Just for Fun: Inspiration

Today let’s discuss where you got the idea for your current work in progress or for any of the stories, poems, scripts or novels you’ve written. Did it come to you in a dream? Was it something embarrassing your child said in front of your boss one day? Was it inspired by someone you know or something you experienced in real life? Did an advanced alien race implant the idea in your mind before you were born, leaving it to grow and flourish until just the right time?

Whatever the inspiration was, leave a comment here to discuss it or add a topic into the Cafe on our new discussion forums!

4 thoughts on “Just for Fun: Inspiration”

I am inspired by my relationship with my father, the relationship I desire with a future mate and my favorite period in time.

Several of my books were inspired by my children. My first book–Building a Midshipman–is the story of how my daughter got into USNA when she thought she couldn’t.

Just completed what I hope is the final revision of my most recent novel. It’s a story about a family trying to make a heart wrenching decision about their mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and whose behavior ping pongs from funny to outrageous to dangerous. My own mother is a victim of this disease. I’m close to the edges of tremor (falling into an emotional abyss at her newest decline) and trauma (feeling hopeless as a benign event causes her to have a catastrophic reaction) as is the family in my book. I’m not a physician, nurse, researcher, or caregiver, but I’m a vessel and a trumpet. Over the past 6 years I’ve watched thousands of people try to cope with the dross of Alzheimer’s and knew I had to write about it. My book is the work of fiction by an observant bystander. I made an unspoken promise to my own mother that in respect to her dignity, I would not write about her in any way. My mother is not in my story. She at least deserves that. I’m currently weighing the benefits to attempt to be published traditionally or go the self-publishing route.