I watch television…and movies. And read a lot of books. I like old movies from back to the forties and fifties and pieces of these often inspire my own work. No, I don’t lift plots. Every writer of every sort deserves to own their words as long as the law allows. Probably longer. At the same time, every writer also knows there are in this world a limited number of plots, something like 23. The fun and creativity is in all the other stuff.
Movie plots are no different than any other fiction. We have basic plots and then creative minds fill in lush characters and interesting settings, along with a million details. It’s like the old Rubik’s Cube puzzle only way more complex and interesting.
No complete story ever inspires me to want to lift an exact replica. Where’s the fun in that? But sitting absorbed in someone else’s fiction–their characters, their words–my brain gets stirred up and my neurons jumpstarted. I get to thinking. Heaven knows trouble can ensue from this activity, but it can be way fun. I don’t have–I’ve come to accept–a common mind. This is in no way to say that I’m better or smarter(really over-rated. BTW), but that I’m different.
Trust me, sometimes I’d give a lot not to be so different. (My Dear Husband once casually remarked to a friend that he only followed about half of what I said. So sad.) Don’t we all have that friend who’s mind is like a bad neighborhood where you don’t want to go alone?
My mind wanders off in intriguing(to me) directions and I get caught up in the age old writer question of What If? What if I put this character in this situation with this complications? It could be…interesting. If you’d read my bio, you might have noticed that I am, also, a therapist. I have a Ph.D. in counseling, but my clients have no need to fear that I’ll use their lives and their situations in my stories.
Sorry, the stories in my head are way more interesting.