As I was shoveling snow, clearing off the cars, watching my dad accidentally snap off the driver’s side door handle of my car, and playing the game of ‘I want in/I want out’ with my son . . . well, I became exhausted.  Yet, with this exhaustion came an odd series of inspirational thoughts.  All story related and some are even relevant to the story I’m hoping to outline today.  I think I cleared up an opening adventure issue for Darwin, thought a neat twist for my girl in psych ward novella, and thought up a few more antics for my minion story.

This led me to begin pondering inspiration and how it strikes.  My inspiration to become an author was reading Fred Saberhagen’s ‘Books of Lost Swords’.  My inspiration for Darwin was that I was bored with warriors.  My inspiration for deciding to make a move for my artistic dream was that I realized I couldn’t look at my son and tell him ‘you can be whatever you want as long as you put your mind to it’.  This isn’t even considering the ideas that sprout when I’m watching tv, at the movies, listening to music, exercising, and doing any number of things.

Sure it gets frustrating when I can’t get the idea down and it fades away or degrades, but there is something empowering about my mind’s ability to create things from thin air. All it needs is that trigger, which can range from a preexisting work to an phenomenal chicken soup.  Even a negative event can trigger a surge in creativity.

I’m really curious to hear what other artists have been driven by.  I promise there will be no mocking, laughter, or negativity.  After all, I was once inspired by a full lint trap.  The idea was for a magic device that you coat this board with fur from various animals and plug it into the machine.  Hit the button and out pops an amalgamation of the animals that you combined.  To this day, I have no idea where I’m going to put this thing, but I think I may have just figured that one out while writing this sentence.  See!  Inspiration from rambling!

So, what inspires you?