- History Podcasts. One in particular that I should mention is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. History already feeds my imagination, but HH brings out a voice that seems to adhere some of my wackier thought processes to actual truths. The possibilities...
- Lectures. It does not matter what it's about, really. Anything to which I was ignorant prior. Sometimes it is simply a word or phrase to which I'm exposed. A vague concept or theory can be the skeleton of an entire idea or setting for a book. Our words become worlds.
- Dictionary. Oh, yes. A good, old-fashioned dictionary, with phonetic spellings, rich etymologies, and definitions galore are the malleable ingredients of the wordsmith, world builder and word nerd alike. At least this word nerd.
- Bathroom. Ahem. This is the writer-king's porcelain palace of plot practice. It has a throne and everything. Go ahead. Say it. Say, "He gets all his ideas on the toilet." I don't care.
- My kids. They have the imagination energy of a thousand suns. It pays to listen to your kids. Especially mine. They must get it from their mom.
For a story that I'm outlining, I wanted to use the plague idea, but found that it was coming too close to the zombie plague. Sure, I could do it. Yeah, it's hip. But, as much as I love the idea of using a zombie plague, "I'm not gonna." I need something else to chase my protagonist across otherwise foolish landscapes and corner my heroes into a noble fight. There are lots of great writer's who do this well. I would rather read them than write it, frankly. By the way, the plague that I was playing with was one that turned human flesh into mechanized, clockwork copper. I think I could even make it work. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board. Or bathroom.
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