I is for Inspiration

To all the writers, artists, musicians out there – what inspires you?

For me, inspiration comes from many different sources.

Music. Nearly every story I write has at least one song as a theme. On one occasion I dearly wanted to include a soundtrack with a story – “OK, for this scene, grab your Basement Jaxx album and put on ‘Get Me Off’.” A couple of slow-moving WIPs are even named after their theme song – one of these days you might actually read them.

Dreams. As mentioned last week, I can pluck all sorts of weird ideas from dreams. The first spirit encounter scene from I Heard Your Voice came from a dream. Of course, they don’t all make sense, but it’s amazing how many times they do in a strange way.

Art. My favourite painting is “The Rose” by Salvador Dali. It’s a peaceful scene of natural beauty which one day I plan to write about (and probably utterly corrupt with erotica). I can easily see where Girl With a Pearl Earring came from – I adore that painting too.

Random encounters. I was once terrified by a very angry-looking man who chased my car up to a traffic light, cut me off, got out and shouted “Your tyre’s flat!” Much as I appreciated the information, I did wish he had approached me more as a concerned stranger and less as a raving maniac. I’ve never been so convinced I was about to become a road rage statistic. But it does make for good writing scenes.

So what inspires you?