The Word Cloud

I find that sometimes stories just 'pop' into my head, I can sit at the keyboard, start typing and there it is pouring forth from my fingers and I've no idea where it came from. Others seem to start with a phrase or an idea and roll around inside my skull for quite some time. Sometimes these 'roll arounds' just do that and go away without ever coming to anything and other times they roll around, gather up more material and then suddenly they are there. How does it work for you guys? Just asking as the skull is feeling very empty at the moment!

My stories come from:

Dreams/nightmares

People I've met

Things that have happened to me, or to someone I know

Ideas sparked off by reading about the latest developments in subjects I'm interested in, eg quantum physics

A picture

Something I've entirely misunderstood

Something I've overheard on the bus or in the pub etc

Something that just pops into my head for no particular reason

Cross-connecting two or more incomplete ideas

Listening to music

Daydreaming

There's probly others, but I guess those are the main ones.

I am not sure where all the stories I think of come from - some do just pop inot my head.

One story was inspired by a woman I saw walking in a nearby town. From the back she was very elegant. She wore a well cut suit and her hand bag and shoes matched. Her hair was well cut and was a rich chestnut colour. She has a good figure. Then she turned round. Her face was ugly. I cannot descricbe why it was, it just was. The worst thing was that her clothes seemed to accentuate her ungliness.

Other stories have been inspired by dreams. I have very vivid dreams just before I wake up and sometimes they seem to tell a story, so I note them down.

Some places seem to cry out to me to have a stories written about them, or with them as locations.

Chracters.

I've written lots of stories, and for me, the ones I always feel best about afterwards are the ones where I start with a really strong character, and throw them into a world to see how they cope. Once I've got three or four such characters going, all at odds with one another, that's when things get interesting (not so great for short stories, much more effective for novella size things).

But that's just me.
I've tried to start stories elsewhere, but it always seems to be the characters that end up making/breaking the story.

Totally agree, Babl. I find it's easy to come up with scenarios, but without good character ideas, they don't come to life. Great characters are hard to invent, and when you do find you have a really good character, it seems a shame to waste them on a mere short story - but, on the other hand, if you want to write good short stories, they need good characters. I've partially solved that dilemma by reusing the same characters in different stories, where possible (eg Chloe Marston and Rosanna Cross in 'Gaia; armed and dangerous', 'Werewolf soup', 'The squibster is off' and 'Chronic illness').

Character is the lens through which the reader views your stories, and also what engages them emotionally. I wouldn't say "Character is everything" but it's nearly everything!

Story ideas come from so many different things. That's why it is so important to have a notebook at hand, to jot down an overheard phrase, a dream that you fleetingly remember in your waking moments, something off the telly, or an idea that just 'pops into your head'. When you are stuck for ideas, and as writers I'm sure we have all been there, this notebook becomes invaluable. I don't think that there is any set answer to that question. People find inspiration from all sorts of crazy things.

I tend to find a situation that is generally pretty irritating to me and work with it, iron it out so to say, the characters develop, and unfortunately the more I go back to revise the more changes I make, the more complicated it gets and it snowballs - not always in a good way though. I have to be careful.

I am definitely more motivated by doom and gloom than anything else unfortunately.

Wrathnar's list just about sums it up for me, and in approximately the same order, with the addition of legends and folk tales about halfway down the list. Characters definitely come first.