EXERCISE: What are your favorites?

[mbarker]

Original Posting 2022/2/14

Over at https://writingexcuses.com/2022/02/13/17-7-dissecting-influence/ they are dissecting influences. One of the things they mentioned reminded me of something I do from time to time, and I thought I'd toss it out as something you may want to try.

It's simple really. Take your favorite medium, books, short stories, movies, anime, or whatever, and make a list of your favorites. No particular number, but make sure you have several. Then, take a look, and see if there are common themes, subjects, treatments, or whatever that seem to pop up. Usually, you'll find several that share some elements. Go ahead, make a list of those common threads that attract you.

You may want to take them apart a bit. Why is that theme something that resonates with you? Why do you prefer the youngster growing up main character? Of whatever it is... think about what it means to you, and what the key parts of it are.

You may even want to go a bit farther, and think about how to use these themes, character types, plots, or whatever in your own stories and work. After all, if you really love them, you might as well use them to inspire your own work, right?

Heck, you could probably even go ahead and do some sketches, or mix and match tales, and so forth.

Write?