What gets your creativity going?

[dmgraham]

Music and nature do it for me. Curious about the rest of you.

[rossbondreturns]

Ofttimes I am excited by an idea then an anything else.

However, the weather does seem to have an interesting effect on my creativity as does the time of day.

[beckyminor]

The time of day has a lot to do with it for me. If it's dark, I work better. But dark does not include "seasonal gray, never gets fully light" outside.

I also get charged up by seeing other great work, whether it's a movie, or a piece of music, a drawing, whatever. The challenge is to not be too heavily influenced.

[dmgraham]

Cool, I've never thought of those things. I write late at night or early in the morning.

[dmgraham]

Currently, I've been listening to a great band called The Rocket Summer.

[metalikhan]

I'm a late night writer, too; but if a story or chapter or character is heavy on my mind, time of day doesn't matter.

One thing that gives my creativity a jump-start is drawing or doing something else creative with my hands whether it is sewing, leatherwork, metalwork, etc. Sometimes, I notice I am creating the physical "props" at the same time the fictional world in which it might exist is developing in my head.

Chocolate covered raisins and coffee helps, too.

[waldenwriter]

Music doesn't really help my creativity. More than anything, it helps me focus. That might sound weird, since most people find music distracting, but it's true. Sometimes I just need to shut out the ambient noise (or the too-quiet silence) to focus, and music does that for me. I started doing this as a response to having difficulty reading during my lunch in the breakroom at work. Conversations fellow co-workers were having would disrupt me. So I started bringing my portable CD player, then an mp3 player once I got one, and now my iPod.

I think nature inspires me, though. I feel closer to God when I'm in nature. Trees, to which I feel some special kinship, inspired my writing website look.

I think I get inspired by movies as well, like Becky said. Well maybe not inspired. But sometimes when I see a trailer at the movie theater before the movie, I have an emotional response: I get a choked-up feeling in my throat, even though I'm not crying. I don't know if that's inspiration or not.

I don't have a set time when I write. I should, I know, but my schedule is very weird - it changes every week, plus factoring in the bus. I've been doing a lot of writing on the bus. Most of my writing takes place in the morning, though, because I'm a morning person and so I have the most energy then; I start to get tired by the afternoon.

[dmgraham]

My husband and I decided to build our house on a mountain last year. We purchased 40 acres and went for it. My husband, our 5 kids and I built it ourselves. We generate our own power and filter pond and rain water. Nature has become a big deal.

[morganlbusse]

Funny enough, a lot of my inspiration comes from doing the laundry. Yep, the laundry (my most hated chore). With a family of six, four of them quite young and messy, I have lots of it to do. So I pop on my ipod and listen to music while folding. And its during this time a lot of my ideas come (I usually have my laptop ready to catch ideas or dialogue).

Also, living on the Oregon coast provides a lot of natural beauty and rain. I write best with rain or at night

[raregem]

I get inspired by an idea of course...but I especially love brainstorming with others. Whether about their works or mine, it gets the juices flowing so by the time we're done, my muse it itchin' for action.

[nursechappel]

Ritalin.

I am hounded by a cacophony of ideas. Concentrating on one story line long enough to bring it to completion is my struggle.

[dmgraham]

Do they still give that stuff out?

[kevinthompson]

Well, Nurse Chappell does have the hypo spray at her disposal, not to mention she was married to the creator of the show.

For me and the creativitiy question, I get inspired to write every time I walk into a book store. I look thorugh books, read the BCCs and the first few pages and think, "Man! I can do better than this or at least this good." Then, I go home and write.

When I'm writing, I listen to mood music: soundtracks from movies that go along with the genre I'm working on at the time, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. It's got to be music with no words, or I'm too busy singing along and banging on my desk (drummers do that, you know...steering wheels, desks, chairs, you name it. But I love playing for the Lord in our church's praise team!).

[Grace Bridges]

My ideas tend to be either very slow, as in built up over years and years until there's something to build a story on, or very fast, like a random story prompt or two web articles in combination that spark something off. Music can be helpful if it matches the mood of the current story. But my best inspiration comes from water. Preferably jumping into it! Like a pool, or floating in the sea. I don't know why, but a sudden plunge into wetness seems to loosen up those brain cells and get them doing quite different things to a moment before. Writing works great with a view of the sea if possible, usually with a notebook down at the beach, though that doesn't happen as often as I'd like. I also enjoy using a white noise machine with the sound of the sea, and being inside during a storm. Am I the only one thus affected by water?

[pixydust]

I'm most inspired by people and characters. I always seem to get my story idea while people watching. People at the store, at the park, on TV, or movies. I'm just fascinated by the human condition.

I also love the ocean and the forest, though. I could sit for hours, days, years under a tree writing or drawing and be in heaven. I wouldn't need anything but an apple now and then. So, I guess I could sit under an apple tree if it's going to be a long haul. Nature is my food.