History Main / InspirationForTheWork

* As Giovanni Guareschi related in the introduction to the first 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.

*** And so was ''Literature/TheHobbit'' for Creator/JRRTolkien's kids...[[RuleOfThree the most famous of whom was named Christopher...]] He ''also'' became his father's literary executor, and while he didn't write anything new, he ''did'' edit his father's notebooks into something publishable.

** 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 lead to the creation of his quirky real-time strategy series ''Pikmin''.
** He then took an interest in dog breeding, and raising his own shetland sheepdog lead to him creating the pet raising sim ''Nintendogs'' for the NintendoDS (and his later interest in cats lead to the Nintendo3DS sequel ''Nintendogs+Cats'' to add felines into the mix). It's also worth mentioning that the name of his dog, Pikku, is what lead to the aforementioned Pikmin to getting it's name.

* 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 ''Speaker for the Dead'', until his wife suggested it could be Ender.

* The ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' anime [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was originally going to be]] a standard MagicalGirl show [[AdaptationDisplacement much like the game it was based on]] until someone in the production crew commented that the main character's costume made her look like a ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''. They then decided to run with that idea, creating a MagicalGirl show that greatly uses HumongousMecha show tropes, a decision that proved successful enough to create the ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' franchise.

* The ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was originally going to be]] a standard MagicalGirl show [[AdaptationDisplacement much like the game it was based on]] until someone in the production crew commented that the main character's costume made her look like a ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''. They then decided to run with that idea, creating a MagicalGirl show that greatly uses HumongousMecha show tropes, a decision that proved successful enough to create the ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' franchise.

* Stephen King was said to have gotten the inspiration for ''PetSematary'' from his own daughter burying her cat in a pet cemetery and [[AdultFear his own son nearly getting killed by running into a busy road]]. It's also been said that he may have been inspired by the 1902 short story by W.W. Jacobs "the Monkey's Paw".

* ''LittleMissSunshine'' was apparently inspired by a speech Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger made as governor of California, in which he talked about failure. The scriptwriters of the movie strongly disagreed with his ideas.

** Rick Riordan made up PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians after he ran out of existing Greek myths to tell his sons at bedtime.

** TheWindInTheWillows was originally conceived as a story that Grahame told children he knew.

* 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.

* LittleMissSunshine was apparently inspired by a speech ArnoldSchwarzenegger made as governor of California, in which he talked about failure. The scriptwriters of the movie strongly disagreed with his ideas.

* 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 have never been written about, and started writing the ''Literature/{{Silverwing}}'' trilogy.

* TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles was made after Eastman and Laird stayed up late drinking and drawing cartoons. One of them drew a picture of a turtle on two feet with nunchaku strapped to his arms, and they decided to develop the idea further.

* ''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.

* ''GunnerkriggCourt'': Tim 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.

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* Jim Butcher's told the story many times of how his ''Codex Alera'' came from a bet made in an online discussion board. There was a debate about which was more important, a good setting or a good plot. He bet that he could take even the worst idea for a setting and turn it into a good story, and invited his opponent to suggest one. He got back two: the Lost Roman Legion and Pokemon. After looking into the background of both, Butcher started writing, but was unable to post the resulting story to win the bet because he thought it was good enough to publish (and get paid for). It grew into a six book series, by which point he'd completely forgotten where the bet was made and with whom.

** ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' was originally a bedtime story for Creator/AAMilne's son Christopher ({{Tuckerization}} Christopher Robin]], in fact.)

* ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' began as an improvised story Lewis Carroll told to the Liddell Sisters. Likewise, TheWindInTheWillows and TheHobbit were also originally conceived as stories that Grahame and Creator/JRRTolkien told children they knew.