Inspiration

What inspires me? What causes my inspiration? Apparently, inspiration is one of the most popular topics to write/blog about. Since this is such a trendy topic, I decided to share my 2 cents worth.

There have been many different things that inspire me, but for some reason, love has been what inspired me the most. It might sound cheesy, but despite all the writing I do, I think my best work has been the stuff I've written about love... or inspired by love. I've written poems, songs and short stories dedicated to or inspired by love. Yes, my non-fiction work is decent, but honestly, I like my love work better. I think it has to do with the emotion I put into it. The passion... or maybe just emotional attachment to certain memories.

One question I was asked recently, "what do you think of when you sing this song?" It was a question regarding a song I wrote about a girl. I didn't answer the question right away, but after thinking about it for a moment I answered, "her smile." It's true, that song was inspired by her smile and every time I play that song I think about her smile.

I do have a pretty cool anecdote about how one of my short stories came about. I was doing homework at the UTPA library when I noticed a couple walk in, sit down, and share the computer at the row directly in front of me. They looked awkward... as if they were just getting to know each other. Each of them walking on eggshells trying not disappoint the other, yet they could not keep their hands off each other. Although I was working on my own stuff, they were sitting right in front of me and they couldn't exactly be ignored. I paid a bit of attention to them in part for research and in part because I had just been recently heart-broken. I caught absolutely no audio, by the way, I had headphones on blaring The Devil Wears Prada, if I'm not mistaken.

20 minutes went by or so when I noticed their body language begin to change. There was distance between them now and he was getting aggressive. He wasn't getting violent, just a bit worked up about something. The arguing continued for a few minutes, then she tried to leave, but he was standing in her way. As she struggled to get away, he moved in and tried to force a kiss on her. At first it seemed innocent enough, just a desperate guy attempting a desperate move to patch things up with his lady, but the situation changed a bit.

My guess is he was offended by his girlfriend not wanting to kiss him, but remember, I have no audio memories of this. He became irritated and aggressive again and now he was holding on to her arms... and it looked like he had a pretty tight grip. The girl looked around for help and just as I decided to get up and ask him to be a gentleman, she looked straight at me. He turned to me as well to see what she was looking at and at that point she got out of his grip and left. He stood still for a few seconds then ran after her. I never saw either one again.

Immediately after all this went down in front of me, I began writing. I just typed away my thoughts and feelings on the matter. Then, after letting my thoughts out, I let my imagination take over and began writing a story. I didn't plan it or decide anything. I pretty much just began writing and the story came out. I titled it, "Douchebaggery and Hoebaggage." After writing a little on the matter, I actually began feeling a bit of sympathy for the douche-bag in my story. The one in real life, not so much... but he did give me inspiration for some good material.

read: "Inspiration Part 2: "It wasn't sex... it was naked poetry."