# Inspiraional discussion. How? When? Why? Thou?



## Toothpik444 (Apr 17, 2010)

This is my first thread here and I think this would be a pretty sweet one to start. If your a writer on the FA, if you don't mind, I'd love to see what inspired you to become an artist of words. What storys? Experiences? Or events came into your life that made you plunked down infront of that keyboard? Also, how did they shape your stories and characters? This is a very broad subject and would love to see the varied sources of ideas! ^_^

I wrote a journal about my inspirations already and if you don't mind, here it is. 

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1314519/


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## darkr3x (Apr 17, 2010)

I think i starting writing after i watched old episodes of the Twilight Zone. I wanted to be able to communicate concepts that I couldn't describe outright.


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## Atrak (Apr 17, 2010)

It is my goal to create a form of art that includes all of the senses.

I enjoy creating art in multiple forms.

Textual art is nice because it allows me to explain things that either people would not understand, or cannot be accurately expressed with images.


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## Toonces (Apr 17, 2010)

I had a friend who often did gift art for me, and while I felt the need to return the favor, I couldn't draw. So I wrote. And so on. The end.


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## kitreshawn (Apr 18, 2010)

Honestly I just loved reading to death.  When I was in high school and had the most time to read whatever I wanted it wasn't uncommon for me to put away a novel or two a day (depending on length).  REALLY long ones might take 2 or 3 days, if it was school days.

I donno why but for some reason that made me want to write as well.


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## panzergulo (Apr 18, 2010)

Toothpik444 said:


> If your a writer on the FA, if you don't mind, I'd love to see what inspired you to become an *artist* of words.



I'm not an artist. I'm a storyteller. I just like telling stories. Have been telling stories since I was just a kid. Have been writing stories since I was a teenager. And now I'm here, telling stories to the users of FA. Although, very, very few are listening. But yeah, unless you aren't a fetish smut writer, you're automatically unpopular on this site anyway.


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## Toonces (Apr 18, 2010)

panzergulo said:


> But yeah, unless you aren't a fetish smut writer, you're automatically unpopular on this site anyway.



*puts on shades, doesn't even try to suppress a smirk*


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## Fere (Apr 18, 2010)

Oh gosh, I reckon I can attribute my writing passion to a few areas of my life. I've always found myself scribbling away at a poem or at a storyline that comes into my head. Not sure why that happens. A deep love of telling a story that has always been there from birth.

I always loved writing stories for English class at school, both primary and secondary. That and entering them into the local summer Agricultural & Horticultural Show, which as a youngster I always had pretty extensive success. So that was very encouraging.

Later on (post 2002), I found inspiration from reading some of WhyteYote's stories. It was probably the first time I'd read fiction in a while. I loved it, and was so very impressed at the photographic images being conjured. And it got me thinking...'heck, I can do this. I'd love to be doing this regularly'. 

So I owe a lot to him.

Ultimately, I do it for and because of this huge re-invented belief in myself that I've only found in the past 2 years. 

I do it for my partner, I do it for my past-life mate. I have a multi-faceted and semi-supernatural support system, in this world and the last.


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## Sadgeo (Apr 18, 2010)

I don't really remember much of my childhood, for various reason.  I do remember that I used to hate the world and everything in it.  I think it was about the age of six when I realized that people were selfish, stubborn, annoying bastards and that I wanted nothing to do with them.

But then when I was seven (after having my interest in books sparked by Robin Jarvis and his _Deptford Mice Trilogy_ at the age of six), I was introduced to the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens.  Reading their works deepened my thinking... transmorgified it, really.  And that idea was amazing to me (for I have always been an idealist, I suppose).  The idea that one could actually CHANGE the way people--selfish, stubborn, annoying people--THINK... why the idea was a revelation, a rebirth of a mind and spirit.

I kept reading. While kids were wondering if they could be astronauts, I was wondering if I could ever be able to weave words like Dickens and Poe, among other classical writers, transforming the way people thought for the greater good (in my eyes).  It was around the time I was nine (I think), when a teacher told me she was going to give my paper an F because it was too advanced to have been written by someone like me.  Perhaps... I had potential?  The only way to know was to write.

I've been writing ever since.


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## jinxtigr (Apr 18, 2010)

Wait, you mean... OTHER PEOPLE can read these words?

Oh, shit


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## Scarborough (Apr 18, 2010)

I'm pretty sure if I stop writing, I will go crazy.

I have always "written," but I never took writing that seriously until about two years ago? And I originally got serious two years ago because I thought I could right funny/quirky stuff. But I don't recall writing for anyone in particular? I like showing off my stuff and making people laugh, but ah, that's not why I write most of the stuff I do?

I don't have a motivation for writing, except that that's what I do in my downtime. I think all of my stories are motivated by the idea that people are connected to other people, and that every person is a person.

Hm.


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## Tyvara_Panther (Apr 18, 2010)

I've always written little stories, but I remember the exact moment I wanted to be a writer.

It was watching Romancing the Stone, after that I knew.


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## GraemeLion (Apr 18, 2010)

I like making worlds.  I like having control.  I like making things happen. 

As for inspiration, it all comes down to immortality.  I'm not a religious man.  I feel that when I die, that's it.  So writing gives me the rather small chance that something of me can continue beyond death.


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## reian (Apr 19, 2010)

I started writing as a kid really early; I had a very strict grandmother that had me writing paragraphs in kindergarden and I wrote my mother's college paper for her when I was in 5th grade.  I have always been more of a technical writer rather than an imaginative one.

However, in middle school I found that just taking an emotion I was feeling and expanding upon it made me feel much better and to this day is a way I control my bi-polar without medicines that make me worse >.<  

I'm sure there are other reasons, but those are the most prevalent.


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## paintballadict9 (Apr 19, 2010)

I was inspired by Video games.*fanfic writer....and terrible lol*

but its fun for me so i keep doin it.


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## A Concerned Citizen (Apr 19, 2010)

I always had an intrinsic desire to create and an imagination that refuses to leave me alone. Be it the starships I used to make out of tin foil when I was a kid, playing around with RPG Maker when I was in high school or the comic script I'm working on today.


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## Seismic (Apr 21, 2010)

Why do I write? I think too much and can't stop.


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## Sovhiel (Apr 21, 2010)

panzergulo said:


> I'm not an artist. I'm a storyteller. I just like telling stories. Have been telling stories since I was just a kid. Have been writing stories since I was a teenager. And now I'm here, telling stories to the users of FA. Although, very, very few are listening. But yeah, unless you aren't a fetish smut writer, you're automatically unpopular on this site anyway.


So you don't think writing is an art form, eh Panzer?


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## Atrak (Apr 22, 2010)

Sovhiel said:


> So you don't think writing is an art form, eh Panzer?



I think that he envisions himself as a sort of bard.

A noble profession.


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## panzergulo (Apr 22, 2010)

Sovhiel said:


> panzergulo said:
> 
> 
> > I'm not an artist. I'm a storyteller. I just like telling stories. Have been telling stories since I was just a kid. Have been writing stories since I was a teenager. And now I'm here, telling stories to the users of FA. Although, very, very few are listening. But yeah, unless you aren't a fetish smut writer, you're automatically unpopular on this site anyway.
> ...



Haven't really given any thought to that idea, because it doesn't really affect me. I don't really care if writing is art or not. It might be, then again, it might be not. I just like storytelling. And my storytelling is storytelling, regardless if people conceive writing as art or as something else.

My first intuition says I'm not an artist and my writing isn't art. But who am I to say, I just tell stories...

You tell me: Am I an artist and is my writing art?


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## Atrak (Apr 22, 2010)

panzergulo said:


> Haven't really given any thought to that idea, because it doesn't really affect me. I don't really care if writing is art or not. It might be, then again, it might be not. I just like storytelling. And my storytelling is storytelling, regardless if people conceive writing as art or as something else.
> 
> My first intuition says I'm not an artist and my writing isn't art. But who am I to say, I just tell stories...
> 
> You tell me: Am I an artist and is my writing art?



Whether or not other people think that your writing is art doesn't matter.

Think of it how you will,
And tell it like you feel.


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## Sovhiel (Apr 22, 2010)

panzergulo said:


> Haven't really given any thought to that idea, because it doesn't really affect me. I don't really care if writing is art or not. It might be, then again, it might be not. I just like storytelling. And my storytelling is storytelling, regardless if people conceive writing as art or as something else.
> 
> My first intuition says I'm not an artist and my writing isn't art. But who am I to say, I just tell stories...
> 
> You tell me: Am I an artist and is my writing art?


I think, as a function of being a teller of your own stories, you also write those stories, and those stories are works of art. I don't think they're art because of any wholly justifiable reason--indeed, I think that's the amazing part about art. Works of art mean many different things to different people, and the viewer doesn't necessarily need to justify what he sees. The piece of art has an effect on him; that's what matters. And I think your writing has an effect on people the same as any other piece of writing.

Kind of an abstract explanation, but I think it matters in terms of that push against visual art, that conflict with images that's always in the background of our discussions. By not calling writing art, by labeling visual art as the only kind of art, we send the message that our writing is indeed not as legitimate as images.

And I think it's interesting that you deliberately separate the ideas of art and storytelling, which seems to say that you _have_ thought about it. Even if you assume that the writing itself, the words on the page, does not constitute an art form, why dismiss storytelling as an art form as well?

The way you responded to the OP just made me interested in your perspective, that's all~


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## panzergulo (Apr 22, 2010)

Sovhiel said:


> panzergulo said:
> 
> 
> > Haven't really given any thought to that idea, because it doesn't really affect me. I don't really care if writing is art or not. It might be, then again, it might be not. I just like storytelling. And my storytelling is storytelling, regardless if people conceive writing as art or as something else.
> ...



I didn't talk about writing as a whole, just when it happens to apply to me and my prose...

Mind you, I might not regard all writing as art, but nor do I regard all visual images or music as art. When a piece of writing, a picture, or a piece of music doesn't have any effect on me, I can't learn or get anything new by reading/viewing/listening it, it doesn't stimulate my brains and/or it seriously lacks something I think is aesthetic, then, no, that piece, whatever it might ever be, is not art in my opinion.

If I am very strict, there is very little art in FA.

But I also think the whole subject of "what is art" is pretty nonsensical and dumb, because art can mean so many things to other people. It's a very subjective thing. What I might regard as a piece of trash that has nothing to do with aesthetics or stimulating the reader/viewer/listener, some other person might find it the most awesome piece of art they have ever found.

In my own opinion I'm not an artist and my writing isn't art. Most of my readers might disagree, though.


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## Sovhiel (Apr 22, 2010)

panzergulo said:


> I didn't talk about writing as a whole, just when it happens to apply to me and my prose...
> 
> Mind you, I might not regard all writing as art, but nor do I regard all visual images or music as art. When a piece of writing, a picture, or a piece of music doesn't have any effect on me, I can't learn or get anything new by reading/viewing/listening it, it doesn't stimulate my brains and/or it seriously lacks something I think is aesthetic, then, no, that piece, whatever it might ever be, is not art in my opinion.
> 
> ...


I defined what I think art is, then applied it to you. I used shorthand at the end to talk about your view of writing. By "the words on the page," I meant your words. My fault for leaving it ambiguous. Although I was also working from the assumption that your bolded statement was a front anyway.

Your opinion is just as valid and respectable, not that you need me to tell you that. We all have different standards for art.


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## darkr3x (Apr 22, 2010)

panzergulo said:


> Haven't really given any thought to that idea, because it doesn't really affect me. I don't really care if writing is art or not. It might be, then again, it might be not. I just like storytelling. And my storytelling is storytelling, regardless if people conceive writing as art or as something else.
> 
> My first intuition says I'm not an artist and my writing isn't art. But who am I to say, I just tell stories...
> 
> You tell me: Am I an artist and is my writing art?



as a student on a campus full of haughty art students i would say you do not write art panzer...they are however entertaining stories^^


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## Toothpik444 (Apr 22, 2010)

Sovhiel said:


> I defined what I think art is, then applied it to you. I used shorthand at the end to talk about your view of writing. By "the words on the page," I meant your words. My fault for leaving it ambiguous. Although I was also working from the assumption that your bolded statement was a front anyway.
> 
> Your opinion is just as valid and respectable, not that you need me to tell you that. We all have different standards for art.



Lol this thread wasn't so much about what art is and isn't. It was just something I typed to make the thread more interesting. 

Anyway, art to me is anything that has no purpose but in itself. IMO


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## Atrak (Apr 23, 2010)

Toothpik444 said:


> Anyway, art to me is anything that has no purpose but in itself. IMO



I disagree with you there.

Do you really want to get into an argument about it?


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## Toothpik444 (Apr 23, 2010)

Not really, this isn't the thread for it! Lol!


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## Scarborough (Apr 23, 2010)

atrakaj said:


> I disagree with you there.
> 
> Do you really want to get into an argument about it?



I want to get into an argument about it. Is this thread appropriate for discussing art, or should a new one be created? ?


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## Atrak (Apr 23, 2010)

Scarborough said:


> I want to get into an argument about it. Is this thread appropriate for discussing art, or should a new one be created? ?



Art is inspiring, I suppose.

We could always make a new thread in a visual art section just to be safe, though.


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