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| Photo courtesty of dhester of morgufile.com |
Music is a biggy. (It MUST have lyrics - instrumental music is emotionally meaningless to me - my brain translates it directly into math.) Sometimes a single line out of a song will trigger a "What if...?" and that's all it takes to have me chasing a rabbit trail, particularly when I'm driving and don't have a computer or TV in front of me to distract my thoughts. This happened last week actually. Those who know me know my love for country music. Even the sad, sorrowful songs so many like to talk down about. There are times I almost live with my MP3 player permanently attached to me.
Thinking about one such hang-dog song this past week as I listened to it, I thought "What if God got hold of them? How different would the outcome be?" Oh, cool idea! Two songs that immediately followed cemented the idea because lines in those songs meshed with the idea I had percolating. A variety of scenes flitted through my head.
At times, it's something I deal with directly in my own life that sparks a creative run. I've got two books that pop immediately to mind spawned by such things. I call them my "Christians behaving badly" stories because the events that inspired them were due to exactly that. Christians acting in ways they should NOT act and harming those around them. Often people's lives inspire me - sometimes as a warning of how NOT to be and what the consequences can be of such behavior, words, and attitudes.
Conversations, or rather pieces of conversations, that I overhear can be fun and often inspire scene ideas. They give me insight into the quirky workings of other people's minds. And people watching goes right along with that. Human beings are very odd creatures if you really watch them. They sure can be fun to observe. You can learn a great deal about human nature just by exercising the art of observation.
Sometimes I read about something in the news, and that will trigger a similar thought. I have to admit, though, that's pretty rare. In fact, I can't even think of any of those off the top of my head. I'm sure I could come up with one if I really thought about it.
Now, if only inspiration for blog posts came so easily. LOL
If you're a writer, what sorts of things inspire you?
Like you said, inspiration for my stories come from many different places. Most often from stories I hear, events from my life, or news items. From there it's imagination station. Sometimes the inspiration never appears in the final product.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean, Judy. One of my heroines was inspired by the Martina McBride song "Broken Wing", but when people read the book, they'd probably say "Huh?" if they were told that and know the song. The song gave me the grain of an idea, and it has totally morphed into something very different in most regards since that grain germinated.
DeletePeople watching, eavesdropping - sometimes a word, sometimes a sign on the side of the road. Sometimes seeing abandoned buildings and wondering what kind of life happened there. Inspiration can be found in the oddest places, if we just keep our eyes open and looking for it.
ReplyDeleteYep. We definitely just need to be paying attention. Inspiration is all around us! :)
DeleteInspiration? People, places, and things from the past, present or future? You name it! I even dream about my characters. Don't we all? I'm not crazy, am I? Where's my meds?
ReplyDeleteIf that makes you crazy, then I am, too. *G* I'd forgotten all about dreams when I wrote this post. I've gotten a few ideas from dreams - usually just scenes for one project or another, but at times it's been an entire book idea. I write those down and will eventually get back to them. I haven't had a chance to work on one of those projects yet, but it'll come.
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