Being Inspired

When I read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years a few weeks ago, there was one bit with which I had a serious disagreement. Mr. Miller said that non-writers have this idea that writers are inspired by life-- I forget the exact wording of the sentence, but something along the lines that after a game of Ultimate Frisbee, writers are bursting with things to write about frisbee-playing. And, he says, that is not the case.

I guess for him it isn't.

For me, it is the case. If I don't go out and do things, then I have nothing to write about. The more I am out, mixing with people and observing life around me, the more my brain is stimulated. The synapses begin firing and suddenly worlds of ideas shoot across my brain. If anything, I have to be careful of overstimulation.

Although I guess I do agree with him in one respect; playing frisbee won't necessarily give me frisbee-related thoughts. The brain might go down the garden path of hang gliders, or wonder why I do some things better with my left hand than my right. I'm likely to be reminded of years of summer camp, or just hot days in my parents' yard. And the people! People do such interesting things! Perhaps in our time together they will reveal some of their character or their struggles. Maybe we will accidentally find out they have a temper if things go wrong or are unbearably celebratory when things go right. I might see a way to take a character a whole different direction, just because I played frisbee with someone I don't know.

Frisbee Golf

Or maybe my brain will go the frisbee route and remember my first date with Chad when we played frisbee golf. Or I'll think of that scene in Back to the Future III when Marty finds a pie pan made by the Frisbee company, and maybe I'll decide which of my characters uses a Frisbee as a candy dish. Or I'll wonder if Little Weasley is getting any use out of the frisbees we gave him a couple of years ago.

Regardless of which way my brain goes, it won't go at all if I don't have something to feed it. And since I haven't been out a lot this week, the well is beginning to run dry. Good thing the spring semester starts next week.