Turn on the Bright Light
Where most of my story ideas come from (in order of frequency):
1. Dreams
2. Other short stories or novels I've read
3. Stranges I see while I'm out and about
4. Fragments of childhood memories
5. Weird things that have happened to my friends (or to me, albeit less frequently)
6. Songs (sometimes the lyrics, sometimes the actual music)
7. Things people have left behind in books (notes, letters, train tickets, inscriptions)
posted by Jen @ 5:58 PM
1 Comments:
I think writers make a mistake when they rely too heavily on autobiographical material. Nothing I've ever used from my own life or anyone else's is recognizable in my fiction (I think) because whatever caused the initial inspiration in me was a very small piece of the puzzle and not necessarily an event in its entirety. It could have been a sentence someone said or an action someone did, but never anything whole cloth.
I think using events verbatum from your life can be risky, not only because of the recognition factor but because when one is afraid of manipulating the details too much (for fear the story won't ring true anymore), one's creative juices are held captive. Never a good thing.
Also, if you do simply use whole-cloth sources, you risk becoming more of a steno writer than a creative writer. Of course, many writers have been extremely rewarding careers using this formula (Sedaris, Capote). As have comedians.
However, for me the fun of writing is putting a slither of a real occurence into the crazy washing machine of my mind and seeing what it does to the clothes (or ideas, as they are) already swimming in there.
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