Titillates Your Muse
Where do your story ideas come from?

So I was walking around here at the bookstore (we have a net connection here now!) when a strange line popped into my head. I thought, "my goodness, this would be a great first line for a story." This has happened once before -- I wrote a story around a great line that popped into my head, and IMO, it's one of my best stories.

Someone once wrote, or said, I can't remember who or what, that writers never think of first lines and then write a story from there. I disagree. I do that occasionally.

Which got me thinking: how do you other writers get your story ideas? Where do they primarily come from? Are you in the shower? Are you doing something completely non-erotica related when you get the idea for a piece of erotica? How about you poets? Thought it would be interesting to hear about this from all of you.   —Adhara Law

Interested in this topic?
Follow the Participation image and share your thoughts with us.

From Meri
My ideas usually sneak up on me when I'm not looking for them. I can be sitting in a drive-thru lane waiting for coffee and something will just come to me. I'm often unexpectedly inspired by situations in everyday life. People fascinate me, so I'm always observing someone doing something, whether it's something that's intended to draw attention like a performance, or just sitting in Starbuck's people-watching. 

Same thing with places. I was recently at a club that I walked into and knew immediately I had to write it into something. It ended up being one hell of an erotica piece. I don't worry about coming up with overly dramatic scenarios. Sometimes it's easier (and a lot more realistic) to just look around.

From A.F. Waddell
For me it can be important to love the subject matter (a Marilyn Monroe piece is dear to my heart).

Ideas are often based upon what I know, or what I want to know. I enjoy doing research.

Ideas may come from book or film characters, real life, news articles... or anthology calls for submissions! For instance, it's interesting to be challenged to pen gay bikers and gay vampires!

Or simply to speculate "What if?..."

I find Latino rock to be inspirational background music for writing especially Santana and La Ley.

Ideas: don't forget to write them down.

From Miss Pamela
Everything I've written that I think is good has come to me in some sort of aha! moment. Yes, my muse pokes me in the brain once or twice a year, and yes it comes in the middle of the night like a dream.

I was furious when my writing teachers all said this was a myth, but I couldn't argue. They still insisted that writing is about daily toil. And, well, yes, getting the craft right, building the toolbox is the daily work. But the real writing, at least for me, is about lightening striking and weird imagery and middle of the night rambling.

From Karen
Three years ago I began a torrid affair with a younger man (by sixteen years) and as circumstances dictated, the only available rendezvous spot was the back seat of my car. At the end of each encounter, I would rekindle the experience by writing about what had taken place in great detail. Thus began my "erotica files". I discovered not only that I enjoyed recapitulating the event but sharing this with my lover somehow enhanced the whole relationship. I have a collection of over one hundred and fifty episodes in "The Sloppy Jalopy Records".

From Ruth
I find my inspirations come from my real-life adventures. I have always tried to live my fantasies, as I am convinced that real life is much better than fantasy life. I am in a glorious couple of relationships and the adventures I find there are the greatest inspiration ever. It is necessary for me, however, to stop and slowly think about what I am writing. I write about what I feel, assuming that what I feel is mirrored by how others feel, too. I am trying to connect with the other readers who may feel like I do.

From Chris Williams
I personally get inspiration to write from seeing and going to different places, traveling lets me think and imagine, giving me ideas which I can use in my erotic compositions.

I wrote a story titled "petting zoo" after I spent a day at the Milwaukee county zoo. another composition "computer literate" was based on my assisting a female student at school who was having problems with her computer. our experiences often drive us to think act do say or write something, we should take advantage of this gift, the gift of our experiences, as writers of erotica, and use it in our stories.

As a writer, I find myself surrounded with ideas which help get my stories off the ground. fantasizing about women isn't enough. there has to be a situation which leads to sex within every story. I don't write stories about every woman I see, either. she has to be attractive and I have to be able to imagine myself having sex with her.

I also get my inspiration from the women I see at the grand avenue mall downtown. the many women who are going and coming from downtown businesses are often the women who appear in my stories. women on the bus stop, or city bus women at church, at school, the other malls in Milwaukee, they all play a part in my stories. erotic stories are best written when we have that visual stimulus whether it's the woman with the high heels or the woman sitting behind the desk at the bank, that experience, that vision could set off our imaginations. as a writer I use those experiences which ultimately lead me to write true, well-thought out erotica, whatever it is you experience, see, think or do, write about it, talk about it fantasize about it, and appreciate it, and most of all, enjoy it!

From Kat
It took me years to discover that a good idea (first line, character sketch) will not make the writing work. It's when a creative burst collides with another (that last comment on Jerry Springer with my grandfather's ethnic slang phrase for Brazil nuts with those dreams I have about being a matedor) that really gives me the sense of a muse. In that connection (not the original idea)--that energy where I just want to exclaim to the masses "Yes, that works!"--that the muse floats free. I have some of my best ideas in the shower, in the car, cooking egg drop soup, but it's only when I can thread them together that I really hear a muse knocking at the door. Now, recognizing the difference between a quickie (which feels good but lacks depth) and quality (which feels good and has depth) is really where an author finds his or her voice and begins to know just how the muse works. Maybe you have to live with your muse for awhile, get to know the weakness and strength of it, to! really know if its leading you down a path worth following.

From J.Z. Sharpe
My story ideas come from everywhere -- from real life, from friends, from other people's stuff. All over!

I like to listen to music, of course, for ideas. Classical and wild electronic music are especially inspirational to me. I like something that plays while I'm running a scene on my internal movie screen.

One that Sukh mentioned -- take a story and add what's missing, or redo what has not been done to your satisfaction -- I got lots of stories that way. Next time you're blocked, trying going out to the web or to a newsgroup and reading the worst, raunchiest, most badly written piece of XXX trash you can find. Then see how easy it is to improve upon it!

I also get great ideas from pictures. Well done erotic photos are always an inspiration, of course, but I also collect pictures from magazines and newspapers. The New York Times Magazine has started a feature called "What They Were Thinking", where they take a photo of someone and then ask them what they were thinking at the time. A story in every one!

But some of my best stories (Chainlinks, The Lady of the Labyrinth, and many of the Adairius tales) come from dreams. Those are the ones that I truly think come from someplace outside this universe, and are most definitely a gift from the gods.

From Cervo
Those seem like excellent ideas to me, Joan. I would add that I get a lot of my ideas from sudden unexpected bursts of feeling that may come to me on a train, walking down the street or catching someone's eye I am very susceptible to the quality of light at a given time of the day. Even more than sight is the effect of scents and the tastes that go with them. I love Italian food for all the herbal mix in it that makes emotional themes.I learned a tiny bit about Indian food and the concept of balance in that cuisine as I like vegetarian dishes very much but often find them rather bland.

Beyond that, very ordinary things especially in the news often remind me of things I have read from say Shakespeare or lately a lot from Johnathan Swift. I used to think about Robert Graves a lot particularly "Goodbye to All That" and would do paintings based on those feelings. he grotesque in fiction is a way of coping with it in public life.

In sum I think you have to find a voice as a writer that is yours even if that voice speaks very differently at different times. Then you have to find the texture of your life and yield to it. A great deal of that process can be very unpleasant, but it is always refreshingly educational. Sorrow, for example can be a predictable comfort where happiness can often not be trusted.

From Volponia
Cervo, yours is a very perceptive comment and a true one as far as most writing is concerned. Regrettably, and I hesitate to tack my base truth onto your exquisite disquisition on inspiration, most of my erotic story ideas seem to come right from my genitalia. If an idea makes me tingle, I want to write about it.

From Tarrick
Usually from a non-erotic picture (in the paper or a magazine) or from some bizarre, usually nonerotic, comment I hear. I start thinking about how the people involved would have sex, and it's straight (or not <koff>) into the gutter from there. :-) For poetry, it usually comes as a way to bleed out pain. I'm just learning how to write happy, erotica poetry -- other than filthy limericks. <gg>

From Nina
Caryn, good question! Some of my story ideas are inspired by my own life and experiences (albeit sufficiently cloaked. Let 'em wonder <g>), but most simply pop into my head when I'm not even thinking about writing.

I wrote my Chinese calligraphy story after watching a documentary about Confucious, my flamenco story after seeing a flamenco version of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," and believe it or not, I actually got an idea when I was watching "Friends" last night, which is a total first for me. I've also been inspired by art or art history anecdotes. One of them involves Rodin and a dancer, and another was inspired by the life of Frida Kahlo. And often simply thinking about a certain historical period produces a wealth of possibilities.

I've also come up with some good ideas and lines right as I'm about to fall asleep. I even wrote one book based on a gesture that came to mind-- I thought of a woman scientist putting her hand on the back of a man's neck while guiding him to look into a microscope. A full novel came out of that one image, much to my surprise. Weird how ideas work, isn't it?

From Adhara Law
That's happened to me, too! (The ideas before falling asleep, not the hand guiding me to look into the microscope. ;)

I keep a notebook on my night-table. More often than not, phrases come to me during that half-awake, half-asleep hypnotic state. I remember once, I suddenly heard the phrase pop into my head: "It is on the bus that she realizes her toenails are painted the same color as the walls of her childhood bedroom." I bolted upright in bed. Who?? Why does she realize this?? What is the significance of this?? Where is she going?? This became the first line of a non-erotica story of mine.

I have also had dreams that have inspired stories, and more than one idea has come to me upon waking up. I love those -- I made coffee, put on my big, fluffy terry bathrobe, and start writing.

From Quicksilver
I get my stories from just about everywhere, including a first line. A lot of them are the situations that might have been, could have been, and should have been - from real life or wishful thinking. It seems the harder I try (read desperate for an idea) to come up with something the less likely I am to get an idea that really works. It's the ones that just pop up that often work the best.

From Anonymous Since I have not yet posted a single story or poem, you'll have to take my word that I really do write both. Story ideas come from situations I read about in the works of non-erotic writers, from things friends say, from life situations, from past experience.

Usually I take the elements obtained in these various ways and eroticize them. In effect I say, "If this innocent, non-erotic situation had played out in another way, what might have happened? What might those people have done if their urges had been stronger, their inhibitions less binding, their experience wider and their inclinations more adventurous?

Poetry is different. Often it starts with a phrase and/or a rhythm. Less often I may hear a rhyme. I write down that bit. It hangs around for a time. If it intrudes on my consciousness enough, I begin to tinker with it to see where it may lead. Always it leads somewhere, although the somewhere may not be very interesting.

All the rest is the drudgery of rewrite and polish, refit and cut. Then I leave it alone for a while. When I go back to it and it still pleases me, I can declare it (kind of) finished.

From Megan
This question intrigues me. My ideas come from hmmm...everywhere. That may sound funny but right now, I'm listening to a Buddy Guy (blues) live from Chicago CD. My mind went immediately to the last time I was at his club. A story is in the making...

Last night I was watching a movie and the word "buff" was used. Now, I can't remember what it was in relation to, but my mind came up with an idea. Song titles, words spoken in conversation...these are all the places where I get my ideas from. Seeing Lake Michigan, visiting a bookstore...for me, the list is endless. Now if the time I had to write was as endless, I'd be one happy tale-spellbinder. *laughing* I like Joan's suggestion/idea of checking around the net and seeing really bad stories and getting the urge to improve on the idea.

I really believe that when you write, there is some part of your brain that is always on alert. Anything can set an idea off - you just have to be open to it. Writers generally are. Now, if you were to ask me why the brain shuts off during those blocky times when you can't find an idea to save your soul, I'd have to say "who the heck knows?" *grin*

From Pat
I have to say the "What If" thing is the most common way I get an idea too. Situations that I'm involved in or that I see other people in present unlimited story ideas. I see something and I start asking myself questions about it...who are those people, what are they doing there, what is their relationship to one another, etc.

My mind tends to wander a lot, for good or ill I'm not sure, but that's when many of my inspirations come...just following a thought where it leads me. The most innocuous thing can spark a story.

Another way I get ideas is just from a scene that moves me in some way. For instance, my first Foxfire story (the swamp one I did for the Halloween festival last year) was inspired by the sight of a bog that I drove by one day out in the country.

I can also be triggered by conversations...especially in chat...when an image pops into my head. I'm an intensely visual person, so when people talk to me it's as if there's a movie playing in my head that is created as the person speaks. A lot of times, I'll take an evocative picture from one of those movies and build a story around it. None of the above situations, images or conversations need to be erotic in nature to produce an erotic story.

And then...oh then...there's the odd precious time when a story comes to you straight from the universe. When you don't have an inspiration...you just sit down and begin to write and it's like taking dictation from the other side, sucking the story out of thin air. God that's good.

From Ceit
I have these vivid dreams, sometimes my stories come to life from them. Once I saw this word and decided to see what I can do with a word, that got me a twenty five paper.

My favorite one Hunger, came to me while I was having writer's block with another longer story that I am working on. The Vampire story came out of my sick humor, I wanted to see if something so strange would make my point come across. I guess it did! ;)

I also like to pick up on events in life. But mostly, the stories come deep from inside. I believe writers, talk from the heart. I think that every character is a piece of your soul. I know that sounds corny but if you look at your own stories you will know what I mean.

Inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime. Another story line, which is my favorite, came from a fond remembrance of my grandmother. She became the character that I was writing. It was not erotic so it will probably not show up on the ERA, but I think it's one of my better writings.

  E-mail this page

Copyright © 1996 and on, Erotica Readers Association, Inc.
All Rights Reserved World Wide. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or
medium without express written permission is prohibited.