History Main / InspirationForTheWork

** According to Jake Wyatt, the dynamic between Clark and Lois, along with Lois' characterization, was inspired by Vash and Meryl Stryfe from ''Manga/{{Trigun}}''. This was in [[https://sutekiniichan.tumblr.com/post/723050864392192000/so-jake-wyatt-one-of-the-creators-of-my response]] to fanart by [[https://www.tumblr.com/comickergirl/722892448828899328/i-guess-i-just-need-to-accept-that-i-am-physically comickergirl]] playfully pointing the similarities in a crossover piece.

* ''Series/BlackBooks'' came about because of Creator/DylanMoran's view of bookshops as doomed enterprises. Moran said "Running a second-hand bookshop is a guaranteed commercial failure. It's a whole philosophy. There were bookshops that I frequented and I was always struck by the loneliness and doggedness of these men who piloted this death ship", while Graham Linehan said his belligerent personality reflected a sign he once saw in a bookshop stating "Please put the books anywhere you like because we've got nothing better to do than put them back". Moran said of the series, "We just wanted to cram as much elaborate stupidity into a half-hour that could make it be coherent and that you would believe".

* Graham Linehan was inspired to create ''Series/TheITCrowd'' after a PC tech with questionable interpersonal skills paid a house call.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Webcomic/AnOrdinaryPrincess'': Was due to the inspiration of ''Literature/TheOrdinaryPrincess''.
* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'': Tom Siddell was drawing pictures one day, and he decided to draw one using the unused colors from a recently-purchased pack of markers. The colors were pink, drab green, and tan, so Tom drew a pink-haired girl in a school uniform. She ended up with a bored expression on her face that intrigued Tom, so he started imagining what she must be like and what sort of school she must attend. He decided he could make a webcomic about this, and ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' was the result.
* The anonymous creator of ''Music/BadLipReading'' got the inspiration for it from his deaf mother, who had learned how to read lips. He started trying it by watching TV with the sound off, but what he thought was being said was so hilariously inaccurate that...

* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin heavily based the political intrigue of his ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' on Maurice Druon's ''Literature/TheAccursedKings''. It is no surprise if ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' exhibit such influences. As Martin himself said in the introduction for 2013 English edition (which he lobbied for):
-->''"The Accursed Kings has it all: iron kings and strangled queens, battles and betrayals, lies and lust, deception, family rivalries, the curse of the Templars, babies switched at birth, she-wolves, sin and swords, the doom of a great dynasty and all of it (or most of it) straight from the pages of history. And believe me, the Starks and the Lannisters have nothing on the Capets and Plantagenets."''
* Scott Westerfeld came up with the idea for the ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' series after a coworker moved to Los Angeles. The coworker sent an email discussing his trip to the dentist and how everyone in LA seems to have blindingly white teeth. Westerfeld began to wonder about a culture where modifications to beauty like that were the norm and those who ''didn't'' do it stood out.
* The ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series began when [=HarperCollins=] told [[Creator/ErinHunter Vicky Holmes]] to create a story about cats. She wasn't thrilled because she doesn't like cats all that much, but she decided to add things that interested her, such as lots of action.
* The ''Literature/NightshadeTrilogy'' started with the invention of the main character, Calla. The author, Andrea Cremer, wondered what an ActionGirl who could turn into a wolf would be afraid of, and built the rest of the story based on that.
* Kenneth Oppel has a friend very obsessed with bats, and whose enthusiasm began to rub off. Oppel saw potential for a unique story, especially since bats had never been written about before, and started writing the ''Literature/{{Silverwing}}'' trilogy.
* Creator/RobertLouisStevenson's ''Literature/TreasureIsland'' began as a watercolor painting done in front of his nephews, who were enthralled and delighted by the appearance of exotic locales with absurdly poetic names.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' developed when Creator/SuzanneCollins was watching TV one night and kept flipping between news coverage of the Iraq War and a reality TV show involving young people; the two sort of blurred together in her mind until she came up with the series' premise.
* Creator/OrsonScottCard got the idea for ''Literature/EndersGame'' as a kid, when he tried to theorize what the military of the future would use to train soldiers in space, thus imagining the Battle Room. That manifested into the original short story, but the full novel didn't emerge until he was trying to decide who would be the protagonist of ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead'', until his wife suggested it could be Ender.

* A bit of an aversion: As Giovanni Guareschi related in the introduction to the first ''Literature/DonCamillo'' collection, he wrote the first Don Camillo story very quickly because he was under a tight deadline and had to fill a page in his newspaper pronto.

* Creator/AnthonyBurgess claimed that the inspiration for ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'' was his first wife Lynne's beating by a gang of drunk American servicemen stationed in England during World War II. She subsequently miscarried.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov deserves an entire section here:
** ''Literature/TheEarlyAsimov'': The entire novel is an {{Invoked}} case. To further clarify, it largely consists of Dr Asimov [[DiscussedTrope discussing]] the inspirations for each work in the short story [[{{Anthology}} collection]] (assuming he recalls what may have inspired each story).
** ''Literature/Nightfall1941'' was inspired by a conversation he and his editor-slash-friend Creator/JohnWCampbell had about a famous quote from Creator/RalphWaldoEmerson concerning the beauty of the night sky. Emerson's optimistic quote on the matter goes that "If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, [[TheSacredDarkness how would men believe and adore,]] [[TheWorldIsJustAwesome and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!]]" Campbell's cynical rebuttal to that statement was instead that "[[GoMadFromTheRevelation I think men would go mad.]]". This inspired Asimov to write a short story about the coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily illuminated by sunlight at all times.
** ''Literature/TheRestOfTheRobots'': In [[InUniverse the preamble]] to "Literature/GalleySlave", Dr Asimov describes how Horace Gold requested a story from him, but he was too busy working on the biochemistry textbook ''Biochemistry And Human Metabolism'' at the time. However, not long after he said that, he came up with an idea for a story and sent that in.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series has some examples.
** According to Sir Creator/TerryPratchett, he got the idea for ''Literature/SmallGods'' after watching a documentary about Khomeini's Iran.
** If certain Australian fans are to be believed, the inspiration for ''Literature/SoulMusic'' came during Pratchett's visit to Australia where, upon discovering that Pratchett had never seen ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'', the fans promptly "abducted" him and took him to a midnight screening of the film.
** ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'' was heavily inspired by Pratchett's feelings regarding both the First Gulf War of 1990-1991 and the Falklands War.
* Creator/ChuckPalahniuk once had an altercation while camping, and though he returned to work bruised and swollen, his co-workers avoided asking him what had happened on the camping trip. Their reluctance to know what happened in his private life inspired him to write ''Literature/FightClub''.
* Pierre Boulle was inspired to write ''Literature/PlanetOfTheApes'' by a trip to the zoo where the apes' mimicry of human mannerisms set him thinking about the relationsip between the two species.
* ''Literature/TheEmpiriumTrilogy'': While listening to a [[https://claire-legrand.com/faq piece of music one day]], Legrand got a vivid vision of a woman surrounded by fire. A story started to take shape around that image, and the woman herself would later be named Rielle Dardenne. Legrand also took inspiration from various myths in Catholicism.
* [[https://twitter.com/XiranJayZhao/status/1405980872671588355 According to]] the author Creator/XiranJayZhao, the idea for the Myth/ChineseMythology-infused HumongousMecha ''Literature/IronWidow'' came about from spite and dissatisfaction at the direction ''Anime/DarlingInTheFranxx'' took after the first thirteen episodes. The book was also pitched as ''Film/PacificRim'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale''. They also included a "Bonus Summary for Weebs" naming various other anime influences.
* ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' came about when Creator/BretEastonEllis met with Wall Street bankers as research. They took him out to lunches, dinners and clubs, but not once did he see them work or spend time in their offices. The one-upmanship between them inspired him to change the course of the story.
* ''Literature/{{Lolita}}'' is said to have been inspired by Creator/CharlieChaplin's marriage to Lita Grey. Author Sarah Weinman makes a compelling case that many details of the novel came from the story of Sally Horner, who was kidnapped at age 11 in 1948 and taken on a cross-country road trip for a year and a half before finding the courage to make a phone call that led to her rescue. Many of the events in the novel actually happened to Sally.
* Although ''Literature/TheBeach'' is set in Thailand, Creator/AlexGarland wrote the book while living in the Philippines and, in particular, was inspired by similar geography on the island of Palawan.
* Michael Azerrad decided to write ''Our Band Could Be Your Life'', a nonfiction book on underground rock of the 80s and early 90s, after watching a rock history documentary that jumped directly from Music/TalkingHeads to Music/{{Nirvana}}, which he had found jarring.
* Creator/SeananMcGuire has [[https://twitter.com/seananmcguire/status/1332481478781857792 stated]] that part of her inspiration for writing her urban fantasy series ''Literature/InCryptid'' was a TakeThat against ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' for the writers' [[StuffedIntoTheFridge poor treatment of]] [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter Jo Harvelle]]. Verity in particular is partially a tribute to Jo.
* Creator/EnidBlyton came up with the idea of the [[WesternAnimation/NoddysToylandAdventures Noddy series]] after taking an annual summer holiday at a small village of Studland (which [=ToyTown=] is designed after) in Dorset sometime between the late 1930s and 1940s. Mr. Plod was even inspired after a police officer she meet during one of her trips known as "PC Christopher Rhone".
* ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' is quite famously based on UsefulNotes/TheRussianRevolution and Creator/{{George Orwell}}'s opposition to Stalinism as a diehard socialist. However, the story was also inspired by Orwell seeing a boy leading a cart-horse, whipping it all the while. Orwell had then thought that if animals ever realized just how strong they are, they could defeat the human race and end up running the world, with him then realizing that this could potentially become a FullCircleRevolution and he could use this to write a BeastFable critiquing the rise of Stalinism in the Soviet Union.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'' was in part inspired by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montauk_Project Montauk Project]], a conspiracy theory which alleged that children were being kept in a government facility in Montauk, New York, and having strange experiments such as time travel performed on them. In fact, the show was known as ''Montauk'' early in development.

* During a brainstorming session for ''VideoGame/TailsNoir'', developer Nikita Danshin, who lives in Vancouver, scared off some raccoons from his compost bin by using a trumpet. This inspired the game's protagonist who is a raccoon detective, as well as its noir setting of Vancouver.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV: A Realm Reborn'' took a lot of inspiration from western [=MMORPGs=], particularly ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' and ''VideoGame/{{Everquest}}''. Producer Creator/NaokiYoshida was an avid player of such games, and encouraged his development team to play them as well and take ideas from them.

* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20140122052214/http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-making-of-papers-please/ According to this interview,]] ''VideoGame/PapersPlease'' was largely inspired by developer Lucas Pope's own experience travelling around the world, and that a significant chunk of it was spent at border control, watching immigration officers manage paperwork. This is largely what informed ''Papers, Please'''s own deskwork-shuffling gameplay loop.
* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series is said to be inspired by Satoshi Tajiri's childhood hobby, bug collecting.
* Tajiri's mentor, Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto, based many of his games on things within his own life:
** ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' was inspired by a combination of Miyamoto exploring his neighborhood's countryside, and having an interest in ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', during his childhood. The enemy called "Chain Chomp" ("Bow Wow" in the Japanese version) was even based off of Miyamoto having a bad run in with a neighbor's dog that was chained to a post. The gameplay itself was inspired by ''VideoGame/PacLand'' and ''VideoGame/KungFuMaster'' (the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] port of the latter had been directed by Miyamoto).
** ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' was also based on Miyamoto's childhood, but more so from him exploring the caves he would find around his neighborhood, leading to the series' famous dungeon crawling.
** Miyamoto gained an interest in gardening sometime between making games in the 90s, and this is what led to the creation of his quirky real-time strategy series ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}''.
** He then took an interest in dog breeding, and raising his own shetland sheepdog led to him creating the pet raising sim ''VideoGame/{{Nintendogs}}'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS (and his later interest in cats led to the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS sequel ''Nintendogs+Cats'' to add felines into the mix). It's also worth mentioning that the name of his dog, Pikku, is what led to the aforementioned Pikmin to getting its name.
* [[Creator/{{Rare}} Ken Lobb]] cited fighting games from Creator/{{SNK}} as the major inspiration for the combat system for VideoGame/KillerInstinct, specifically citing [[VideoGame/WorldHeroes Dragon's]] ability to link a jump-in attack into his double hitting punch for the Opener > Auto-Double > Ender structure of combos, and [[VideoGame/FatalFury Kim Kaphwan's]] RapidFireFisticuffs super move for Ultra Combos.
* Kouichi Yotsui explained that the inspiration behind the climbing mechanics in ''VideoGame/{{Strider}}'' came partly from his own love of mountain-climbing and skiing, but also from a personal experience he went through during early development: during a meeting where the basic concepts of the games and manga were being discussed, Yotsui at one point found himself trapped on the building's rooftop when the door closed behind him. Fearing he could die of exposure (this was before 1989 so cellphones weren't a commodity), he noticed a fire escape ladder and started climbing down the side of the building to reach it, while deadly afraid he could die from the fall. He was also thinking about the game, and how someone has to be '''crazy''' to want to do what he just did.

** Its SpiritualSequel, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', was inspired by how Yasumi Matsuno felt intimidated being at his new job at Squaresoft seeing veteran employees as royalty.

* Creator/KieronGillen says the idea for ''ComicBook/Three'' came to him when reading ''ComicBook/ThreeHundred'' and being annoyed at the audacity of Leonidas calling Spartans, who were known to hunt any of their slaves that escaped, "the only free people the world has ever known".

[[folder: In-Universe Examples]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': As shown in the DC Pride 2022 comic anthology entry "Finding Batman", Creator/KevinConroy found the inspiration for his voice as Batman[=/=]Bruce Wayne from his own personal history as a gay man in the entertainment industry. iIn much the same way that Conroy felt he had to hide who he truly was from his peers for fear of ostracization, so too does Batman hide his true self from many of his own peers, and in the same way Conroy masqueraded as someone who was heterosexual, Batman masqueraded as Bruce Wayne.

* After Music/PaulMcCartney read Pete Townshend saying Music/TheWho's "I Can See For Miles" was "the loudest, rawest, dirtiest song" his band had recorded, he heard it and found the result too melodic and sophisticated, taking it upon himself to write a song that was basically just noise. This resulted in Music/TheBeatles song "Helter Skelter", often considered a proto-heavy metal.

* Music/{{Oasis}}: "Live Forever" was inspired by the brothers getting concerned with the message that "I Hate Myself And I Want To Die" by Music/{{Nirvana}} was sending to youth and wanting to give a hopeful alternative.