Where Do Your Ideas Come From?

I’m asked that question from time to time. I think if I were a more prolific author, I’d be asked more often, but that’s another story.

The answer is, “I look around me.” Every single day I see something I want to write about, fact or fiction. I have so many ideas for stories and books I could never write them all. I have given ideas and plots to other writers who have run with them.

This hit home today, because I am currently writing about it—or the aftermath of it.

Enter the dystopian novel. I’ve been writing one of these dire prophesies for at least 10 years now. The scary part is that much of what was speculation environmentally and politically when I first had the idea, has now come to pass. If I’d finished it then, many readers would have scoffed at my premise. Now the tale is fast losing any wow factor it ever had. Instead of writing the future, it seems I’m just recording history.

Big money influences government, and regulations to protect our land and water are rescinded. We gripe about smoke from wildfires polluting our air. Droughts ravage the land, and then floods turn large tracts of homes into so much flotsom. Food prices go up and we complain, yet American’s waste 119 billion pounds of food a year. Insurance rates skyrocket, yet we own two or more cars per household, travel trailers, four wheelers, and boats.

We worry about global climate change, yet so very few of us make the connection between our own consumption and killing ourselves. That’s right, ourselves, not the planet. We won’t kill the earth, just ravage it to the point that it can no longer support our life. Without the parasite that we’ve become, the earth will renew itself in time.

Dystopian novels presume that a few of us will survive the hell on earth we create—wishful thinking, perhaps. I’m not sure I’d want to be around for the dying times.

“It turns out the zombie apocalypse isn’t anything like it was made out to be. There are no swarms of reanimated corpses rising up to nosh on the brains of the living, nor hoards of parasite infected hosts spreading the zombie plague. Just starving humans, desperate to stop the gnawing hunger in their bellies by any means necessary.”

Excerpt from novel in progress

Those of us who don’t belong to the billionaire’s club, complain about the way they use their money. When five of them die 12,000 feet below sea level as a result of their privilege, many criticize their excessive lifestyle—they get what they deserve. Yet so very few will make the connection that we are creating these billionaires with our demand for more and more of what they sell us, whether it be tangible products, convenience or indulgence. If you want to save the planet, stop feeding the rich.

I was raised by the Queen of Do-It-Yourself. She used up, reused, repurposed and made do all of her life. It’s in my blood. I’ve shopped second hand for a good deal of what I own, and that’s not an exaggeration. I’ve maybe purchased a dozen pieces of new to me furniture in my half century as an adult consumer.

I’m not patting myself on the back for being better than anybody else. My shopping habits didn’t come from a concern for over consumption and my thrifting has been much more about the thrill of the hunt, finding that treasure among the cast offs, weather furniture, dishes, household items and decor, or clothing.

Lately though, I’m seeing what the Goodwill employee is pointing out. Where is it all going to go, these mountains of needful things? How much do we really need, and what will be the final cost for all of the durable goods we demand and then cast aside?

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Lost in Space were once fiction. The Hunger Games await.

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I’m a retired American living in the midwest, doing what I love. If you like what you read, please leave a comment, and share on your social media platforms. Follow me on Facebook and join the mailing list to receive notification each time I post, including announcements of any new books or short stories available (trust me, your inbox won’t be assaulted). In the mean time, have you read my novel, Sins of the Fathers? The cold case story inspired by a true crime makes a great summer read. Published by Tellectual Press and available in Paperback and Kindle on Amazon.