A question that I've received in the past is "Where do I get inspiration for my stories?" The answer is more than just three places, but I wanted to narrow it down a little for this post. Next week, I might write about more places where I receive inspiration from. For this week, though, it'll be only three, like the title mentions. With that in mind, the three places include video games, movies and books.
Regarding video games, I often get inspiration from them from either playing them myself or watching a playthrough online. While doing either, I like to pay attention to the scenery in the game. How are the shadows of objects cast on the ground, are muted or brighter colors used, what are the sounds occurring in the area and how are all of these elements combining? There are more questions to ask on the topic, but those are just some. Another aspect is noting your own reactions to things in the game. What made you feel terrified, nauseous, excited, etc? And, playthroughs add another dimension to this because you can see how others are reacting to the same scene. This allows you to get a firmer grasp of what techniques will cause certain reactions out of your readers.
For movies, scenery and emotions are essentially the same as above. With movies, though, you might have to pause the film if you wish to analyze the scenery more since you're not controlling the main character. And, you can read others' emotions on the movie from reviews or comments if you can watch the film for free on Youtube or a similar site. A nice benefit from movies too is that you don't have to worry about your character dying, and you can focus more on the setting and interactions in the movie. This doesn't apply if you're watching a playthrough, but you don't have to worry about someone screaming or yelling into the mic during the middle of the movie. As a sidenote for if you don't like playthroughs for this reason, you always can watch a walkthrough of a video game with no commentary.
Finally, books are another source. I mostly get inspiration from books for my more fantasy-based stories. This is because they help a lot with writing fighting scenes or with creating worlds based on magic. You get to read how the magic works in the world in great detail and how battles can sound accurate and more realistic in writing. For me, it just gives a nice stepping stone for writing my own magic worlds and battles because I can see how those scenes work in writing. Now, you can get the same info from video games and movies, depending on the series and other such factors, but unless you have a script or you read the lore, you often don't get the information presented in writing form, which can make it harder to get inspiration from those sources and form a story. Anyway, I hope that this helps!
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