reading and listening are significantly more inspirational than watching. While I enjoy movies and TV, I find that they they don’t stimulate my mind in the same way.
Brad Pauquette Answered question
I look to family relationships. My wife is studying to me a marriage and family therapist. She introduced me to family systems theory. If you don’t know what it is, then just watch a few youtube videos about. I think every author should be familiar with it. Once I realized the interconnectedness of people and their influence on how I behave, my eyes were really opened. I also concluded that if stories need plot, conflict, and characters, then everything I need for a story can be found by plucking at the threads of my family, whether that be my own or someone else’s.
Also, court cases can be great too. I’m a lawyer, so that comes easier to me than most, I would think. But it’s totally available to you too, and it may be easier in the sense that lay people can focus on the story, not the technicalities. Every person in a court case (e.g. trial) wants something. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be there. The protagonist/antagonist is super easy to understand, and the conflict is obvious, John Doe v. Jane Doe.