Finding Inspiration in People You Know

There is something called writers block, a pesky thing that gets in the way of writing some magnificent piece of work.  It’s when you have no more ideas, or your ideas are not growing, or even your ideas are just at a stand still.  Annoying, is what I describe it as.  Finding some sort of inspiration is what most writers look for, and their ideas just grow.  When asked where I find inspiration, I just say from people I work with, or people I know.  Family members are good examples, and co-workers.

One of my new co-workers comes into work, and during the middle of a lunch rush, begins to tell me an elaborate story about her mother-in-law and son.  Needless to say I was peeved at the moment, but later came to realize that I could use her sob story in a story of my own.  She rambled on throughout lunch while we were getting hit, that her mother-in-law wouldn’t drive her to an appointment, but expected her to give her some jello for jello-shots.  The now evil-mother-in-law is trying to get her kicked out of her apartment and make her move back to Michigan.  

Okay, so it seems a little radical to try and get someone kicked out over some jello for jello-shots, but radical is what makes some stories interesting.  Other forms of inspiration come from just listening to what people say, what happened to them while they were at the supermarket, or when they took their child to the park. 

My boss told me about when he went to buy some raid, and as soon as he went to pay the woman cashing him out automatically started on about her sister who was removed from the family.  He had never met the woman in his life, but she felt comfortable enough to ramble about her family problems to a customer.  Hearing stories like that just make me laugh, and it starts the gears in my mind.  

Never just let a story from somebody go in one ear and out the other.  Hearing them can help relieve writers block, and even turn a simple, silly incident into an article or short story that intrigues an audience.