Where Stories Come From

 
In December I spent, combined, the better part of a day chasing minions around.

Have you seen “Despicable Me”? I haven't. But one of the characters – or character types – is a little bumbling yellow thing called a “minion.” They're very popular with the kids, it seems. And I don't mean “the kids,” as in “I'm 32 and anyone who doesn't remember 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' shouldn't be legal to smoke,” but rather the age 4-to-12 crowd.

So Universal Home Entertainment released the DVD of “Despicable Me” in December, and I made sure that the little people hired to play minions didn't get kicked in the crotch by young'uns.

Now, obviously, this is unique. But it got me to thinking about inspiration when it comes to writing.

I'm working on somewhere between three and thirty projects, and I can trace every one of them to something from my life. The screenplay started as a tic I picked up on a drive back to Colorado while constantly checking my phone. The short film is from a combination of recovery and pick-up artistry. The play is from an idea at an ex-theater company (“ex-” both in my affiliation and in its existence).

From each of those small, everyday stimuli, a story.

I won't likely write about chasing minions around a Best Buy in Burbank. Getting the copyright clearances would be tough. But I might write about an actor out-of-work and forced to take a job in a costume. Or a scene with an awkward exchange between a shopper and a promo person. Or it could be any one of a number of things that happened that day that will set me off en route to writing something interesting.

I get told every once in a while by a student, “There's nothing to write about.” And my only response is, “My God, what isn't there to write about?”

Comments

[Meghan]

triple truth on this one. agreed. particularly that last line... ;)