Unleashing Creativity: Where I Find Inspiration

Ever wonder how a writer's mind works? Renee opens a few doors, portals, and wormholes into realms for creative writing.

Time and space have always fascinated me. I remember watching Star Trek at an early age. Lying on my stomach, my face less than two feet from our RCA TV, my chin propped in the cup of my hands, elbows bent and cushioned atop the living room carpet---a trendy rust color and sign of the times. For years, I watched Captain James T. Kirk lead the Enterprise to strange new worlds where "no man" has ever before ventured. Except ... those worlds portrayed and analyzed and often dissected didn't seem so strange to me. They were different, yes, but in my heart and in my mind, it was our world that was strange. This place we call home. Earth. Third rock from the sun. Strange because I was different from the population around me. A girl, brown-skinned with frizzy curls, who didn't play with dolls but enjoyed throwing rocks and stones and digging holes in the backyard and reading the same books again and again under the covers of my bed with a flashlight in my hand and gum in my mouth that eventually stuck to my pillow and the sides of my neck when I finally fell asleep late, late in the night. I was that girl that frowned when girls wore ribbons and dresses, and second-grade boys couldn't play kickball as good as me. But I was also that girl who learned how to see and observe and blend what was real, unreal, and surreal. I could yank a story from a hippie man's untrimmed beard and find a three-legged baby bird living in that hairy nest. The extra leg a grabbing tool for the crumbs tumbling out of the man's masticating mouth. The baby bird birthed from a seed transported from another planet. One that Captain Kirk had previously visited, of course. Not so strange when you think about it. More strange to me, however, that birds had only two skinny legs and men could chew with their wolf mouths wide open while girls like me had to chew with our polite mouths closed. What fun was that? Absolutely none. Of course, I had to write about it. Again and again and again. I still watch Star Trek and I still watch for opportunities to connect one plus one to make three. There's a multiverse of inspiration always within reach---words I hear echo from the hallways of the Enterprise. Keep your mind alert, your heart open, and inspiration will come with every step and every breath you take. Beam me up, Scotty!