Inspiration!
Ever heard the question, "Where do you get your ideas?!" This is your invitation to answer that, and hopefully to find leads to other inspirations when you read each other's answers. No seriously. Answer the question! :)
One place I find inspiration is in the news. Yeah, I know, that may seem kind of lame. But there is an unbelievable abundance of news out there: good news and bad, old and new news, local, regional, national and international, scientific and cultural... And it updates 24/7.
I rarely actually take a news story and write my own version. Every now and then I've read a headline and gotten a plotbunny before I've even seen the story behind it, but usually what I look for in the news is just a feel for something. I like to take an impression or a feeling away from a news story and write around that. Like Nujood Ali's story. I would never presume to write about her, but after reading her story I can see myself writing a young character with immense bravery in the face of a personal nightmare.
And then there's nature. In spite of everything (climate change, habitat destruction, monoculture, etc.), nature is still an even more abundant source of inspiration than the news. Take the hundred-or-so manatees that are huddled together for warmth right now outside a power plant in Florida, for example. And scientists discovering the world's largest and smallest snakes in history (the former was the length of a school bus and the latter is about 10 cm long), and finding a snake that changes color. And there are all the world's non-human especially-intelligent species and all the ways they surprise us. I can barely take a walk outside without being bombarded with story ideas. ...Stupid pigeons... ;)
So tell us! Where do you get your ideas?
One place I find inspiration is in the news. Yeah, I know, that may seem kind of lame. But there is an unbelievable abundance of news out there: good news and bad, old and new news, local, regional, national and international, scientific and cultural... And it updates 24/7.
I rarely actually take a news story and write my own version. Every now and then I've read a headline and gotten a plotbunny before I've even seen the story behind it, but usually what I look for in the news is just a feel for something. I like to take an impression or a feeling away from a news story and write around that. Like Nujood Ali's story. I would never presume to write about her, but after reading her story I can see myself writing a young character with immense bravery in the face of a personal nightmare.
And then there's nature. In spite of everything (climate change, habitat destruction, monoculture, etc.), nature is still an even more abundant source of inspiration than the news. Take the hundred-or-so manatees that are huddled together for warmth right now outside a power plant in Florida, for example. And scientists discovering the world's largest and smallest snakes in history (the former was the length of a school bus and the latter is about 10 cm long), and finding a snake that changes color. And there are all the world's non-human especially-intelligent species and all the ways they surprise us. I can barely take a walk outside without being bombarded with story ideas. ...Stupid pigeons... ;)
So tell us! Where do you get your ideas?