Being disabled, television has become my lifeline to the outside world. Be it the news, a 30-minute sitcom, or an hour-long drama, they occupy a majority of my free time – which is more than I care to admit. So, to think of television is a seamless thought that runs as smoothly through my mind as if discussing or thinking of my own life.
I think because my own personal adventures are hampered slightly, the television has become my window to the world around me. It goes without saying that the 24-hour news stations ambush us at each turn with news, news, and more news about how the world is falling down around us. A plethora of funny sitcoms introduce us to unique families, wacky scientists, single parents and the like. The longer dramas typically solve murders, or superheroes fight evil, or scientists’ breakdown crime to the smallest bit of genetic material possible; or teenagers try to establish life on a planet they’ve never known as home, or vampires run New Orleans and battle against werewolves and witches. The topics TV covers are never ending.
Because I’m constantly reading books or watching TV, most all of the ideas that pop in my head come from something I’ve ingested visually from the programs I’ve watched. Television is a bigger inspiration to me than most else. I suppose because there is such a variety of programs that no matter what mood you’re in, you can get some sort of idea that sparks your creativity.
As of late, the biggest inspiration to me has been Fear the Walking Dead – of course reading Incubation at the same time helped. Now, I’ve never written a zombie piece, but with NaNoWriMo rapidly approaching, it’s definitely an option. There is something about the free license you have to create a world full of dead people where there isn’t a historically set way in which the dead became infected. You could say a meteor hit Earth, or some strange animal is spreading a rabies type virus. As I said, the beginnings are endless.
Television shows, in particular, give me inspiration as far as character development. I can see a certain actor who has the looks of a character I’d like to see in my own world, with my own personality traits injected into them.
Not only actors give me inspiration for characters or storylines for that matter. Inspiration can also come from documentaries where subject matters are covered in particular parts of the world that give me fodder for what could be a great book. I watched a documentary piece on the treatment of homosexuals in India the other night. It really sparked something in it. Not only the subject matter but the location and the people.
There are television programs that give me inspiration simply by being works of art all on their own. I watch television and because my brain never stops moving I just keep thinking of story ideas. I try to jot them all down, but whether they’ll come to fruition, one will just have to watch and see.