Well, I decided to post something I've been meaning to ask ever since I joined the boards--I know there are a lot of writers here, so it figures.

Where does everyone get their inspiration, and what's an example of how things fit together?

For me its:

-Things I watch (Anime)
-Things I hear (weird quotes, weird facts)
-Music I listen to (Game Sound tracks, anything I listed in the "Bands" thread)
-Things I read (Lovecraft, King, Clarke, Crowley, Pratchett and Gaiman)

How things fit together: My novel was a mixture of Evangelion, the writings of the mystic Aleister Crowley, H.P. Lovecraft and various albums by Waxwing.

Anyone else willing to step up to the plate and answer?

I agree with you, and it happens that I also use the same inspirational sources as you are, but my interests are much wider in scope... plus it's movie scripts - "Pulp Fiction" is what made me better at dialogue.

Several of my original story ideas have literally come to me in my dreams. That's always a bit freaky, when not only do you dream up a story, but then the story continues on the next night becuase you've been thinking about it the whole day.

I get a lot of my other insiration for my fan-works from the shows themselves, questions that were left unanswered or other paths that could have been taken. Playing the 'what if' game is too much fun to pass up.

I'm going to take the cheap way out and quote myself from my site FAQ:

"As many poets can attest, angst and hermitage are a great source of inspiration. But seriously, I don't look to the real world for ideas, it's too depressing. I read a lot, watch tons of anime, and play video games in between. Some of my ideas are "what if that happened instead" or otherwise inspired by other people's works. I like soaking up everyone else's creativity, mixing it with Dr. Pepper and hitting puree. After being sifted through the dark and twisted recesses of my mind, it eventually comes out as something original."

I draw inspiration from different stories, music, movies, TV...whatever's there that sounds interesting and kick ass.

My inspiration comes from anything that strikes me for whatever reason. One day I opened the freezer and noticed some stuff on the door that had been there since electricity was invented... and it made me start writing a poem in my head.
Anything overly emotional gets written in one of my notebooks. Anything that made me cry or made my day. I take things like that and tie them into pretty poetry bows... <-- that smells like cheese.

Well, a lot of my inspiration comes from things that most people aren't used to. I like to read various old mythologies and records of ancient or strange civilizations. They tend to be far enough outside the box that most people don't know where they come from.

Oh yeah, and if you think you're up to the challenge, you get a cookie if you can figure out who in my story Nakamura is and where he comes from.

Inspired? Pshaw. I'll just hijack every single good idea anyone else has ever had.



(kidnapped Millions Knives once, but i'm not sure exactly if that was a good idea. :/)



No really.... I get inspired (to draw...) from stupid things. Plane flights to playing yu-gi-oh cards with my six year old cousin (his idea, not mine...)


and then there's BSLM. I blame the magical girls.

All sorts of stuff...for me though, my primary inspiration has been Higher Learning and Sailor Moon Omoi. It's pretty good and though there are flaws with both, I'm trying to sift out the good from bad to aid me in becoming a better writer. Nevermind that most of my stuff on FF.net is crap.

And nice to see you here as well, soul.assassin. ^_^