Author: Janet Gershen-Siegel

Are you getting inspiration from pets?

Pets are our constant companions. For a lot of people, their animal friends are their sole contact on some days. And they can inspire.

Do You Speak Dog?

Humans first domesticated dogs back when we still lived in caves. They probably saved our species and certainly love us unconditionally. Dogs are incredibly observant and usually act to please us, although they have their own personalities and quirks.

However, dog bites are fairly common; there are a few million per year in the United States alone. From 2005 to 2015, dogs killed 360 Americans. As a result, some people are deathly afraid of them.

Feline Follies

Cats can seem aloof, but they also bond well to humans. A cat is often a great companion for people who live in apartments. This is because they are small and often quiet, and their non-hairball messes are well confined. However, a lot of us (myself included) are allergic to them.

Furthermore, strays and outdoor cats differ. If your furry friend wanders, you might want to do a thought experiment and try to figure out where they go, and what they do, and why.

The Reptilian World of Pets

Lots of people love snakes and turtles. During my childhood, my brother had an iguana. Maybe a dinosaur-like creature can inspire some interesting tales.

Polly Wanna Write? What if Your Pets Can Talk?

Parrots are extremely intelligent and can live a long time. Furthermore, a lot of birds are extremely beautiful. Plus there’s the very concept of flight – and they’re so casual about it! So how would we humans be if we could fly, too?

And lest we forget, you can teach these birds to swear. Which could come back to bite you….

How Ya Gonna Keep ’em Down on the Farm?

While farm animals aren’t often seen as companion animals, per se, people do sometimes see them that way. The most obvious are horses, but this includes chickens and potbellied pigs, for example.

Maybe consider what it’s like to befriend a creature which a lot of other people only see as food.

Or, what happens if a famine strikes and the only meal out there is from a creature your characters love?

Big Inspiration from the Very Small

So, for the purposes of this kind of catch-all section, let’s look at not only smaller critters like mice and hamsters, but also fish, insects and spiders, and others like rats and ferrets. Your animal friend might be lively and playful, or sedate. Maybe the wheel gets a lot of use.

And what are they thinking? Is it just about food, or is there more to them?

Service Animals

These critters aren’t really pets but I don’t truly have a better post to discuss them than right here. So, please bear with me.

The so-called ’emotional support’ animals are a class of being which many folks unfortunately overstate and exploit. If you’ve ever seen an emotional support animal that was vicious, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

But legitimate service animals are different. They are trained extremely well, and protected by law. Many places which would otherwise never allow an animals, such as restaurants, must allow service animals.

And these days, it’s not just dogs who can be service animals! Miniature horses are having a moment. But why?

Miniature Horses vs Dogs

Because true service dogs tend to be on the larger side, one huge problem is that they tend to not live as long as smaller breeds of dog. And often service dogs have to be bigger, because a person may need to lean on them or otherwise have help getting or standing up.

Mini horses, though, live a lot longer, and are just as trainable. A larger dog might live 8 – 10 years, with only 6 – 8 of those years spent in service. But a mini horse can live 25 – 35 years, and be in service for 20.

Given how intensive, time-consuming, and expensive it is to train a service animal, a switch to mini horses is probably in the cards for a lot of folks who truly need the help.

For the folks who need service animals, one of the bigger issues they confront is people trying to pet or distract their helpers.

Pets and Inspiration: Takeaways

When we get into others’ heads, we see the world differently. Animals are almost aliens on our world, so considering how they think might prove very helpful when writing science fiction.

And whenever we make first contact with an alien species, we may find they don’t want to talk to us at all—but are happy to chat up Fido, Fluffy, and Polly.

Hug your pets today!

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Can You Get Inspiration from Childhood?

Childhood? Really?

Ah, childhood. What is it about our younger years that gives us such feelings of nostalgia? Is it because things were so much newer then? Or were they simpler? We had fewer responsibilities.

Yet plenty of people don’t have lives like that. For those who lost a parent, or were abused, attaining the age of majority must have come as a relief.

For the purposes of this blog post, I’ll call a person an adult on their eighteenth birthday. It’s just easier that way.

School Days

Education is a somewhat separate topic and is addressed elsewhere on this blog. So let’s, instead, talk about the other trappings of being children.

A Lack of Impulse Control

Why don’t we let young children drive? It’s not just because they can’t reach the pedals. Rather, it’s really because they tend to lack impulse control. Patience is more than a virtue; it’s a mark of maturity. While people mature at different rates, and there are some kids who are very patient, the child population tends, as a whole, to be a lot more impulsive.

While this means triggers are pulled more often, and faster (and sometimes quite literally), it also means younger people are more likely to take chances. They aren’t as set in their ways, and they are not wearing golden handcuffs.

Taking it all too Hard

Passions can often run hot and hard for minors. Hormones are directly responsible for some of this. An overall lack of impulse control may also be causing it. Or maybe it’s due to many young people not having too many good bases of comparison. Whatever it is, first loves and first losses hit very hard.

Childhood and Flexibility

Some of this is certainly physical. We tend to be in better shape. Our joints are younger. And we might be thinner, even if that just means we haven’t yet had the chance to eat all of the things which are going to make and keep us fatter later in life.

However, flexibility also goes to being able to bounce back more quickly. So maybe the term is actually resilience. None of our experiences or relationships has terribly long track records. Even if we fall in love with a toddler playmate, it’s still not a lot of time when compared to couples who have been together for several decades.

While we might flit by and not know what we’ve got till it’s gone, we are still able to (usually) move on.

Of course there are exceptions. And there are plenty of depressed teenagers out there. I am not discounting their experiences!

Takeaways: Childhood

Nondepressed teenagers can often be rather resilient. Impulse control generally takes longer to develop, so adjust your characters accordingly. Younger people can also, at times, take things a lot harder than more mature folks do. Again, adjust your character traits accordingly.

As for very young children, read up on everything from child care theories to the development of the brain, in order to really nail it. And not every little kid lisps. Please, please bury that cliché once and for all.

Thank you.

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