Blogocentric Formulations

Inspiration

"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  | Day 3197 Prompt ▼

Where does your inspiration for writing about real life come from: Your home, family, friends, news media and maybe popular stories and crimes or what?

The things I tend to pull from real life for my writing tend to be more indirect. I'll get an idea for the subject matter for a story from something I've experienced in real life, or will find inspiration in some other kind of media I've watched or listened to. I read a lot of different types of things and stuff will stick in my head that I'll reference or adapt at some point when the situation calls for it.

A lot of writers swear by finding inspiration for characters in real life, either basing characters on people they actually know, or stories that they've experienced in their actual lives, and I can't say I find either a particularly effective writing tool for my own work. I might use a personality trait or quirk that I notice from one place or another, but I've never been the kind of writer who writes down snippets of dialogue overheard out and about in the real world, or take an entire personality wholesale and transplant it into a story.

When I write fantasy and science fiction, I definitely look for historical narratives or even current news that I can adapt for an alternate setting. I tend to use those more frequently than characterization because I think fantasy and science fiction are at their best when they're allegories for something in the real world, and it also helps add a familiar framework or structure to what can otherwise be a really hard to relate to pair of genres if they get too weird or "out there."

I tend to stay away from friends and family entirely, and that's for a few reasons. First, I don't want them to recognize themselves in the fiction I write (unless I'm intentionally trying to do so with their knowledge and consent). Second, most of my family and friends are just regular people, and I tend to enjoy writing stories about extraordinary circumstances. Realistic, everyday fiction isn't really my thing. And third, I get enough of my family in friends in my real life. Writing fiction for me is an escape, so I generally focus on characters and situations that I don't experience in my everyday life.

Overall, I think it's safe to say that we all draw inspiration from real life, whether it's intentional or not. My inspirations just tend to be more of the indirect variety rather than direct lifts from the real world.


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