The Little Things of Inspiration

A couple of weeks ago I got this slip from a fortune cookie in our Chinese take-out order. Aside from obviously illustrating that the author of said fortune is probably not a native English speaker, it made a little lightbulb go off in my head. Eventually the sentiment made its way into Chapter Twelve of Twenty-One.

Why? Don't know. Just did. That's how inspiration works.

This pic captures one of the most important moments in my creative and spiritual life. Six years after it did, from memory only, it inspired this:

Not all inspiration is funny or pretty. I don't have a picture of one of these, but the DOT in Florida will by request erect a memorial marker on or near a spot where a motorist died in a car accident (I think they can only do it on public land.) These markers are white circles inscribed "Drive Safely, In Memory" followed by the deceased's name.

Unfortunately I live quite close to a couple of very dangerous roads, so they're all over the place here. It was seeing one put up not a half-mile from my house that actually inspired the idea that became Ghost Writer.

Anyway, the point is that inspiration is all around you, and often in the most humble or unexpected forms. All you have to do is keep your imagination open to the universe, and it will toss plenty your way.

Comments

nightsmusic said…

I so often hear 'write what you know' but I think a lot of writers also write what they've known. Without really even realizing it until someone points it out.

That little quilted piece is beautiful. Did you just find the roses in the tree? Placed or growing?

December 29, 2019 at 9:14 AM

the author said…

I've been adding little pieces of my real life into my fiction ever since I started writing, I think. Sometimes thy're tiny, like the goofy fortune cookie slip. Sometimes they're huge, like naming (with permission, of course) Cherijo from StarDoc after a friend in real life. I think we all write what we know in some way, even as you say without realizing it.

I found the roses just sitting tucked in the tree, no doubt placed there by a previous visitor to the spot. If they only knew what they did for me personally in that moment. It really changed my life forever. :)

December 29, 2019 at 9:29 AM

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to...

Valerean

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