There are a plethora of things that have inspired me to tell the stories I’ve been expanding on for some time. Whether it be through Star Wars, Marvel, DC, etc… or even through what the real world societies of our time and the past have given us to pull from in our own fictional works. Inspiration comes in many forms!
My question to you is what are the most prominent factors of inspiration that have sent your stories down their paths? Do they come from previous fictional works or from reality itself?
I think it varies depending on the project. I think the largest influences on my writing come from action movies and the video games I grew up playing. From that old framework, I had constructed themes and plots that surrounded very action-oriented stories that on the surface really weren’t all that interesting because I had foregone setting and character development. As I get older, I’m finding inspiration in the classic literature of decades past which have resonated with generations of readers and storytellers. I want to create engaging fiction that ties in those other elements that my earlier works were missing.
If you’re asking for specific works, I’d say the most inspirational IPs that I grew up with are: Dragon Ball Z, Final Fantasy, Star Wars, Pokémon, Matrix, James Cameron’s Avatar and Avatar: The Last Airbender, all of the 80’s action films, Jackie Chan movies, Bruce Li, Dino Crisis, Resident Evil, and everything written by Brandon Sanderson. (Also Brent Weeks’ Night Angel trilogy got me into fantasy and made me want to be a fiction writer)
I’m sure I’m influenced by almost everything I see and read, but the above are probably the biggest influences from an entertainment perspective.
I tend to write about history. I'm fascinated by events in my own past, as well as the distant past. I ask myself the same question I always ask: What if? What if I wrote a fantasy story? A purposeful fantasy, with a dragon? How would I go about it? My solution to that was gleaning through the pages of Le Morte D'Arthur's glossary of olde English words so I could sprinkle that into the story. It's the layering of stories that I like. I found out the name of Arthur's last battle. That's the battle in which all the knights of the Round Table die. But WHAT IF one didn't? How do I make that convincing to the reader? Well, WHAT IF a knight was wounded in the battle SECOND TO LAST battle? WHAT IF he lost his leg and grew to be an old man? And the story just sort of took of from there. My stories all have that what if element to them.
That's honestly a great prompt to start writing with. "What if" can work with practically anything, provided you got the imagination to think up a What if scenario. I tend to use the tactic in my TTRPG sessions that I run, which is great for improvisation in storytelling.
I think it varies depending on the project. I think the largest influences on my writing come from action movies and the video games I grew up playing. From that old framework, I had constructed themes and plots that surrounded very action-oriented stories that on the surface really weren’t all that interesting because I had foregone setting and character development. As I get older, I’m finding inspiration in the classic literature of decades past which have resonated with generations of readers and storytellers. I want to create engaging fiction that ties in those other elements that my earlier works were missing.
If you’re asking for specific works, I’d say the most inspirational IPs that I grew up with are: Dragon Ball Z, Final Fantasy, Star Wars, Pokémon, Matrix, James Cameron’s Avatar and Avatar: The Last Airbender, all of the 80’s action films, Jackie Chan movies, Bruce Li, Dino Crisis, Resident Evil, and everything written by Brandon Sanderson. (Also Brent Weeks’ Night Angel trilogy got me into fantasy and made me want to be a fiction writer)
I’m sure I’m influenced by almost everything I see and read, but the above are probably the biggest influences from an entertainment perspective.
I tend to write about history. I'm fascinated by events in my own past, as well as the distant past. I ask myself the same question I always ask: What if? What if I wrote a fantasy story? A purposeful fantasy, with a dragon? How would I go about it? My solution to that was gleaning through the pages of Le Morte D'Arthur's glossary of olde English words so I could sprinkle that into the story. It's the layering of stories that I like. I found out the name of Arthur's last battle. That's the battle in which all the knights of the Round Table die. But WHAT IF one didn't? How do I make that convincing to the reader? Well, WHAT IF a knight was wounded in the battle SECOND TO LAST battle? WHAT IF he lost his leg and grew to be an old man? And the story just sort of took of from there. My stories all have that what if element to them.
That's honestly a great prompt to start writing with. "What if" can work with practically anything, provided you got the imagination to think up a What if scenario. I tend to use the tactic in my TTRPG sessions that I run, which is great for improvisation in storytelling.