Where do authors get there ideas from?

Question

when they write a fiction book

how do they get their character, story, etc

Answer 1

Experiences, dreams, conversation or just their imagination/random thoughts (maybe inspired by an object or even a word or sentence)

As for characters, some base them on people they know and others produce a character from scratch.

Once you get an idea you build on it (same for the characters). You maybe write an outline to the story and build up a character profile and then put it all together to create a story.

Answer 2

Frequently it is a matter of having known or knowing a person or situation that inspires them.

Answer 3

     I often get mine from a character.  Try going to the mall, or the supermarket.  Somewhere where there are crowds of people.  Sit and watch them.  Pick out someone who's a bit offbeat.  Why does he/she look like they do?  Imagine you're talking to them over a table.  You ask them how old they are, if they're married, have kids.  Why do they look unhappy?  What's happened to them?  Perhaps they let you into a secret.  What is it?  Before you know where you are, you have a story.  Hope this has helped.

Good luck

Mike B

Answer 4

I can't imagin, although Stephen King spooked himself with some of his books, and ended up suffering from depression.

Answer 5

Usually personal experiences or dreams.

Answer 6

Quite often authors get their ideas from inspiration, now whether that be a story, or a dream, it depends. For example, let's take a fairly popular author right now, Stephenie Meyer. Apparently, for her bestseller book, she had a dream about a boy and a girl, in a meadow, and the boy was speaking to the girl about how much he wants to kill her, yet he loves her, this inspired her to write Twilight.

As for the characters, once you have an idea for a story, the setting and characters seem to flow into place, and quite typically, this is completed through the, "go with the flow" concept, which means as the author wrote the book, and advanced, the creativity enhanced.

Answer 7

i only no how one got hers

stephenie meyer had a dream and them started writing a seriese about it

:)

love her books

Answer 8

think of your wildest dream, use you imagination, you can make up 8 headed phone boxes if you like, its fiction , anything is possible

Answer 9

Usually something inspired you so deeply that you can wait to write the story down.

After I read the books and watched the Lord of the Rings movies I was curious at what the characters kingdoms were like, their families and belief. I couldn't find answers and my husband said make up your own... That is how my books came to life. Now I am not talking of fan writers... that is not what I am. The characters came to me as I explored "Legolas" from Lord of the Rings and I wondered what his family and city was like and if he was to marry what kind of woman would he fall for? and that is how I started The Silent Warrior Trilogy.

Anna del C.

Author of "The Elf and the Princess"

and "Trouble in the Elf City"

Answer 10

They copy them from each other

Answer 11

In most cases it's either inspired by a book or cryptomnesia (a hidden memory of a similar book/film). Sometimes it might be the newspapers- Vladimir Nabokov claimed he was inspired to write Lolita by an article in which a monkey was given a pen and it drew the bars of its cage. And there was a paedophile case in the newspapers at the time.

Answer 12

They get their ideas from life experiences.  It takes years and years to form a story.

Answer 13

Usually it is a matter of drawing upon ideas that are already around.

H G Wells took many of his sci fi ideas from existing scientific ideas, merely expanding upon the basic principal.  Mary Shelly used a similar method when creating her novel, since electricity was a big unknown at the time.

In the film Weird Science, the idea was that, if you plugged a doll into a computer, a decent sized lightning bolt would create a living person.

So it is the unknown, or scientific speculation.

As well as this, you can embellish upon your characters by drawing upon people that you know.  

However, whatever you write about - love stories, sci fi, war, history, etc.  the author will start with the basic question "What if".  Everything else will be concerned with creating a plausible set of events and characters to help answer/explain the "What if".

E.G.  If people were going to travel to distant stars, how would they get there?

If I were a 17C sea captain, how would I run my ship and who would I meet?

If Lee Harvey Oswald didn't kill Kennedy, who did?

Once you have the question, you can set about building a realistic answer.

Luck

Answer 14

Sometimes it's a conversation or a dream.  Other times it's another book.  All too frequently, it's almost a direct copy of another book.