A Look at Getting Inspiration From Marriage

Marriage is more than weddings. And when you consider the entire experience, it can spawn any number of plot bunnies.

Courtship

So, how did you two meet? It’s a standard question and can be a terrific ice breaker.

Dating

Furthermore, dating rituals differ through time, so adjust what you write accordingly. In the 1950s, your young lovers might go to a hop or to play miniature golf.

In the 1970s, they might go to a roller disco—or a place to pick up people. Yes, there are folks who marry a person they met at a bar.

And in Victorian times, they might visit in the sitting room of her parents’ home, or stroll in the garden. With a chaperone, of course.

The Marriage Proposal

These days, anyone can do the proposing. However, of course, this was traditionally the realm of a man. Hence if you’re writing historical fiction, make sure to include that. Or, if you want to subvert tradition, make sure you can show a good reason why that happened.

And another tradition can be asking a parent’s (or maybe just the woman’s father’s) permission before marriage or even before courting.

And there’s also the current “ritual” of a very public proposal. What happens when the proposal goes on the Jumbotron? Or TikTok?

Here’s another question: if your couple is same sex, who does the proposing?

Wedding

Because weddings have a ton of variables, this can take you in any number of directions. A large wedding can be an occasion for drama. Who is feeling left out?

Does the cake topple over? And what happens if one of the parties is jilted or left at the altar? What if someone objects?

And how does religion factor into how the day unfolds?

Day to Day

Married life can bring with it a raft of responsibilities, and I’m not even getting into parenthood here. Because combining households means, among other things, deciding whose couch to keep.

Issues

Money is probably the #1 issue between couples and it can be a doozy of a problem. And the couple do not have to be poor in order for this to be a problem. So, what happens if one person saves and the other can’t stop spending?

Other conflicts can include one person becoming an addict or mentally ill, or having to care for elderly parents or take in (or otherwise financially assist) siblings.

Divorce

The messy end of some marriages can create fallout and harm everything it touches. What if there was cheating? Or maybe the parties simply stopped trying.

And don’t forget the kids, if any. Young teenagers and tweens are hit particularly hard by divorce. Furthermore, there is a very real economic component to divorce.

There are, after all, couples who claim to be staying together “for the sake of the children”. But the reality is they may be staying in a bad marriage because they fear that a divorce will cause such a dramatic change in economic circumstances.

And what happens if either of the parties remarries?

Stepfamilies can have their own issues, of course. Family blending in the real world usually isn’t as seamless as it is on The Brady Bunch.

Marriage Till Death

For some couples, death is the end. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they were happy 24/7 or even most of the time. However, for couples who are happy, the death of a spouse is devastating.

Widowhood

Widows and widowers may, consciously or unconsciously (and not necessarily fairly) compare their dearly departed with any potential new lovers to come down the pike.

And conflicts can arise from everything from putting old pictures away—and taking them off the walls—to taking off the wedding ring.

Plus widowhood can happen at any time. What if your widowed character is in their twenties?

Marriage and Inspiration: Takeaways

Marriage is one of the most important relationships in society. And if your characters marry, or if they are already married when your story starts, then it should be important to them as well.

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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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