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©2002, F. Alexander Brejcha.
"The way inspiration muses give me ideas by whispering in my ear while I sleep."
Well if that doesn't cover the month's topic of "Inspiration" I can't "imagine" what would.
Seriously, as a professional writer, I'm often asked "How did you ever get the idea for [insert name of any of my published stories]", and my stock answer is usually that 'I had no choice'. Sometimes ideas literally come to me in a dream, and I fumble for the phone and call myself. My wife and I have voice mail on our phone that kicks in if the phone is busy (if one of us is online, for instance), and if I dial myself it kicks in and I can leave a recording with my "brilliant idea". And yes: the wit to waste proportion runs the expected 10/90. But one novel I just finished started in just this manner. It bears little resemblance to my groggily mumbled idea, but in listening to my semi-coherent rant, a different, scarier idea came together. And a nightmare I had a few years ago led to a short story about a man with M.S. who is 'sampled and studied' by 'aliens' who are actually from much closer to home than expected. "Night Mist" is part of _People First!_ an anthology of my stories (2/3 previously published and 1/3 original) that all have main characters with various disabilities.
If you don't have that type of voice mail: invest a few bucks in a micro tape recorder and keep it handy. Ideas can come any time or place. I always have my cell phone with me for safety, and frequently call myself to leave ideas (my cell phone has the same type of voice mail).
Where do my "waking ideas" come from? Where don't they?! First, as I am paraplegic due to M.S., disabilities prompt some of my work. If I read about a disability I am unfamiliar with, two things happen. First: is there a web site? If there is, are there others? Then I add the disability and relevant web sites to the appropriate section of my disABILITY resource web site. Next: as I read about the disability, sometimes a story idea jumps me. I have a blind friend, and our friendship led to three stories -- two published ("With Other Eyes", [_Analog Science Fiction and Fact_, November, 1995] and "I See My Love" [_Inspire_, May, 2000]) and and one original ("Meeting Online"). The latter two are part of _People First!_
And when I was an executive officer for the West Chester Borough Commission on Disabilities, we had a deaf member, and as I became sensitized to Deaf issues, that led to "Can You Hear What I See?" (_Analog Science Fiction and Fact_, August, 1993) about a deaf doctor listening to his patients with a system I designed as a thought experiment -- a system it will be possible to build soon.. Every day I saw people with various disabilities that gave me food for thought; and often inspiration for fiction, and much of my non-fiction work which is also disability-related.
Ideas. Everywhere ideas. As for my publications that are not disability-related (and that is 3/4 of my work), those stories come from real-life situations and science magazine stories that intrigue me. A news story about a woman with a rare heart condition prompted two stories - one science fiction piece prompted by the real life plans of the Artemis Society to go back to the moon ("Take a Load Off", _Analog_, November, 1999) and the other a romance/suspense story I want to work into a movie script. Articles on solar sail-equipped space craft led to "Star Step" and "The New Land" (_Analog_, April and June 1990). And _Popular Science_, _Science News_, and many others have led me to other stories.
The daily newspaper and television news are also sources. The point is to look for inspiration by looking at the extraordinary aspects of what is already around you - to open your mind.
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