Where Does Inspiration Come From?

Inspiration is everywhere, you just have to look.

 "Where do you get your ideas?"

That is one of the most common questions I am asked about my writing and films.  To be honest with you, it is a tricky question because it can be both very easy to answer, and very difficult.

I'll start with the easy answer.  Inspiration is all around us, and by extension, ideas.  The photo above is a good example of inspiration.  It would make a great shot in a movie for sure, but that one simple photo could also inspire a half-dozen stories with very little meditation:

1.  What lurks beneath those floating leaves?
2.  The frog prince who was too clumsy to reach the princess two pads over.
3.  The daily bloom and collapse of the water lily.
4.  The painter who strives to capture the strokes of the great impressionists.
5.  The person who nearly drowned in the youth, finally drawn back to the water by a beautiful flower.
6.  The man who is certain a beautiful mermaid lives in his lake.

Those are six stories I could easily write based on that one photo alone.  So that would be the easy answer:  I get my inspiration from life, and I constantly seek out the stories around me.  Anything can inspire a decent story.  Any decent story can inspire a satisfying film.

The harder answer is in fact a bit of a non-answer.  Where do I get my ideas?  Sometimes I have to sit down and plot them out.  I have to map out the characters and arcs, and major plot points in order for the story to solidify.  Writing longer narratives in particular is a bit like making Jello: You have to keep stirring the ingredients until they all start to come together, then you have to let it chill until the character, plot and themes solidify.  When I am writing a novel, that is usually how I will start.

Sometimes you just have to go for it.

With my shorter pieces though, it is more like a brief possession.  I will sit down with very little idea about what is I am going to write.  This is never more true than with my "Story-A-Day" project.  With each of those 400+ stories, I start by selecting a photo, and the stories almost seemed to write themselves.  I try not to go back and edit them, which leads to some embarrassing spelling and grammar errors, but I like that they are all very much stream of consciousness efforts.

With my films, there is a little more thought put into narrative crux, character motives, and audience lures, but they tend to start off as very simple concepts as well.  From the concept stage, I then reverse engineer the story and it is often the twist or reveal that defines what the remainder of the story will be.

Stories are everywhere, which makes me truly fortunate because all I have to do is collect them and tell them.

And where does inspiration come from?

It comes from everywhere.  Inspiration lurks in the darkness of night, it flourishes in the beauty of nature, it falls and rises through the fragility and strength of humanity, and it explodes outward from all the stories that came before.

That is where my ideas come from.  If you are looking for inspiration, all you need to do is look.  It is everywhere...