This week’s inspiration series deals with television. I was about to jump out there and say TV shows spur very little in the way of ideas for my books. However, no sooner did I start to type that, when I realized the topic is “Television”, not just TV shows.
While TV shows don’t bring to mind many ideas for my books, other things broadcast on TV do. Perhaps the biggest one is the news. On more than several occasions I’ve popped up in the middle of a news broadcast to write down an idea.
One of the stories that come to mind pertains to a herd of horses that escaped from a ranch in the Tijuana River Valley when the rain-swollen river destroyed their ranch. Once they were out, they headed for downtown Chula Vista and it took several hours for Animal Control to round them up.
The problem was after they overwhelmed the animal control facility in Bonita, there was nowhere to send them. Their corrals had been destroyed, along with most of the ranch. It took weeks to find homes for all of them and several, did in fact, end up at Horses of Tir Na Nog Ranch.
By that time, however, in my book, the ranch had taken in several of them, had them settled and part of the ranch family (Just a good educated guess on my part).
Several times, news stories about the sex trade in San Diego (raids, rescues, girls found abused and so on) helped create scenes in my books. Or, made me go back and rewrite them to make them more realistic.
Likewise, news stories about fires in the local area close to the ranch and even up in the north county generated scenes that my beloved Bonita firemen were called out to. Add to that accidents on the freeways and other events that firemen typically respond to. In most cases, these either generated a new scene or event or, I used the news story’s description to make my plot twist or turn more realistically.
News coverage of various venues in San Diego has also caused me to take my characters there. For example, Shawn taking CJ to the Maritime Museum and she and Shannon to the Yogurt Mill afterward.
With the exception of the news, I can’t think of anything else that has inspired ideas for my books. A lot of what we watch is sci-fi, which is not a genre I write in, so there’s not a lot of connection. Nor do I have my characters watching TV. A very quick mention of Young Frankenstein being CJ’s favorite TV movie is the only mention of TV I can recall.
Cooking shows are a favorite (Chopped, Chopped Junior, Cupcake Wars, etc.) and help inspire descriptions of meals they make or order but, even then, there’s not much of a connection. Most of that inspiration comes from having eaten at the same places I take my characters to.
Descriptions of clothes, jewelry, and personal care products I typically hunt down on Amazon or the internet so commercials play next to no role.
Dancing with the Stars, Game of Thrones, America’s Got Talent, Bar Rescue haven’t stirred up anything – although thinking about it, I could probably work them into my next book. But, if I did I’d have to take it in a direction completely outside of my plot line. Which would be okay, but a lot more work than I think it would be worth.
And I think that sums up television as an inspiration for me; more work than reward.