Forum: Author Hangout

I am curious, what are some of the inspirations in your writings? Trying to achieve/copy a certain style? Something just strikes you? An image or dream that you want to capture?

For me, I admit they are varied. And since they tend to follow my own moods, this can cause my stories to vary quite a bit.

"Dark Tales" is an anthology, all of which have rather dark twists towards the end, not unlike "Twilight Zone". And often those individual stories have a single image or thought that inspired it.

"The Good Girl" came from a photo I saw of a cute college girl in the 196-'s. Black hornrim glasses, and a bullet bra under her sweater. I basically liked the image, and wrote the story around that image.

"Drive-In Movies" came from wandering a video site, and they had a bunch of old 1960's era "grindhouse" soft-core movies. And remembering that a drive-in in our area used to show such.

Sometimes, I write what I call "anti-stories", and the above is one of them. The content is undoubtedly a "lesbian" story, but does not have any actual "lesbian sex". Not unlike those old softcore movies that have a lot of sex, yet no actual sex.

"Night of Madness" is one I started because I decided to write a story in the Superhero genre, but with a twist. Dark and gritty like Marvel, but also throwing in many DC tropes. Actually based on a tabletop RPG I ran decades ago as the backstory.

"Little Sister's Surprise" was from aw challenge somebody here made, to make a story based only on a title. That was the title they threw out, so that was the story I wrote.

"I Got It From Sally" is based on a song by Tom Lehrer. I was listening to some of his songs, and when I heard that the title struck me as an interesting one to base a story around. "Won't Get Fooled Again" was the same time, but a song by The Who.

I would be curious to see what the inspirations of others are. Other than the obvious, of course. A story involving FanFic is pretty much obvious 9 times out of 10.

I am curious, what are some of the inspirations in your writings? Trying to achieve/copy a certain style? Something just strikes you? An image or dream that you want to capture?

As to style, I guess from reading. I've been reading thrillers lately and they use fragmented sentences, short paragraphs, short chapters, etc.

But as to inspiration, it could be anything.

"High School Massacre" was inspired by a high school shooting. Like many, they found the shooter dead of a self-inflicted wound. I wondered what if he wasn't the shooter and wrote that story.

"Last Kiss" was inspired by the song with the same name. In the song the gf dies in a car crash, but my short story has a twist. And then I wrote a full-length novel from the short story with new twists.

"Dressing Room Curtain" was inspired by seeing a woman changing in a dressing room through the space between the curtain and wall. The story is fiction, though.

"Bookstore Encounter" was inspired by seeing a gorgeous woman sit across from me in a bookstore.

"Matilda and the Assassin" was inspired by the movie "The Professional." I just put my own twist to it.

"Mother's Dark Side" was inspired because my son was addicted to drugs and did stuff that he wouldn't have done otherwise.

The Lincoln Steele series was inspired by Lee Child's Jack Reacher (the way Tom Cruise portrayed him in the movies, not the way Lee Child did in his novels) with a little Rambo and Dirty Harry thrown in.

And so on…

Somebody commented "Didn't you just go through a hurricane? You oughtta write about that."

Or old songs. Or something I saw on the side of the road. Something in the news. A girl I saw sitting in the airport.

Never know when a story idea will pop up.

Thought I would throw in a few more, since these are ones I had been asked about in the past.

"Country Boy, City Girl" was actually just a 1 shot story. A single chapter was all I was going to write, I wanted a period piece in the early 1980's. However, I fell in love with the characters, then decided to see how long I could drag it out without them actually having sex.

"Mall Story" and "Naomi Chronicles" were 2 I started with other writers 20-25 years ago, but each of them quickly bailed so all that is left are my own parts. I do add to them on occasion. One was basically scenes set in a suburban shopping mall, the other 2 women who try to seduce each other in semi-public settings.

"Okinawa" was one of my first. Basically a Marine and his experiences while stationed on Okinawa (and is loosely tied in to Country Boy now).

"Pippi Langstrumpa" (one of my "Dark Tales") is kind of an homage to Isaac Asimov (his robot stories) and Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man). But also very much the classic Twilight Zone episode "The Lonely".

My earlier works such as "Pursuing Andrea" and "The Freya Cycle" Are fictional autobiographical with some truckloads of artistic licence mixed in.

"Better than the Jackpot" had as it's roots my early fascination with older women and exploring my feelings about having to play at being a man when my age was barely in the double digits. Same with "The New Field" with an added exploration of the idea that if I live as a man I am entitled to all the privileges that a man gets with his responsibility.

Older people can be hypocritical. My stance was if I'm doing the work you're doing and drawing the pay that you draw and pay the bills you pay then I have the right to drink and carouse like you do. Older people wanted me to sweat and bleed and not get any of the prizes. I worked around them as I could.

Mr. Evans came from religious Ideals as well as flipping the older woman theme to that of an older man.

After onset of my illness, when I was still a very low functioning adult with almost zero attention span I developed a fascination with Glee music videos. Music videos were the only thing short enough that I could watch them from start to end.

The ladies of Glee have been the origination of 95% of my work since then. Meg of the "Learning Together" series was born after watching Blaine's mom in the Glee video "I'm so excited." She's the lady in the green dress.

Dianna Agron is my official muse. She is the physical model of Carly minus the scars. A short dance she did is the foundational inspiration of the Warlord Universe.

In "the Young Immortal" Sam and Rachel are the physical models of Arnulf and Donna.

most of the rest of my stories are random ideas or experiences.