When I sat down to think about where
inspiration comes from the first thought that came to my mind was, hunger.
Well, it was past noon and my body was telling me that it was time to put some
nourishment into it. So, even though the fingertips were gently pulsing,
anticipating the feeling of euphoria as an idea takes shape, I took a quick
break to answer the stomach’s gnawing demand. The fingers were introduced to
the sweet and oft times aggravating feeling of anticipation.
Once satiated, I was able to concentrate on
the bigger picture. I believe a huge part of inspiration comes from the
manifestations of human emotion due to internal and external stimulation and
the senses that are triggered by those emotions. That’s a little cerebral so I’ll drill down
just a bit.
It’s
the Simple Things – The External
As I was sitting on my balcony one sunny
morning, listening to the birds in the trees and sipping my coffee, a slight
movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. Living in Thailand
I’ve learned not to jump at the slightest touch or movement… actually developed
a sense of awe at the creatures, big and small, milling about on their daily
mission. So, I’ll get back to my example. There was a slight breeze and the
tree right next to the railing was tickling my left elbow. As I gazed closer at
a darker patch on the leaf closest to me, I saw the most peculiar bug happily
riding the swaying leaf. I was mesmerized. He was brown so the colour wasn’t
that riveting but the closer I looked and the more detail I took in, the cooler
he became. He had several body sections separated by zigzag lines. His head
sported long, thin, antennae topped off by round, fuzzy balls with the finest
little hairs. I couldn’t help thinking that this was probably the type of
creature that inspired the creators of the characters in Pixar’s Monsters Inc.
and maybe even Avatar; definitely Dr. Seuss!
Imagination needs to be sparked by
something and nature is a prime suspect in my world.
It’s
the Unpleasant – The Internal
The inspiration for my first novel, Mental Pause, which launched on March 8th, 2013 came from what is, in my
opinion the worst symptom that a women suffering from peri-menopause can have…
The Night Sweat. It’s evil incarnate. I had been having them every night for
months and the lack of sleep was starting to wear on me, not to mention wearing
out the sheets that had to be washed almost daily. One particularly slimy
night, even though the A/C was pumping full blast, the sweat burst forth and I
lay there taking stock of the sensations it was eliciting both physical and
emotional… the crevices that pools were forming in and the texture of my skin.
Since I couldn’t sleep, I did what most writers would do. I hit the keyboard
and pounded out the mad ramblings of a peri-menopausal woman. I laughed and
cried as I wrote and thought, ‘this woman is crazy.’ In order to make myself
feel better, I added a bit of imagination to it (spurred on by the delirium
from exhaustion, which can also provide some great inspiration) and turned it
into a novel. That first rambling session that described the night sweat found
a home in chapter 1 of my novel.
So, we are inspired by the beauty of nature
and sometimes driven to inspiration by physical discomfort. Anything else?
It’s
the Painful – What others do Unto You
I just had a tooth pulled so the next time
I need to describe a nasty assault on the senses, I’ll have some inspiration to
draw from (I have a phobia of dentists so my experience was filled with more
angst than most, although I don’t think many people enjoy a ride in the dental
chair). My hands are even starting to shake with the memory as I write this so
allow me to leave it at that!
Other sensations can bring equally visceral
inspiration – frustration, anger, happiness, despair, elation, fear or any
other emotion you can name. The key is to look deeper into identifying what has
triggered those emotions and start the description there while adding as many
senses as possible, without going overboard. The other challenge is to think of
comparisons (it felt like…) that are original and haven’t been overdone. As I
thought about the onset of a night sweat, the image of an army of marching red
ants sprung to mind so I used that in the description…
Not long after, Abbie awoke to
the pinpricks of heat crawling all over her body
like a thousand red ants
leaving tiny, scorching footprints behind.
I do tend to refer to nature a lot when I
write but whenever I need a little help in drumming up some inspiration to
describe emotions and feelings I reach for The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela
Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. Sometimes it gives just the nudge I need to shake
things up a bit. It sure beats going to the dentist!
Comments