Inspiration

From time to time I think about a comment I once read from someone about their writing. I remember them saying that they travelled everywhere with a notepad and pencil for the express purpose of writing down conversations that they overheard other people having. Just hearing people talk about things would give them ideas for conversations for their own characters, and they wanted to make sure that they didn't lose any of that.

Some people like to take their characters from certain books, and roleplay specifically with them. They do this so they can explore their characters, learn how they would talk in conversations that they might think themselves, or act in situations that they wouldn't normally encounter. Doing this fleshes out that character more in the authors mind, and gives them new ideas for things that they can do in their original story.

And of course, some people just have ideas thrust upon them. From out of nowhere, an idea pops into their mind, and they just run with it. They can't fully explain where it comes from, and perhaps it was a dream, or a memory, or a song, or something that they saw, and that sat in their mind and festered, fermented, and formed into something new until it was ready to come out.

But truth be told, I think for most writers it's a little bit of everything. I know I've had ideas for a piece of writing come from just about everywhere. Things I've heard people say, games, movies, books, songs, pictures, prompts. And a lot of the time, even though it comes from that, it ends up being something completely different and unrelated. People have told me to write one thing, and I say, "Dude, I've got this!" and what I end up writing has absolutely nothing to do with what they said and they are left scratching their heads in confusion.

But hey. That's just how things go. No one can really explain inspiration. It's just a thing that happens. You can be inspired by the strangest of things. Sometimes you are even inspired by something you hate, and whether that's to do it better or just a weird coincidence, who knows.

And if you ask me, that's the way it should be. If we could control our inspiration, then it wouldn't really be inspiration. I can't really explain why that it is, but it just wouldn't quite be the same. Because if we could control it, then it wouldn't surprise us. And if it didn't surprise us, it would just be business as usual, and that would get boring and, ironically, uninspired.

And man. I really hope that's the right use of irony.