The Inspiration Fairy
Absinthe Ain’t Got Shit On Me
One of the weirdest questions you’ll get as a writer is “where do you get your inspiration?” As if the answer is Whole Foods, Amazon, or some dark pact with an eldritch horror.
Yes, theoretical questioner, I don’t work at this, I simply write as the Great Ugthurz commands!
Just So Long As This Glass Cannon Isn’t Calling The Shots
In all honesty I have yet to give anyone a satisfactory answer to this, and quite frankly I’m not sure one exists.
I’ve heard of authors being inspired by their job, their hobbies, from watching bees collect flowers or two ants fighting over who gets to carry a crumb of bread. The fact is inspiration is as simple as playing make believe when we were kids.
It’s just that easy, and just that hard.
A lot of us tend to lose that sense of wonder, scale, imagination as we get older. Those that don’t bury it under the guise of growing up or allow it to be smothered by the trappings of adulthood until we marvel at the fact we once gazed in wonder at the riotous color of a sunset or quipped about the shape of a passing cloud.
If you’re one of those people, fear not! There’s still time. Your inner child isn’t dead, just in stasis.
We may never be able to fully recover that pure wide eyed innocence with which we viewed the world back then but that just means the themes of the game have matured along with us.
You can find inspiration by sitting on your patio having a beer, standing in line at Starbucks, or even listening to snow fall around you in your backyard while waiting for the dog to finish their business. Hell, you could even find inspiration by getting cut off by that asshole in the Honda on your way to work. Inspiration is a nebulous thing and one we make ourselves. There is no trick to making it, and it’s not something that can be purchased.
Or at least I hope not, because if Amazon has been holding out on me with their special creativity juice I’m going to have some serious words for Jeff Bezos.
Call Me, Jeff. We Can Still Save RoP