Art feeds Art

I don't think there is a writer out there that won't say they got their inspiration for at least one story idea from some other art form.  Conversely, I think artists in other mediums may say the same.  Let's face it, art feeds art.  When stuck for a story idea, stuck for the next path my characters might take, I don't try to force it.  I simply release myself from my goal of writing for that particular day or moment and begin to enjoy other forms of art.  Eventually, the ideas come to me.

Case in point, when I locked up at about Chapter Ten, I gave my Forever First Reader a task.  Go and find me pictures of cabins by lakes.  I knew my characters were headed to a cabin by a lake.  I could picture it in my mind, but needed something more solid.  She performed her task and sent me photos.  Those photos were just the thing.  They broke my block, gave me a solid vision of the cabin (which remains similar but in many ways very different from the photos) and Chapters Eleven through Fifteen flowed.  Five chapters in one day thanks to photographic artwork and my FFR.

Some of it is simply the fact that I have given my brain a break and allowed my subconscious to do its thing.  Some of it is the fact that by submersing myself in another form of art, I am stimulating the side of my brain that creates. (Left side? I can never remember.)

My day job is analytical and organizational.  If I don't keep myself balanced, I'd end up totally immersed in analysis.  I can't let that happen.  I begin to feel like half a person.  I don't fully contribute to all around me and I need art in my life.  It does inspire me and lead to better things.  I learned that last fall.

At the end of last year, I was listening to Bruce on my way to work, his 'Magic' CD.  The song was 'Magic'.  As I drove, magic truly did begin to happen.  The opening paragraph of a story began to take shape.  It haunted me until I HAD to sit down and write it.  More words came.  The idea and the story as it has begun to develop were not the only magics that occurred over those weeks.  I recommitted to my writing.  I recommitted to that other half of myself.  Life is suddenly much more balanced.

Music is not my only muse.  I've been inspired by paintings.  There was one in particular that my husband found in the attic of his house.  It appeared to be Venice (at least it was an old city with a canal and bridges).  I woman was in the shadows and waiting for something/someone.  Like a fool, I let him sell it at our garage sale last year (without a doubt, we will see it one day being appraised on one of these Auction TV show for $100,000).  It should have been placed in my office near my desk.  I know there were ideas from that painting that never fully formed. That painting haunted me and I should never have let it go.  

There will be other paintings.  There will be other songs.  There will be something else that inspires me...sometimes nature herself.  The gray skies, the colorful leaves and the leaf-free branches of October led to a short story idea.

It's also true that the ideas come simply from life itself.  My flash fiction, 'Grocery Shopping' came from life itself.  I hate grocery shopping as my close friends and acquaintances know all too well.  This little bit of reality became what I believe is an amusing piece of alternate reality.

I am all over the place here, but the point is as writers, as artists, we need to open up our senses, our feelings and allow our minds to roam.  We need the balance that art provides to us.  The art of others keeps the artistic side of ourselves fresh.  Perhaps, one day, my own art will inspire someone else.  It's circular and I believe art does feed art.