Of clouds, cookie dough, and suicidal tears

One can’t hunt down inspiration in the same fashion as capturing fireflies because the results could lead to disappointing conclusions.

Of course, that’s based on what you’re searching for.

Inspiration is the construct of its definition, “an inspiring or animating action or influence.” One can’t force it to happen without an external action to push you towards it. However, sometimes that action has absolutely nothing to do with the resulting idea from whence it originated.

Case in point: I was walking with a woman one day, discussing ice-cream. The conversation turned towards the limitations of taste – seeing as we have only one mouth and one tongue which restricts our experience to a set number of flavors. An idea popped in my head and a story unfolded within seconds, “Troubled Frederick McLinger Had Ten Tiny Mouths on The Tips of His Fingers.”

Now back to my comparative ‘hunt’ analogy. Just because I wasn’t looking for the idea doesn’t mean I wasn’t mentally prepared to accept it. My imagination was set in [drive] and was waiting patiently for something to happen. I wanted to write about something unique at that time… but I didn’t want to force it to happen. I’ve since learned that if I hunted for inspiration, it often turned out to be a disappointment… much like capturing my first firefly when I lived in Missouri at the age of 11. The question, “What is that light?” was in my head but the bug which carried the pretty answer was not particularly attractive. I was much happier letting it fly around, flickering free, then I was running after them.

Seven stories are complete for Volume I of my compendium and I am now preparing to begin writing the next set for Volume II. There are multiple ideas floating around in my head, which include cloud sacrifice, suicidal tears, and narcissistic cookie dough. My stories are dark, so I’m told, but the emotional context behind them are not meant to be so. It’s just the way I see life sky-scrape between white and black – always waiting to be noticed in the silent gray.