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[MBTI General] What inspires you to write?

GZA

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If you are a writer, what is it that inspires you to write when you do? I am referring to both beginning writing as a hobby, and the specific event of writing on a day to day basis.

Do you write out of habit, or are there specific moods you must enter, or things you must experience, in order to write?
 

SilkRoad

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I've done various kinds of writing both professionally and for my own satisfaction.

If it's professionally, I'm inspired to write by the fact that I have to, basically. ;) actually, it has always helped me when others set deadlines for me. But I don't think that's really what you're getting at.

I used to write fiction but haven't for several years. Basically, I think I am a good writer stylistically but I tend to have a lack of creative ideas plot-wise...it is just not my thing...I have often talked with friends about this, since many of them say they have plotlines coming out of their ears but can't write to save their soul. I think we should get together and collaborate. ;)

These days my main form of creative expression is poetry and I think it is really my voice. It seems to me to get closer to the truth of the way things are than any other form of writing, and maybe even any form of art...yeah, I'm that obsessed.

I read a lot of poetry (mostly modern, like WB Yeats and after) and that gets the juices flowing. I find I am often inspired to write poems about places I have visited, though it's usually after the visit, not while I am there. Also, whether the ostensible subject of the poem is a city I have visited, or anything else, it usually unfolds my subconscious to me in a very interesting way...I mean, I will be writing, and I think I know what the subject is, but by the time the poem is complete, I realise that more than the place I'd visited (or whatever) the poem is about whatever is on my mind - whatever it may be - questions of relationships, ethics, specific people I'm obsessing about whose shadow creeps into the poem, etc...

One of my resolutions is to force myself to write more, though. It's like anything, you can't just rely on inspiration. I think I need to set myself some exercises and just write - even if a lot of it is not much good, at least I will be writing and revising and developing and practising...
 

Savage Idealist

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I've only written short fan fiction (as of now, I plan on wiriting a book in the future) but the process of it, bringing to life all the ideas within my head onto paper, the realm of limitless creation and possibility, it is a pleasure that no other can stand up to.
 

King sns

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If you are a writer, what is it that inspires you to write when you do? I am referring to both beginning writing as a hobby, and the specific event of writing on a day to day basis.

Do you write out of habit, or are there specific moods you must enter, or things you must experience, in order to write?

I usually am only strongly driven to write during a big life changing trauma, dramatic times, and times of extreme sadness. The boring and happy life is not inspiring... (Would rather be boring and happy and not write, for the record.)
 

King sns

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I've done various kinds of writing both professionally and for my own satisfaction.

If it's professionally, I'm inspired to write by the fact that I have to, basically. ;) actually, it has always helped me when others set deadlines for me. But I don't think that's really what you're getting at.

I used to write fiction but haven't for several years. Basically, I think I am a good writer stylistically but I tend to have a lack of creative ideas plot-wise...it is just not my thing...I have often talked with friends about this, since many of them say they have plotlines coming out of their ears but can't write to save their soul. I think we should get together and collaborate. ;)

These days my main form of creative expression is poetry and I think it is really my voice. It seems to me to get closer to the truth of the way things are than any other form of writing, and maybe even any form of art...yeah, I'm that obsessed.

I read a lot of poetry (mostly modern, like WB Yeats and after) and that gets the juices flowing. I find I am often inspired to write poems about places I have visited, though it's usually after the visit, not while I am there. Also, whether the ostensible subject of the poem is a city I have visited, or anything else, it usually unfolds my subconscious to me in a very interesting way...I mean, I will be writing, and I think I know what the subject is, but by the time the poem is complete, I realise that more than the place I'd visited (or whatever) the poem is about whatever is on my mind - whatever it may be - questions of relationships, ethics, specific people I'm obsessing about whose shadow creeps into the poem, etc...

One of my resolutions is to force myself to write more, though. It's like anything, you can't just rely on inspiration. I think I need to set myself some exercises and just write - even if a lot of it is not much good, at least I will be writing and revising and developing and practising...

I'm the same way. I can paint a picture with writing, but if I try to make a plot or point/ the style gets lost.
 

gromit

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I usually am only strongly driven to write during a big life changing trauma, dramatic times, and times of extreme sadness. The boring and happy life is not inspiring... (Would rather be boring and happy and not write, for the record.)

This, although to a lesser extent, I do sometimes like to write when I'm happy too, if want to remember something good or funny that happened or an important lesson I learned, I will sometimes write about it in my journal.
 

King sns

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This, although to a lesser extent, I do sometimes like to write when I'm happy too, if want to remember something good or funny that happened or an important lesson I learned, I will sometimes write about it in my journal.

Yea, same here. The writing style is just usually more factual, like a news report, if I'm in a happy mode.
 

SilkRoad

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I used to write very regularly in a journal. From the ages of 14-24 or so I wrote almost every day, and usually at least a couple of pages. If not every day, at least 3-4 times a week. Then till I was about 27-28 I wrote about once or twice every few weeks. It's pretty much gone by the wayside now, though over the last few years I have desperately needed to vent a few times and wrote like 12 pages at a go (which I sometimes did when younger too.)

Sometimes I think I'm just too lazy now but it is a measure of how my life has changed. I used to not talk about my feelings with anyone, and I had a lot of fairly private obsessions (crushes on literary figures and the like, haha) so I wrote pages and pages and pages to work things out for myself. In my twenties my life got busier, and I acquired a wider circle of friends, and I have a few people in my life I can often talk things out with, and I really prefer that. I even think email and Facebook have changed my habits in that regard too. I like interaction now and you don't get that with a journal. But in some ways I miss it - it's like a big part of my life that is largely behind me.
 

SilkRoad

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I'm the same way. I can paint a picture with writing, but if I try to make a plot or point/ the style gets lost.

ONe thing I enjoyed, though - I went through a real obsession with Arthurian legend (kind of specialized in it while doing my English lit degree) and I managed to get a short story published which was based on one of the legends/stories. I really enjoyed that. Taking an old story, tweaking it and playing with it, making the characters my own. If I start writing fiction again, it would probably be something like that, based on an old story or legend with some innovations of my own, and creating characters I'm interested in based on already existing figures.
 

Santosha

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Making people laugh. I LOVE to make people laugh.. if I can bust out a humorous observation of life
that is laced with humility...
and post it on my facebook or read it to my friends and family..
if it makes one person that i care about laugh for 3 minutes and forget how drab or miserable their life is,
if it can help them realize for just a second what is really important,
or that they are not alone.. in this great cosmic joke..
Then I am happy... and that is why i write. =)
 

CrystalViolet

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oooo...I haven't written in ages. I sort of get consumed with day to day issues at the moment. Although I did go on a writing binge not too long ago, when I had this really weird and complex dream. It took me a long time to get it all down on paper. I'm letting it stew for a bit, as it's quite different from anything else I ever written.
I tend to write when I have a pretty stable routine. It helps me escape from the daily humdrum of life. I don't really get time to day dream at the moment. I kinda miss the city and commuting for that. Nothing does wonders for my creativity than having nothing else to do, but day dream.
 

HotpinkHeatwave

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I have been told by numerous (MANY) people that I write very well. However, I have not written any pieces in a very long time.

What inspires me to write? Things that spark my imagination. Interesting places, situations - specifically the bizarre, including architect, people, nature, etc.

Sitting at the fair at night, watching all the colorful lights against the dark sky is enough to inspire me.

When I'm bored, sitting in a public place, and I begin to imagine odd things.. Like sudden zombie invasion.
 

Tamske

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Amateur writer here :) I'm always inventing stories. I'm imagining landscapes, cultures,... Mostly they start from a rather abstract idea (*), but as soon as I've got some characters I'll get scenes and dialogues in my mind. And then I'm writing them down. Well, what else should I do with them?

(*) My very first book, "De zes snaren" (it's in Dutch) has begun with this website: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~imcfadyen/fantasy.html. The site made me want to write a fantasy story where everything went "wrong": the prophesy was false, the dumb sidekick who didn't understand magic turned out to be right but nobody listened to him because he was only a dumb sidekick,... Of course, I had to make this idea a lot more concrete, with specific characters and conflicts and a specific false prophesy.

Inspiration comes from observation. I see two customers quarreling in the mall, I get images of characters quarreling. I read Harry Potter, I think the magic is inconsistent with physics, I make a new magic system and use it in a story of my own. History books are also very inspiring.
The best motivation is external pressure. A cold unromantic deadline works the best for me... And then I can write everywhere.
I thought before I had to be in the mood for writing, but that isn't the case. Writing gets me into the mood for writing.

A bit of time ago I made a group for amateur writers... it's here: http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/group.php?groupid=122 The discussions have died down, but I'm certainly willing to start them up again.
 

Kriash

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...I did go on a writing binge not too long ago, when I had this really weird and complex dream. It took me a long time to get it all down on paper... Nothing does wonders for my creativity than having nothing else to do, but day dream.

This is pretty much how it ends up for me. Sometimes I have incredibly crazy complex dreams, and I write and think about them for weeks, but then I don't have another good dream for a couple months, so I really don't write very frequently. A lot of the stuff that I do write is a mixture between my dreams and my day dreams, then I get all crazy and let it spiral from there. The thing is, I have never really been good at getting anywhere with my writing. Mostly I write short things filled with emotion, or something that paints another world in front of you, but as soon as I try and expand further, it's gone. But I never mind. I only write because I enjoy to, my spelling and grammar are terrible.
 

GZA

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Interesting responses. I want to make a habit of writing a little bit, in some way, every day. I already do that in a sense on this forum, but I mean write more about ideas and create stories. I suppose my concern then isn't, in fact, the inspiration to write, but the inspiration of ideas. But that happens randomly! haha
 

Gloriana

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I would say I write rather compulsively and always have, if I don't have some medium to express myself (be it a journal, a blog, comments on Facebook, a forum) I go rather nuts. I constantly have imagery, ideas, stories, and characters bouncing around inside my head at all times, if I'm not writing I'm performing. It's hard for me to imagine any other way of being. I don't say that like it's some superlative that makes me special, I don't think it is. I personally had a rather traumatic childhood and the creativity, getting lost inside fictional worlds, was my coping mechanism. It's that blessing and a curse thing. I wound up with this innate creative streak because of something terrible, but it has been the saving grace and something that made it all worth it.

So it's hard to say exactly what 'inspires' me because for me the desire to create things and bring the stuff in my head to life is honestly the same as breathing. Music is definitely a cornerstone of my creativity and always has been. I'll hear a song and something in either the melody or lyrics will ignite something in my head, and before I know it some tale is unfolding in my mind. In terms of writing, I'd say music is my number one muse. Especially new music (or, rather, music that is new to me). I dig around everywhere looking for fodder, until I hit on an artist that makes sparks and sets of vivid imagery in my head.

I'm also inspired by simply reading books that knock me on my ass or seeing movies that have a similar effect. I'm a glutton for music, movies, and books. Also, it might sound odd, but I get a lot of inspiration reading over chats and emails with friends, or all the stuff I jot down in notebooks (or note taking documents on my computer) about everything that goes on around me. It might sound diabolical, but everyone around me is potential for characters. I don't value them just for that of course, but they are usually gold mines to me. Even people I can't stand give me great stuff.

For me, I think the most important thing has been allowing myself to gravitate toward what sparks my own personal imagination without censoring or talking myself out of it. I don't particularly like instructional manuals on writing or classes about it, they're often so pragmatic as if there is ONE true way to write and I personally think that is the biggest load of crap. I think it's just a matter of tapping into all the things you love most and are most passionate about, and letting them guide you toward the things you want to write about, no matter what they are.

For instance, I grew up with a fascination with Old West history and just obsessively read about it from the time I was ten. This just seemed to be an odd obsession but in my adult life, it has proven to be an element in my fiction that I love including. I don't write strictly about the Old West, but it's like one of the passions I had that mixes with other particular passions to create something new, if that makes sense. Sort of like how Joss Whedon took his own love of Civil War culture and mixed it with his love of space travel to create 'Firefly'. I think the best writing comes when it's deeply based in all the things the writer loves rather than being approached like a math problem that has a finite sum if certain variables are added together.

I think the key to finding out what inspires you is to just think of all the things over your entire life that made you the happiest, that captured you're imagination like a house on fire, that built your character the most whether they were good times or bad ones. Sounds hokey and it might be, but that's just my personal take :)
 

Tamske

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I suppose my concern then isn't, in fact, the inspiration to write, but the inspiration of ideas. But that happens randomly! haha
Trigger, trigger, trigger that Ne! Don't try to "create ideas" but do something else instead. Ideas always come when you don't have the time. Jot them down (I've got some small dummybooks for that and I take them *everywhere*) and, when time is there and the ideas aren't, take your scribbles and try to make something out of them.
I've got plenty of ideas but most of them are useless for the story I'm working on at the moment. To get the ideas I need, I'd make a list of whatever is needed for the story (mostly things like "go from A to B" or "give character a reason for beginning that quest") and then I'd do manual work to take the pressure of my mind. It doesn't guarantee anything, but at least for me it has greatly improved the chance of coming up with useful ideas.
 

Crescent Fresh

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The only inspiration to me is people and their daily experience, who I felt strongly connected to, or an artisitic or intellectual figure who I admire and respect (my latest obsession is Darren Aronofsky).

Though I do not write to share. Which means, I write in personal blog and make it invisible and only I can read them.

The reason? Most of my writing is to reflect my most painful moments and I take writing as a self-therapeutic discovery of my awareness of my deep emotions.
 
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