Inspiration

[Auggie]

Greetings All!,

I have a lot of writers block. Once I hit this wall, it is almost impossible to push through! I was wondering what all you experienced writers (probably everyone but me!) do to get inspired. Thanks!

Have an Excellent Day!

Auggie

[Rex Anglorvm]

You can get your inspiration from films, books, life, art or any number of things, they can all help trigger a thought process that starts you writing again, music normally works for me.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

Hi Auggie, boy you are getting round a bit!

Nice too see you in the Study, what Rex has said is solid stuff, a few of these discussions have taken place in the chat thread, so whislt you are over there saying hello you could have a look back and see.

Check out The Collected Wisdom of AAR Writing, that has loads of great articles that'll be sure to help you out. The Critic's Quill (there is a link in my sig) also is a great publication for this sort of thing.

Below is an article taken from the The Collected Wisdom of AAR Writing written for the Critic's Quill:

Writer's Block by robinzx (Critic's Quill #31)

"Houston, we’ve had a problem" Almost everyone’s heard of the iconic line from the Apollo 13 movie, where all hell is breaking loose and the lives of the crew are hanging by a thread. What not everyone has heard is the original NASA recording of the men. If you’re one of those you who haven’t then I urge you to look it up. The contrast between the mayhem in the movie and the frigid calmness of the actual crew is quite telling. These people had a plan. They had a problem, but they had ways of saving themselves. Unfortunately calamitous events are not limited to space travel, and afflict us just as readily in the realm of AAR writing in the form of writer’s block. When that happens, for the lack of a better word, you are stuck, and it’s not nice. Writer’s block can cause frustration, drop in confidence, hair loss, and many other harmful things. The important thing as a writer though is to be like the Apollo crew – to have a plan, and when things go wrong, execute that plan. My job, therefore, is to supply you with a plan, or some semblance of one. I never did manage to get a job at NASA, but hopefully you’ll find my article useful. Let it be This may seem obvious but the most effective way to deal with writer’s block is to not deal with it. Writer’s block is a monster that feeds upon your frustration, and as you become less poised it only grows bigger and stronger. By leaving it you empty your mind of all of the things that “don’t work”, you save yourself from the monster that is your writer’s block, and prevent it from driving you to hate your own work. I am a firm believer of the need to love your work, and the day you start hating it is the day it begins to lose its life. By leaving I don’t mean alt-tabbing to facebook or youtube either. The latter is better than the former, but ultimately the best way is to step away from the computer entirely. Go for a walk; go spend time with your family – anything that you associate the least with your AAR writing. Replace dead-ends with different, happier thoughts. Who knows – you might even have an idea while you’re gone. Carpe diem 65.8% of all writer’s block comes from fear1, and this is especially true with an AAR thanks to the inherent nature of the games we play. Things may happen in your game which do not suit the story. Your main character might die on the battlefield. This uncertainty multiplies the fear factor of putting pen to paper – what if I write something that will backfire on me later? It is almost impossible to plan an AAR start to finish from the outset. Things will go wrong if you try, so just stop wasting time worrying about it. The best way to overcome the fear of writing something “wrong” is to leave the critical part of your brain out of the equation. Accept that your first draft may well be horse tripe, but write it anyway. Do not pause to ponder the consequences of your writing, or try to calculate what will come to pass 5 chapters later. Do not stop to mull over wording, or whether what you’re writing follows logic. There is a time and place for fixing all the flaws, and it’s called editing. By not editing your brain has more time to run wild, and the pages fill up a lot quicker. You can always cut and trim later on. Personal anecdote: long ago and in a far-away land, I slugged through three years of a university degree that involved copious amounts of what we called constrained creative writing. In the beginning it was a struggle, but one day a group of us simultaneously came to the same epiphany: "Essays were easier to write while under the influence of alcohol!" While I’m not advocating alcohol consumption2, this does prove my point about leaving out (or debilitating, in my case) the critical brain. 1 75% of all statistics are made up on the spot 2 Hoegaarden is good for writing Up is down Contrary to popular belief, there is no prize for starting at the beginning and finishing at the end. In fact, doing so in AAR writing almost always multiplies the chance of getting writer’s block. Writing is hard work – and you want to worry about the structure at the same time? Write what comes to you first. Write what you find most interesting about your gameplay. If you just fought a battle, and you’re stuck on how to introduce the circumstances around it, why not describe the melee first? The spray of blood, the noise of clashing steel, the cries of dying men, the smell of blood and horses. If your king just got called on a crusade, and you’re not sure how to describe his feelings, then write about his journey over the sea first. Write about what you’re confident with, and the rest will follow. It is sometimes helpful to think of little “arcs” within the story – blocks of four or five draft chapter titles which tell an independent story of its own. During this arc, the characters involved achieve an interim goal of some sort. Perhaps you’re conquering a faction, or your king is on a crusade, or you’re hunting down a particular general. That way you break up your epic long AAR into short digestible chunks where you can plan your story one step at a time, cutting it into chapters logically. Remember to only think of chapter titles – you can figure out the details later. An Englishman's home is his castle And so is yours to the AARtist within you. The importance of writing in comfortable, familiar surroundings cannot be stressed enough. A few general pointers: Set aside time to write and do nothing else. Make sure your family and whoever you are with know that this is your time, and that you are not to be disturbed over trivial things Switch off all your browsers, log off your twitter, break that high score another day Do not listen to music with lyrics. Calm music is almost always better than otherwise unless you are writing something fast and furious (and maybe even then) Ready a bottle of water close by, but drink only to wet your lips. Getting up to get water or relieve yourself of it only serves to break your train of thought Forget about real life for a second and think in the character of your protagonist. You are Richard, Lionheart King of England; or Napolean Bonaparte, emperor of France; or Suleiman the Magnificent, the giver of laws and conqueror of the infidels. As far as I know none of those people did their taxes, or drew up shopping lists, or did the laundry – nor should you. Aunt Betsy's favour can wait, too. Forget the game Don’t stress too much about the game. Nobody reading an AAR is going to judge it based on how efficient you are as a gamer. Audiences love cock-ups in-game. Really. The other aspect of this is this: don’t be afraid to depart from what’s going on in game. Be inventive - dialogue between characters, internal struggles, rivalries. By writing about their insecurities and concerns you bring the reader closer to your characters. Nobody is a knight in shining armour all day every day in real life, so they shouldn’t be in your AAR. Give them real problems, real dilemmas, and they will come to life in front of you. Along the same lines is the technique of inventing support characters. It is a great way of running sidebars and subplots within your AAR, and gives the central characters more personality. Girlfriends are wonderful plot devices for showing the softer side of people. A sibling could be effective at exposing insecurities and rivalries. Childhood friends could be used to garner information about the hero’s past. The possibilities are quite literally endless, and are wonderful solutions to writer’s block. If you can’t write about the protagonist then write about his friends for a chapter or two. Here, there and everywhere Carry a phone that lets you easily write text notes, and keep it on your night stand at night. Next time you think “oh maybe my guy can do this” while at work, in between lectures, on the toilet, 3 o'clock in the morning – write it down, and save it for the next time you have writer’s block. It may or may not happen often, but you should be ready when it does. It might just save you from a lot of frustration. Conclusion Accept that writer’s block happens to the best writers, from Socrates to Dickens, and it will probably happen to you at some point. Instead of driving yourself up a wall, go for a walk, and see the world. You might just think of something great – and if you do then make sure you write it down. Most importantly of all, write what you love, and love what you write. Happy writing AARtists! By robinzx

If that helped you please go and thank robinzx.

[Robin de Bodemloze]

...

The best way to "get new ideas" is probably by reading lots. Plagiarism is a big no-no but nobody ever said anything about being inspired by different elements from existing works and applying them in different ways so you have something original

[Akaie]

Add an 'in' to that 'experienced' and I'll be able to pitch in .

Think of something that you know quite a lot about and enjoy. It's fairly easy to see writing as difficult and rather forced if you aren't enthusiastic about it .