What inspires you?

[LunarNoir]

Hi, everybody! My name is Lina to those who want to know.
This has been on my mind for a little bit of time, and I would really love to hear from you!
I would like to know exactly what inspires your story? I realize it may just be something very simple, but I can see it can also get somewhere deep as well.
By “simple,” I do mean something to the extent of “it just pops into my mind,” or “my passion for so-and-so has inspired me to make this visual novel.”
A more deeper means of inspiration is probably like a real-life event that speaks to you sparked something that you would like to tell a story about?

The main event that triggered this question is a book that is titled To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee.
Reading her book, I feel as though the characters are able to immerse you into the story.
Their actions, their conversations and interactions, and their drama is lucid, in my personal opinion, at least.
Later, I watched a video featuring the general life of Lee, and I realized that her characters were based off of people that she knew in real life.
Inspiring characters from real-life people is something I never really bothered to do...
It was kind of then that sparked my mind: just how do other people get their mind juicy with ideas?

For me, my characters would sort of be inspired by other characters from other fandoms - be it for anime or games.
There are a few games that I was really passionate about a while ago (and probably still am?).
I think the primary ones then were Wizard101, Brave Frontier, Aura Kingdom, and Seven Knights.
However, I have also recently tried what Lee did, and look to the people I befriend and hang out with in real life for inspiration as well.
As for the story, they usually just pop into my mind or they are inspired from other fandoms, admittedly.

Anyways, I would love to hear any input for this!
There are some very creative and interesting stories featured in this site, so I am curious to know what got your juices flowing.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you have a good rest of your day or evening.

[rito]

The story I'm working on is historical, and what inspired me was finding out about a certain job in that place and time period. I wanted to read a story about it, but there were none... so I made one. On the topic of real people, the protagonist's best friend is inspired by one of mine, which has really helped make her believable. That character has a very different personality than mine, and when I don't know what she would do in that situation, I can always ask my friend!

[Zelan]

A variety of things. Events in my life, people I know, other people's works, conversations I've had. Some of my inspirations include:

-My power going out
-The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
-The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
-The Elevator by Cyanide Tea
-A road trip
-A sign at a visitor center
-And lots more

[Mammon]

Usually I get inspired one of the three following ways:

1. I've got a starting point, and a faint idea what I'd like. Simple causality of events usually spells the story out after that. There's one character that does this, and another character that thinks that. The natural flow of events will take care of itself if you have a point to work towards. Sometimes, like with my upcoming NaNoRenO project, just having a title can be enough to get the creative juices flowing.

2. I watch a series, regardless of what medium, and make a character or own story out of it, quite a lot like a fanfic. However, this happens as I'm watching the series rather than after it and my story's world and mechanics soon start to differ greatly from the canon as I continue watching more episodes, to the point where it can't even be a fanfic to that franchize. So I take the good characters or story ideas I have and separate it from everything related to the series to make a story of its own (if any of the ideas/characters are good at all).
The story idea gets thrown in the back of my mind for years and will stay there to be occassionally brought up out of boredom or because it works with another story. After a few years, I don't even know from which series the idea came from and it doesn't resemble its original franchize any more. I take a few different ideas and just sew them together, or use the ideas for the stories from 1.

3. The pile of stories from 2. start to develop and some start to happen in the same universe or get sequels. And every once in a while, those sequels or follow-up events turn out to be good stories that can stand alone even when the stories they're based upon are crap.

[Imperf3kt]

For me, personally, it is a desire to create something entertaining and less "shallow" than most of the stuff I see today.

The entertainment industry ropes you in with flashy visuals and no content because money is more important than story.
Hollywood will hype up their movie so you want to watch it, even though you already saw 85% of it in just the trailer - as long as they sell a movie ticket, it doesn't matter if you liked the movie.

So I guess I am inspired by my perception that most media sucks and "I can do better"
I probably can't, but thats my inspiration.

[rito]

Hollywood will hype up their movie so you want to watch it, even though you already saw 85% of it in just the trailer

I second this! Feels like there's too few trailers that show you only what you need to know (Don't Breathe comes to mind, so many twists you couldn't have guessed from the trailer). Most blockbusters show a bunch of explosions and the two people in the obligatory tepid romance, then parts of the climax and I go ??????? because there's no questions left for the movie to answer.

*ahem* Sorry for ranting. I think that has to do with why I make stories--because they don't exist. I'm not the best writer there is (not by a long shot!), but if no one makes what I want to see then who else will?

[Mammon]

Hollywood will hype up their movie so you want to watch it, even though you already saw 85% of it in just the trailer

I second this! Feels like there's too few trailers that show you only what you need to know (Don't Breathe comes to mind, so many twists you couldn't have guessed from the trailer). Most blockbusters show a bunch of explosions and the two people in the obligatory tepid romance, then parts of the climax and I go ??????? because there's no questions left for the movie to answer.
*ahem* Sorry for ranting. I think that has to do with why I make stories--because they don't exist. I'm not the best writer there is (not by a long shot!), but if no one makes what I want to see then who else will?

I shall third this motion. It is indeed an unfortunate side-effect of combining creativity and storytelling with profit and a chain of command. The trailer designers are given footage and will just go with the easiest and most hype possibility according to tiresome formula, giving no heed to what is and isn't a spoiler to the story. The media will cover it purely based upon popular acclaim and the most shallow outline. (Ever seen a bookreview from a newspaper on a book's cover? The bigger the news paper's reputation, the less likely the reviewer actually read the book!)

But the worst are the producers. The producers funding a project will neither be too enthousiastic about original content but want spiritual predecessors that proved profitable, and they do not even read the script most of the time either. They'll only fund projects that are proven to be profitable even if outright copying it without enhousiasm may seem like a bad business idea, and then come with audience pandering suggestions that make the story much tamer like whitewashing a character, that women should never fight men (because either they lose and that's sexist or they win and we can't have a woman beat a man, now can we? Because always having women fight other women is sooooo much less anti-feministic ) etc. Did you know that Dragonball Evolutions was actually a decent movie script before the producers got their hands on it?

I don't write as a movement against this, however I do so enjoy Lemmasoft and other indie platforms because the games here are saturated with passion and originality untainted by the curse of a larger chain of command.

[Yunou]

Other media inspires me quite a lot.

Usually I'll really like certain elements of a song, movie, anime, etc. but want to imagine what would happen if it was taken in a different direction. Sometimes it starts with imagining a different character in the MC's place: maybe a younger/older character, or a different gender, or someone with a much different personality and seeing what kind of choices they would have made instead and how that would impact the story.

Then I end up taking that developed character and sticking them in a similar setting but with a different goal or in a different setting but with a similar goal. Most of the time what I am left with has almost no bearing to the original media at all.

A lot of times I'm inspired by my dreams, too--I'll see a character in a particular situation and have to develop it.

Sometimes I'm just inspired by someone's clothes or my own.
Sometimes I'm inspired by a building.

[Windchimes]

I can't really pinpoint the inspiration for the ideas that pop into my head half the time, but honestly, I get inspired by pretty much anything I'm passionate about or interested in. I like to involve things I'm interested in/passionate about (e.g. MMORPGs, Asian legends, fairy tales) in the visual novels I write because I feel that this keeps me motivated and brings out the best quality of writing I can do. I sometimes also get inspired by other games where it has a premise I think is good, but there are points that I believe are lacking (e.g. JVN otomes with self-insert, passive, blank heroines/MCs). It gets me thinking on what I'd have done if I wrote the story, which gives me random ideas on what to do for possible future stories.

Side note, but I have to admit this caught my attention...

I think the primary ones then were Wizard101, Brave Frontier, Aura Kingdom, and Seven Knights.

Ha, I also played Wizard101 and Aura Kingdom. I played the latter so much lol. If only I have time for MMORPGs these days...

[SupersizeMyHeart]

Music inspires me a lot. Ever since I was a kid, when I'd hear a song, I'd just sit back, close my eyes and imagine stories taking place. The same is true now, it's just a lot more detailed than it used to be. I need to listen to music that matches the tone I'm writing, or I need complete silence. There is no in-between.

[Morhighan]

Music inspires me a lot. Ever since I was a kid, when I'd hear a song, I'd just sit back, close my eyes and imagine stories taking place. The same is true now, it's just a lot more detailed than it used to be. I need to listen to music that matches the tone I'm writing, or I need complete silence. There is no in-between.

Same here! I usually am inspired by music to a high degree.

[warmsundae]

Hollywood will hype up their movie so you want to watch it, even though you already saw 85% of it in just the trailer

*ahem* Sorry for ranting. I think that has to do with why I make stories--because they don't exist. I'm not the best writer there is (not by a long shot!), but if no one makes what I want to see then who else will?

Completely agree! I make stories that I'd enjoy.

Inspirations mostly come by through other media and things I daydream about, like breaking someone out of prison or flying a spaceship to uncharted spots in the universe.

[Tempus]

Like PassiveChicken and Morhighan I'm also inspired by music quite a bit. Last year I discovered both The Smiths and Twin Peaks which have each been inspirations in different ways for me. Though a large part of my inspiration is drawn from my life, current events, and friends. Very little comes from other visual novels really... which isn't to say there aren't VNs I enjoy, it's more that nothing I've encountered yet really resembles what I want to do.

[arcdawn]

Whenever I read/watch something that I find amazing, it gets me really pumped up to make something.
For instance, finishing the Muv Luv trilogy for me was something that really got me inspired and prepared to actually try and finish my VN project.
I really enjoyed the creative direction they took with the story as well as the whole world-building and character building that they did. The finale was really unparalleled and I felt that I wanted to contribute something in appreciation for this work that I came to know. I've definitely been toying around with the idea of making a VN before, but I never got around to finishing it. The original plot and assets were all pretty bad anyway, but I took the premise and knew how I could change it to make it something I would want to read (like Muv Luv).
Another source of inspiration comes from stuff that happens in real life, which might be a dream I had or something cool I learned. Although, those inspirations die off pretty quickly if I don't act upon it fast enough.

Different people get it differently, but that's how it works for me at least.

[Kokoro Hane]

I'd have to say when I am really into writing something, the inspiration comes from my own experiences, what I have observed personally, and character personalities containing either a part of myself or a part of people I am close to. Another inspiration could also be an issue I am very passionate about too, and would like to discuss it in a non-hammerfisted narrative. When I write stories, I present things and situations with a lot of feeling to give that sense of importance and realism. I want people to care for my characters as I do. To put it simply; I write from my heart. This doesn't mean I don't do things just for fun, I am quite a fan of comedic situations or brief comic relief and the like, and just general sillyness. But even in that general sillyness, sometimes the best memories I have were of silly situations and stuff, so even in that I share how such ridiculous-ness can be so precious, you know? We tend to remember weird and funny things after all.

Also to all inspired by music--I often imagine certain scenes of my game as an AMV when I listen to songs I think matches my story or a character in some way.