Thursday, July 28, 2011

Hotdogs & Spiders: creations of the muse or reality?


When I’m writing and come up with something that makes a scene shine and feels unique, I like to think it came from thin air, from a muse or some magical well of inspiration. But often--much like with dreams--I discover the real source of the inspiration is something much closer to home.

Last week, I wrote a scene where the only thing left in the fridge for breakfast was hotdogs. Personally, I hate hotdogs and the thought of chopping uncooked hotdogs into a bowl, covering them with milk and eating them like cereal is disgusting.

However when I finished the scene I was hungry, so I headed downstairs to make my breakfast. And, to my disgust and surprise, there was my husband standing by the fridge with a raw hotdog hanging out of his mouth like a cigar. I’d probably seen him do this a million times and shoved the image to the back of my mind—until my main character opened that nearly empty fridge and reached for her breakfast.

Then came the spiders.  

I have a scene in my WIP where a not so human character is laying on her four-poster bed watching spiders spin a canopy over it. Creepy and perfect, I thought as I turned off my computer and headed for my four-poster bed . . . Yeah, you guessed it.  


Last winter, I had a spider invasion that I had totally forgotten about. Every night when I went to bed, I’d look up and there’d be a couple of them glaring down at me from the ceiling. And it seemed last winter’s invasion had started again. While I was writing, my mind had registered a new web stretching from my headboard to the ceiling.

What about you? How often do you discover that your creative ideas have a basis in reality, even if you’ve temporarily blocked it from your mind?

For extra credit or if you’re simply curious about why spiders are inside your house, check this out.



7 comments:

  1. I've never noticed, and now I'm so curious! I'll have to pay attention as I start working on my next novel. Of course, what you've also shown is the leap needed to take something mundane and make it noteworthy. Hotdogs as a cereal substitute? Someone who enjoys watching spiders spin a canopy on her bed? Those are definitely ideas which pop up into the stratosphere and leave the mundane behind!

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  2. Reality only better. I wrote a microfiction piece about a kid who hates gym, is always picked last for teams, and gets massacred during dodge ball. In the end, the tables are turned. In real life - not so much. That's the beauty of fiction.

    Oh, and I can't wait to share that spider link with my sister, who thinks she is so much kinder for putting spiders "back outside." Interesting link. Thanks.

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  3. Wow! Great link. And all my fiction has a basis in reality. All of it.

    Oddly, I find the scenes I completely make up are the ones people think have happened to me and the ones I rip off from well-remembered experience don't seem as real.

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  4. I plunge into the world of my stories, going so far as to attend real-life open houses to pick places for my characters to live. I bet they sneak into my reality more than I realize. The house spider link is fascinating! Also, I'm at: http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/

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  5. I'm glad you guys like the link. I was particularly curious about why spiders always hang out in bathtubs. You know, you're all naked and wet, and one goes scooting up your leg :O

    I laughed about the dodge ball, inlovewithwords. You're so right.

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  6. This happens to me a lot too. It's kind of funny, and I'll never turn down material that I can use in a story.

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  7. Crap. Now I want a hot dog. . . .

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