Hmm.  Interesting topic.  I'm guessing this topic is based on what inspired you as a writer to write a certain story/screenplay.  I guess this could be fun.  I'll go through my five.

Mercenary: Soldier of Fortune - The main inspiration of this script was based off of a former Canadian sniper Arron Perry.  He holds the world record for the longest sniper kill at 2,340 meters or 1.5 miles which took place in 2002 in Afghanistan.  He then was discharged from the Canadian military after defiling an al Qaeda dead body.  He then moved to America and became a mercenary for hire.  He currently performs contracted Special Forces work for the United States.

Quake - Pretty much mostly from the video game.  I used some elements from Starship Troopers and Doom, but mostly just an adaptation with my own characters.

Slaughter - My first horror script.  The story was inspired by a film called The Slaughterhouse Massacre which was probably one of the worst films I have ever seen in my life, but the slaughterhouse setting seemd cool.  So I attempted to a crack at it and had a blast with it.

Devil May Cry - Another video game adaption.  I tried to make the script as action oriented as possible to really give the game justice, but it was difficult to keep the story flowing.  Not one of my proudest scripts, but I love the story.  I would love to go back and maybe touch it up or spin off another story from it.

The Booker Man -  My most recent script.  This was based off of pretty much every experience I have encountered in the two years of college I had.  Every single situation in the script is real.  Either via my own experience or a friend's.  I also was inspried to write it to try and even the balance of guys hoping to talk to women.  My brother is very timid when it comes to girls and I always wanted to know why some dudes are petrified of women.  So I tried to dig up as much info I could on female seduction that I possess as sort of a guide for hopeful "pimps" out there.  Haha.

Anyway that's my resume.  I think every script has to have some sort of inspiration, especially original stories.  If you aren't inspired by something that truly touches you emotionally, the story will either be dry as hell or you will never finish writing it.      

haha Guy, that booker man story was excellent! I wonder if your brother read it and hopefully benefited from it!

Thanks for sharing man, that was a fun read!

Ayham

Guy, it seems like you and I are the only active members tonight. Anyways, to go back to the Booker Man and the thing with men and women. The problem with us guys is that we think we're always in control, and that all we have to do is walk up to her and talk to her, but all of a sudden we get HIT with that fake smile and the " NO! thanks, I"M BUSY! " ..god I hate that. The truth is, it's women who are in control. If a woman likes you, then she WILL talk to you and will give you the light of day, otherwise there's nothing on earth that will make her have that cup of coffee with you. So smart guys who do NOT like rejection shouldn't approach just any girl. They should wait for that sign, for that hint, for that look or smile they give you, then, and only then approach the girl...and even then, god knows!


A bit off topic here I know. I just had to VENT!

Ayham

The boards are indeed very quiet lately.  Everyone working on their OWE submission, I suspect.

But never one to pass up an opportunity for a cheap plug (and just where is Phil, anyway), my short script Salvage was drawn from a true-life scenario:

http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-short/m-1125923556

The WIP thread for that is long-buried, but I dug up the initial posting, which may or may not be of any interest to you whatsoever -- but hey, at least it's on-topic.

Quoted Text As a teenager I used to work on my own car, and spent alot of time picking through junkyards for auto parts.  One day I noticed that the trunk of one of these cars was full of old clothes, shoes, and even a photo album with family pictures.  I thought it was odd that these items had gone unclaimed. As I looked around, it suddenly occurred to me that most of these junked autos (there were hundreds) had ended up here as a result of violent collisions. And many had probably had dead people in them. Like the car I was rummaging through now, for example. It was a nifty, gruesome, tingly feeling. That will be the setting for this story.

It's a good creepy story for Halloween, too.  I don't think anyone has hated it yet haha.

I'm yet to have an inspired story, all my ideas come from my noggin, not experiences, which is a bit of a downer. I spose I need to travel or do something as experience nutrient. Either that or take a whole lot of drugs and experience things i thought i saw...

Bert, does your script Salvage tell a true story? I mean did you really find something interesting, like a dead person or something along those lines?

What did you find in that trunk????

Quoted from Alex J. Cooper I'm yet to have an inspired story, all my ideas come from my noggin, not experiences, which is a bit of a downer. I spose I need to travel or do something as experience nutrient. Either that or take a whole lot of drugs and experience things i thought i saw...

haha Ape!

Come on man, everyone has a certain experience. Or like Gene Hackman said in that movie..uh, I just saw it! the jury movie!..hmm...oh, Jury Duty, when he said " everyone has a dirty little secret "...so what's yours?? I'm sure something happened along the way and prompted you to write about it!  

Quoted from Alex J. Cooper I'm yet to have an inspired story, all my ideas come from my noggin, not experiences, which is a bit of a downer. I spose I need to travel or do something as experience nutrient. Either that or take a whole lot of drugs and experience things i thought i saw...

I have to say the same thing really. I've never really done anything or been anywhere that's truly inspired me to write. Maybe something's inspired me to write a song but scripts, I feel, are a lot more complex and I'd need something pretty big to spark off the inspiration for a story.

All my scripts are created inside my head I'm afraid. I mean, Gravy People? That's the best script I've ever written and it's about a bunch of young adults who, after mixing a secret substance into gravy, enter each others dreams and memories. What kind of inspiration could I get to write something insane like that? Ha ha ha... it's funny because it's true. I love my mind... I get my inspiration from dreaming, I guess.

( seating Parkster on a comfortable chair, putting on my thick medical glasses)

So, Parkster!...lets talk about those dreams!!...Start with your childhood!

haha just kidding bro....So STARLESS started out with a dream?

Ayham

Quoted from Ayham So STARLESS started out with a dream?

Hmmm...

... I guess inspiration, for that sort of script, comes from films... Star Wars is the obvious choice, I guess. Most of it hit me as I thought about a sci-fi in space... it just comes to me. Sometime's I dream about something and think, oh cool, that's a good idea and I go from there.

For one of my other new scripts, The Vent, came to me after watching a Scrubs episode and an X-Files episode. The Vent is a horror, about a guy stuck in a massive maze of ventilation shafts with strange things going on inside with him. On Scrubs, the janitor tells of his time inside a ventilation shaft hallucinating... the same week I watched an early episode of the X-Files where Skully makes her way through a vent... and hey hey, there's the idea for The Vent. It may be weird but it's how idea's pop into my head. I'm sure a lot of other writers get idea's from other films too.

Inspiration is getting harder to find... even harder if you don't try and look for it.  

My first attempt on writing happened when I was working as a restaurant manager in Venice Beach, CA. It's a screenplay called " One Man Show "

We had a cute waitress from Spain, Julia, who oneday approached one of the cashiers, Jeff and asked him to marry her for the purpose of obtaining a green card. Jeff is gay.

So I asked her, why Jeff? she said because he's gay, and it's alot safer to live with a gay man rather than a straight man.

A light bulb went on inside my head, nearly blowing it. And I came up with the idea.

A girl from Europe or South America is looking for a gay man to marry and become citizen, and she's willing to pay up to $10,000, plus free apartment for 1 full year.

The character I picked for my story was Paul, a struggling Flamenco guitar player, who just finished producing a Flamenco CD, along with his band, but the CD didn't sell. People nowadays listen to Rap music. So Paul agrees to marry Julia, the only problem is, Paul is NOT gay, but he has to pretend he is!

It's a romantic comedy, but was my first attempt on writing and came out absolutely horrible!!

One of those days I'll get back to it, clean it up and hopefully put it on this site.

Ayham

Quoted from Ayham Bert, does your script Salvage tell a true story?

Haha -- no way, man.  Just the setting -- and that one realization -- and the story grew from there.

"The Farm" was like that, too.  For those that have read it (NOT a plug -- just conversaion on a slow day for the boards) -- that story is set someplace very real.  The windmill (painted as described), Angel's portrait (and where it is hung), the art room, the animal shed -- virtually everything in that script exists in real life -- on a farm in Bristol, Indiana.

Sounds interesting, Bert. You know, I see no problem if people PLUGED their scripts through this thread. Now that we know the story behind the story, it would make the script a much more interesting read. I know I'm getting to Salvage and Booker Man (Guy Jackson) soon!

Ayham

(off to work now, gotta make a living somehow)

You don't have to travel to get inspired to write something. The true nature of a writer is being observant. I get more ideas for stories and characters in one day than I could possibly write, even if I was paid to write ten hours per day.

Just watch people and situations. Listen to what people are saying. Ask yourself questions. Why is he/she doing this or that? What is his/her life like? What drives him/her?

Read/watch the news. I could probably come up with at least ten stories in one day just from the news. This Horror/Milk OWE took me less than two minutes to come up with a story. Sadly I didn't have the time to write it, but it took no time coming up with the story.

Just pay attention to what goes on around you would be my advice.  

I agree with Pia on being observant.

Before I wrote "Tattoo", I knew I wanted to write a vampire script, but I didn't have any ideas for making it orignal.

I went to the liquor store to get a pack of smokes, and there in their window was a beautifully-colored poster ad for a new drink (I think it's Vodka, but I'm not sure) but the ad just sort of slapped me in my face. As soon as I saw the ad I got the idea. Tattoos puts ink into the skin... What if someone used vampire-tainted blood instead of ink when doing tattoos? Then I wrote it.  

Cindy