It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. Because this first Wednesday fell right after a holiday here in the US, Independence Day (AKA the Fourth of July), I've started this post late and so I'm just going to limit it to the optional question of the month. For those of you who celebrate it, I hope you all had a happy Fourth of July!
The question of the month is 99% of my [somebody’s, Alex’s?] story ideas come from dreams. Where do yours predominantly come from? Whenever I get asked a question like this my answer is always "life". Almost all authors’ work is influenced by their own life experiences and so that's what mine is based on.
However, within that life experience which consists of nearly a universe of experiences as all of our lives do, I have to say that my story ideas are predominantly based on my childhood passion for science fiction and horror. For me, these two genres came in a multitude of media, but especially television, movies and, of course, books (including comics). I grew up on watching with my dad and uncles science fiction and horror television which ranged from horror-hosted movies aired late Saturday nights to 1960s “Batman” and “Ultra-Man” episodes. In the movie theatres I watched the original “Star Wars” trilogy and its B-rated knockoffs. As far as books went, I was dedicated to listening to child appropriate scary tales that our teachers read to us and I would check out nearly every book in that genre that was available in both my grammar school and town’s libraries. I couldn't love any other genre more than sci fi and horror. I had to explore the strange worlds and get to know the weird characters that both offered and the fear and wonder they conjured up. I loved these genres so much, I just had to write stories of my own in them.
Because of today's blog hop, I'm taking a break next Monday from blogging. I'll be back for sure the following Monday. What influences your story ideas?
Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts: PJ Colando, Kim Lajevardi, Gwen Gardner, Pat Garcia, and Natalie Aguirre! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels!
Until next time . . .
Not my question! Like you, I get a lot of inspiration from science fiction movies and shows.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of us speculative fiction writers have, that's why we're speculative fiction writers. I'm just curious who did ask the question since they used the first person pronoun (not that it matters). Must've been one of the co-hosts. Still, good question for the month.
DeleteThat was my question! All my ideas come from there. And I enjoy horror now, but it scared the crap out of me as a kid. Not until I was a teen and I discovered Fangoria Magazine that I took an interest in it.
ReplyDeleteI know, I read your post! Lol (my comments are there). Yeah, a lot of horror past 19 60 used scare me half way to death when I was a kid until I was about 13 (a magic number!) Thats when I started watching movies like Alien and Creepshow and got past the gore and high tension in a lot of (then in the 80s) modern day horror.
DeleteHi, Steven! A lot of my ideas come from daydreams. Others from settings (places and landscapes). Certainly I draw on my life experiences and occasionally research. I have loved science fiction all of my life. Horror has always scared me, although I will still read some. I can't watch a horror movie though. It's too intense. I hope you enjoyed IWSG Day. I'm still making the rounds.
ReplyDeleteBeen enjoying it as usual. Thanks for visiting!
DeleteSome of the sci fiction I have read in my school days is forever stuck in my head.
ReplyDeleteMust've been some really good ones that you read. If a book stays in your head that long then the author definitely did his/her job!
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