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Category: Inspiration

How do you get inspiration for your writing?

The Wonderful World of Inspo

It is a lot like exercising, I have found. If you keep on using it, then you will have more and more of it.

If not, then you will not.

Heh.

Getting Your Inspiration Act in Gear

For all of this to really work, you need a certain degree of volume. And you also need to be utterly shameless. Er, what am I talking about here?

It is all about writing down every single stupid brain fart you get. All of the little weird nuggets. What you dreamed about. And what you can hear on the bus when you eavesdrop on unsuspecting commuters.

Write. It. Down.

Ray Bradbury said that it was impossible to write 52 bad short stories in a row. But I also think that it is impossible to have that many bad ideas in a row.

Some of them are throwaways no matter what. But some others can, potentially, be salvaged.

So, keep the baby. Toss the bath water.

And Then What?

And then, dear reader, you need to start to write!

Like Bradbury said, it will not all be dreck. Some of it will actually be halfway decent.

Keep that stuff. But do not get rid of the rest of it! Rather, stick it in a drawer somewhere, either physically or electronically.

Look at it later. Maybe it’s not as bad as you once thought. Heh, maybe it’s even worse! But you might also find the germ of an idea. Back in the day, you did not have the skill to really bring it to life.

But now, maybe you do.

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Ideas Jar for Writing

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on July 25, 2024

What’s an ideas jar?

Do you have an ideas jar?

Origin

I first heard of this idea when I read Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing. However, I suspect this methodology may not have been his invention. However, either way, it is a fantastic concept and it can help you in two very separate ways when you write.

This makes it truly a win-win.

Oh and by the way, it doesn’t have to be a jar. Although a jar is more of a tangible representation, there’s no reason you can’t just use the notes app on your phone or simply email yourself a list. As always, do whatever works the best for you.

Adding to It

So when you are feeling inspired and giddy and happy, make some observations, write them down, and throw them into the jar. Or maybe you have an idea but no good place to put it. You guessed it; put it in the jar. And another time to fill the jar is when you have a ton of ideas and you can’t decide on which one to start.

Select your weakest idea(s) and put it/them in. And if you are seeing plot bunnies everywhere but need to concentrate on one story and one universe, park your other ideas in the jar. The jar never goes away and so you can dip into it later if you like. And it can help to quiet your brain down, to find a home for all of your stray thoughts.

Subtracting from Your Ideas Jar

There are two times to take things out of the jar. The first is to help you out when you have writer’s block (yes, it really exists!). And the ideas don’t even have to make any sense with reference to whatever you want to write. Because what you need to do when you have writer’s block is to start writing something – anything!

It does not matter that you’re trying to write a fantasy story about dragons and the idea has to do with making tea. If you have to, mash the ideas together and boom! You’ve got a dragon making tea.

And the second reason is when you are going along all right but are having trouble with either a transition (or maybe more than one transition) or the ending.

While this method can also be used for the beginning, usually if you have this much story together already, that generally means you’ve already got a beginning. However, if you don’t, I don’t see any reason why you can’t use something from your ideas jar.

So maybe your story starts when a dragon interrupts a knight making tea, or the tea contains something which will kill or mollify the dragon. Or maybe the moment of tea making convinces the knight to make peace with the dragon, thereby ending the story.

Consider Places Where You Can Get Fodder for Your Ideas Jar

What about readings or news stories about science, or music? How about odd human interest stories? You know, like Florida Man?

Takeaways

An ideas jar is, in a lot of ways, your own personal prompt dispenser. So help yourself and fill it – and take ideas out if you need them. After all, that’s what it’s there for.

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Personal Writing Process

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on June 25, 2024

What is My Personal Writing Process

By definition, a personal writing process is, well, kinda personal. Asking, “How do I write a book?” is almost like asking how to breathe.

My personal writing process may or may not help you. After all, mine differs from, say, Stephen King‘s. And while he is a bestselling author several times over, that still doesn’t mean his method is better than my own.

Furthermore, his method will not work for me. And that’s not a failure on either of our parts. Because we are, simply put, rather different writers.

Plotting

For longer stories and novels, I find planning to be essential. And this can take the form of everything from an outline to some random notes. Either way, though, I create what I refer to as a ‘wiki’ although I am the only person who contributes to it.

‘Pantsing’

The term ‘pantsing’ refers to flying by the seat of your pants. So essentially you write with very little idea of plot or structure. And the intention is to fix it later.

For the most part, I write shorter stories this way. However, they might be part of a larger overall story arc. Hence the actual writing might end up a tad haphazard but the scene or scenes fit into a greater whole, which has been planned.

See, I’m a planner. Usually.

A Personal Writing Process In the Middle

Sometimes, I’m in the middle. Mettle was a lot like that, where I had a detailed outline for the first three quarters or so and then I had absolutely no idea of how to finish the piece.

There’s also the act of going in the middle by writing a far sparer outline. That’s another idea, to know the arc of the chapter and maybe even the first and last lines of it. But nothing else. So you have both the planning and the flying by the seat of your pants.

Story Arcs

Currently, aside from the Obolonk stories (which are still deep in beta reading hell), the only real series and arcs I was writing tended to be fan fiction until I started in on the Real Hub of the Universe.

Easter Eggs

One piece of my process is the addition of Easter eggs. Stories include the following (usually, but Untrustworthy has very little of this, due to the nature of the story):

• Boston, somehow, although sometimes it’s just an accent.
† Somebody named Shapiro (a cousin had this as her maiden name, but I also think of the character from Stalag 17).
• Jews, and often not just Shapiro. They aren’t necessarily terribly religious. But they are there all the same.
† Dreams, but I am relying on them less as a crutch these days. Characters have inner lives but that’s not necessarily front and center in a story anymore.

Personal Writing Process: Takeaways

Planning can’t really be avoided. Even if your personal writing process is 100% pantsing, you usually end up paying for that with a lot more time spent editing.

This does not mean that planners don’t edit! Of course we do. But the scenes are better ordered or at least they should be. So that can save on editing time.

This is what works for me. It may or may not work for you.

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Speculating About the Future

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on May 30, 2024

Let’s Consider Speculating About the Future

Speculating is fun. However, future predictions can be notoriously inaccurate. I’m still waiting for my flying car, for example.

However, some predictions have been eerily on the nose, such as cell phones, which are a lot like Star Trek’s communicators. So here’s a few idea on how to essentially build your own crystal ball.

For writers, this kind of speculation can be helpful, either to set a scene or to spark some other idea. While science fiction and fantasy are natural genres for this, probably just about any genre could work. Maybe the couple in your romance are inventors.

Or the victims in your horror are dispatched with cutting edge (pun intended) stuff.

Extrapolation

The easiest way to speculate and predict is to take what currently exists, and then extrapolate from that.

Transportation

For example, consider transportation. Your car gets a certain degree of fuel efficiency and it has a particular top speed. It holds a certain number of people. And it has a particular styling. So what happens when you stretch those characteristics?

And so you can consider a car that can go faster yet safely. Maybe your futuristic vehicle is self-driving, or a robot ‘drives’ it.

Since parking can be a pain in a lot of places, why not think up a car which can park itself, or can fold up so it doesn’t need a conventionally-sized parking spot? Maybe your new car is partly powered by solar or nuclear fusion. And how sleek and aerodynamic should it be?

Communications

And you can consider other basic areas of life. Let’s look at communications next. Because nearly all of us already have smart phones, think about the trends. Sometimes, phones get smaller, and are more lightweight and compact. However, at other times, they become larger and almost could be thought of as tablet hybrids.

What do your characters need? And what are the limitations on either scenario? How small can a phone become? How large?

Can it be embedded?

Speculating About Feeding the World

So what about food? People still starve. However, that’s usually due to distribution problems rather than growing enough crops or the existence of enough arable land. Hence how do your characters (or your setting) solve this problem?

And so you can look at any basic area of life, from finding love to consuming entertainment or buying clothing. See where extrapolation takes you.

Employment

When I graduated from undergrad, in 1983, there was no such thing as social media. In fact, I well recall cutting and pasting paragraphs in papers by literally cutting and pasting. Sorry, rain forest!

While computers already existed of course, they had not made it to the mainstream yet. But once the price started to drop, in the late 80s, mid 90s or so, computers started to become more ubiquitous.

So, that year, the prospects for employment using a computer were really just programmer or someone who taught programming.

Now, of course, many of us use our computers every day at work. And this doesn’t even get into how often we check and use our cell phones. But back in that year, would any of us have come up with so many varied uses for computers in work?

And what about AI?

Off the Wall

And then there’s the somewhat pie in the sky, kinda crazy stuff. For example, let’s think about the second Back to the Future film. Doc Brown uses fusion power to make the DeLorean go, but one of the things he grabs for fuel is a discarded banana peel. What a brilliant off the wall idea!

Off the Wall Fashion

So let’s look at, say, fashion. Maybe it’s the opposite of today, where everything is covered up but genitalia. But what kind of a society would support that?

Or maybe everyone wears a uniform, but the uniforms look really odd.

Consider hair when you consider future fashions. Does the mullet make a mainstream comeback? Or do we all just say to hell with it and shave our heads?

More Speculating Out of My Overly Fertile Imagination

Cars could be six stories tall. Communications could be facilitated with chewing gum. Maybe you vote telepathically. The sky, as always, is the limit.

Takeaways for Speculating About the Future

In short, thinking about our future, you may want to consider today, back a few decades, when today was the future. How did everything change? Was it gradual or radical? Did celebrities and influencers steer the ship? Or did it come up from grass roots?

Depending on your genre, and how much room there is for humor, your ideas about the future can go in any number of directions.

Decide on how plausible you want everything to be. And don’t forget to take into account professional predictions like Moore’s Law when speculating about the future!

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Pulling Together a Plot and Outlining a Novel Using a Starburst Method

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on May 7, 2024

Starburst Method for Writing a Novel

Starburst Method? What is it?

I’ve found it helps to consider some scenes. Not to write them. You may even want to role play them. And consider, e. g. when, say, a main character named Jennifer reveals she’s a zombie (or whatever your story is about), then there has to be some time before where the other characters think she’s a normal person. Hence that scene doesn’t come at the very beginning.

And I am suggesting a middle or even ending scene like this and not the start because I think it puts less pressure on me (your mileage may vary).

Dependencies

Hence the idea is to consider dependencies. I also will use a kind of (it’s not the official ‘snowflake method‘) starburst method where I will take a legal pad and write a major character’s name (or what the character is if I don’t have a name yet, e. g. the cab driver) and circle it. Just write it in the middle of the sheet.

Then draw spokes coming from the circle, as many as you like, and write more character names in circles, on the other ends of the spokes. Then, along the spokes themselves, write the connections. Not every character needs to connect to all of the others.

Connections

So in the example, Jennifer the zombie might connect to a cab driver because he picks her up after a concert. Some of those connections might turn into scenes, some of them might become back story. Or they might be scuttled. There’s no need to write absolutely everything.

Now we have Jennifer at a concert. Maybe she’s performing. And so we can work backwards a little, to determine a bit about her life or even when she became a zombie (maybe it was during music school).

Plot Advancement with the Starburst Method

We also go forward with the plot. Where does the cab driver take her? Maybe he takes her home. Or maybe he takes her to wherever she reveals she’s a zombie. Or maybe he kidnaps her. She might even make him her victim.

Consider where you want her story to begin. With her schooling? When she became a zombie? Right before she gets into that cab?

Consider where you want her story to end. With her revelation? Or with people accepting her new condition? With them killing her? Or with her striking back?

Hence you also ask questions (and you can have your friends ask you questions if you like, such as how she got zombified or whatever).

It’s not perfect; you still need transitions, but it works.

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Getting Inspiration from Politics

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on March 26, 2024

Can you get inspiration from politics?

Well, of course you can. Politics comes with built-in drama. Because competitions for high and low offices can be truly thrilling. And long-term friendships can sometimes end over this often forbidden topic.

Right (American definition)

So consider the conservative point of view, and what it truly entails. Go beyond the basics of voting. What is a basic, core conservative philosophy? It is generally one of caution. And another aspect concerns keeping government small.

Notwithstanding how the 45th president tried to redefine everything. For over two centuries, caution has defined the conservative movement. So this is true for whatever it was called, at whatever time.

Left (American politics definition)

And on the other hand, for liberal, the point of view centers around moving ahead and trying new things. Hence these are essentially first adopters in a lot of ways. In addition, an American leftist viewpoint connotes larger government. But often more personal freedom.

Up

What happens at the top of the ticket? And that doesn’t have to just be in America. What about in other countries? How are leaders chosen—and who do they end up beholden to when elected?

Top candidacies get a lot of press, and national leaders have nearly no time to themselves.

Even bad leaders can be inundated with work. These are undoubtedly extremely stressful jobs, no matter the size of the country or the type of government.

Down

And what happens in the lower tiers of the ticket? Races for alderman and county clerk and even dog catcher might have some drama. Maybe they showcase rising political stars and foreshadow things to come.

Furthermore, races for district attorney and for judge can have their own drama. That is, in jurisdictions where either or both of these roles are not appointments. Does the law and order candidate win? Not every time.

Takeaways for Politics and Your Writing

When putting together your own stories, think about how we (and other nations) choose our leaders. Democracy isn’t the only choice out there. Maybe your characters do something different.

This could be from voting to terms to how they treat incumbency to any of a host of other possibilities. And who knows? Your invented way may turn out to be better.Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

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Getting Inspiration from Life Events

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on March 19, 2024

Can You Get Writing Inspiration From Life Events

Life events can be extremely inspiring for writers.

A Look at Life Events

They can range from baby showers to quinceañeras. Or they might be religious commitment ceremonies like confirmations. But weddings and marriages are a special case. I’ll cover weddings and marriages at a later date. They are going to generally entail much greater pageantry.

Intimacy versus Spectacle in Life Events

First off, it makes sense to notice how big the event is. Is it a small one-year-old’s birthday party for just the immediate family? Or is it a Bat Mitzvah for a few hundred guests, where the parents satisfy several social obligations at once?

Because a very large event can be overwhelming, just try to concentrate on smaller conversations. Check out the little moments. What happens when the cake is cut, or the music starts? Of course you don’t ignore a crying baby. And you don’t interrupt important family moments. But we all know that there can be delays and quiet times during these sorts of events.

Organization

There is usually an organization behind very large events. Sometimes a professional handles everything. Or instead there might be a sequence of operations. The family is introduced first. Or first the hosts mingle with the guests. Maybe a song or a dance is next.

The hosts might serve food. The food might be required or expected. We often expect to eat turkey during Thanksgiving in America. But not always. Some families serve ham or lasagna.

If a life event comes with a religious aspect baked right in, then there may be ritualistic foods. For Chanukah, for example, you’d expect to see fried foods on the menu. And a Bar or Bat Mitzvah near Chanukah may end up coopting some of that holiday’s foods.

Uniqueness

Plus what’s unique about the occasion? Is it the favors? Or the music? Maybe it’s the decoration. Or the venue. And the guest list could be unique. Since families change, it could be the last time some people are together. Because we all age, the family won’t look the same ever again.

In addition, consider the wealth (or lack thereof) which is on display. Does it feel as if every need and desire are under consideration? Or does it feel as if the hosts have just maxed out their credit cards? Can you see where the hosts saved money? Does it feel as if they were cutting corners?

Takeaway

Finally, consider this: what did you see and hear? These events can be a window into human interactions. In addition, you can overhear great dialogue. Finally, don’t take notes at funerals.Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

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Getting Inspiration from Films

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on March 12, 2024

Can You Get Inspiration From Films?

Films can be rather obvious sources of inspiration. However, as always, take care not to get into copyright infringement issues. Hence you will need to tread lightly. And you should pretty much assume any movie you see is not in the public domain.

Because the vast majority of them are not.

I will use The Wizard of Oz as an example, because most of us know the film.

The New Prequel

So when we first meet Dorothy Gale, she is a teenager living on her aunt and uncle’s farm in Kansas. And everything is eerily gray in color. Furthermore, the song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, hints at dissatisfaction. Dorothy yearns to understand and see a lot more of the world.

But why is Dorothy living with her aunt and uncle, and not her parents? The absence of both parents begs a few possible questions. Maybe Dorothy became an orphan in some horrible accident which took both of her parents.

Or maybe her father abandoned her mother, or they perhaps never married. Still another possibility: they are alive but gone for some reason, such as work, or missionary work, or even prison.

Because Dorothy is a good person, and Auntie Em and Uncle Henry are as well. Yet that does not guarantee that her parents were good people at all.

The Side Character Gets Center Stage

So this has already been done. It happened when the Syfy Channel reimagined the story and came up with Tin Man. And it was kind of an odd idea, but that is one way to change a film.

So, let’s imagine a life for the Cowardly Lion. He might have been bullied, or maybe was under stress before he met Dorothy and the others. And what happens after the story ends?

Does he return as King of the Forest, the undisputed? Or does he have to fight some usurper for the title?

Flipping the Ending of Films

So what happens if Dorothy loses Toto for good in Oz? Or how about if she and Toto get away in the balloon with the Wizard? Another possibility is of both of them staying behind, either voluntarily or not.

And yet another scenario is if she returns home but someone comes with her, say, the Scarecrow.

Consider the Art of Filmmaking Itself

Yet another thing to think about concerns the making of films. When films open, they are huge collaborative efforts which include not only the writers, actors, makeup and set people, special effects, the director, and the producer. They are also a product of budgets, and of timing.

When a tragedy occurs, a film might be delayed, or even shelved indefinitely. And the same thing can happen if the star dies or becomes embroiled in a scandal. Furthermore, some films would benefit from an update in special effects technology.

And others would change with our current social sensibilities regarding feminism, LGBTQ rights, and other issues.

Takeaways

I am not suggesting you copy any intellectual property. So please don’t misunderstand me. However, what I am suggesting is to think about basic plots and try to reinvent and reimagine them. Because if you make enough changes, they become your own.Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

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Getting Inspiration From Marriage

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on March 5, 2024

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.Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

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Getting Inspiration from Religion

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on February 27, 2024

Let’s look at getting writing inspiration from religion.

Religion

Oh religion. It is one of those topics which nearly everyone tells you not to talk about. However, it can be a great source of inspiration for writing.

No Faith? No Problem!

First of all, I am not suggesting anyone run out and convert. If you do not believe in God, then that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Faith can still provide inspiration.

You can observe it in others. Or you might want to document people’s reactions to your declarations of atheism or agnosticism.

Since the percentage of agnostics and atheists is still fairly low (at least that’s the case in America), minority status by itself can be an inspiration.

Perhaps you can write about living within a more spiritual majority. Another idea is to write about discrimination you may have faced.

Your Own Faith

Personally, I am Jewish. However, that doesn’t matter to my point. I can write about rituals. Or about what happens when rituals are absent. Furthermore, I can write about discrimination.

Since I am in a minority, that is also on the table. Because religious clashes are a fact of life, that’s also writing fodder. By changing subtle details or leaving some out, I can come up with a whole new story line.

Others’ Faiths

Almost all of us know someone of some other faith (or lack thereof). Have you ever discussed the differences? And did the discussion stay civil? Or did it fall into a shouting match? Because that is all too common.

Studying Religion

Because the Old and New Testaments, the Koran, the teachings of Buddha, etc. are all in the public domain, how about mining them for writing ideas? This has been done before.

In fact, the biblical story of Noah and the flood is pretty much the same as the epic of Gilgamesh. Hence you’d be in pretty good company.

Religion and Rituals

For everything from marriage to how to welcome children into the world, to how to help the aged and even mourn the dead, rituals are a large part of many faiths.

These rituals might inspire. Or, they may help you to transition your characters from one stage of life to the next.

Takeaways

Faith is an extremely personal experience. For many people, these stories are the word of God. However, a flood story is not necessarily blasphemous. And you don’t have to believe a thing in order to use the drama as a template for your own works.Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

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Getting Inspiration from Pets

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on February 20, 2024

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!Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

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