Someone in another thread used the word inspiration for drugs, but it bugged me, so I began thinking about inspiration in the proper sense... But I guess that is not the thread for this, so I'm opening a proper inspiration thread. What is inspiration? What inspires you (in a macro or in a micro way)? Do you need inspiration to write, or do you do well without it? Why do you write at all? Do you have a greater message to give, or do you write just for fun?
I'm no longer satisfied with making my fiction merely entertaining - I want it to go deeper. Not just because it adds layers but I find it interesting to take a subject/theme and discover what I think about it through the journey of writing. It doesn't always work. Sometimes I feel I didn't go deep like I hoped other times I think it worked better than I imagined. Right now my themes in my WIP have to do with the relationships between fathers & sons, the effects of movie/tv shows on society, fame, the distortion & controlling aspect of narrative itself. And possibly half a dozen other ideas. I was inspired by lots of things while working on this book - a picture, some music, the strange twists the movie industry is taking, trolling, politics, Me-Too movement, memes, Lucky Blue Smith and Cannon pictures.
It's a compulsion. Couldn't tell you where it came from. It's as mystical to me as why I was born who I was. I just seem to write. I build up a lot of debt by the things I do and the things that happen to me. It gets paid off in letters as a byproduct. Early on, I figured I might as well cultivate it. That's literally it. It makes you wonder when it will stop and I'm told it does for all writers. Don't know how I'll handle that when it happens to me. If you mean, where do I get ideas from. Same answer. They might as well be whispered in my ear. *shrugs* Does matter to me, in the long run. -SIN