Being Inspired

Waking up to a quiet house is something that most mothers cherish like the Hope Diamond or a clean bathroom.  I remember my mom would get up early in the morning, take a shower, make a cup of coffee and just sit at the kitchen table looking out of the kitchen window.  As a youngster I would think that mom was strange and wonder why would she want to get up that early to just do nothing? Now that I'm a mother of half dozen children I find myself forcing myself awake at five to six o'clock in the morning, when the kitchen is still free of dishes, spilled baby food, milk splashed on the counter, sugar spilled on the floor and dishes in the sink.  In the wee hours of the morning is when I can finally just walk in the bathroom and handle my business without either sitting on someone, stepping in a puddle of water, cleaning toothpaste out of the sink, wiping splashes of little boy's pee (or grown man's pee for that matter) off the toilet seat or rushing through my business by someone banging on the bathroom door so that they can handle their business.  Yes, it is in the morning that I can finally watch HGTV, The History Channel or The Today Show or whatever else that I want to watch that doesn't involve teenagers, yellow sponges named Bob wearing square pants, ESPN or anything sports related, extreme sports shows or music videos or girls named Miley or Sam and boys named Zac or Cody. 

Now I know my mother's secret time it is in the morning time that mother's of the world unite in an unspoken bond, finally getting to enjoy their home in it's rare times of peace and silence. 

Through all of the silence of the house one would think that I would get inspired to start pounding out the lives of my characters on my laptop while enjoying the sweet sounds of nothingness that is heard throughout the house.  Some days that is true, I can get up bright and early and grab my laptop and just start pounding; the only sounds that resonate throughout the house is the tap-tap-tap of my fingers hitting the keys.  

However, I'm use to the chaos of my life it is in the bedlam that I draw inspiration.  I draw inspiration from  the emotion that life lends me each and every day.  Such emotion as when I'm upset because Boston (3) decided to step on a tube of toothpaste in the middle of the hall and Januari (10 months) decides to play in it rubbing it in her thick, curly hair.  I use that emotion to write the frustration that my main character feels when her boyfriend won't commit.  The fear that I felt when Asa (13) was dropped off at the skate park and told that I'd pick him up at 5:30, but when I showed up he was gone and I drove around town for almost two hours trying to locate him. I use that fear to write about a character running through a dark alley from her antagonist.  I draw inspiration of the lust felt between two forbidden lovers finally getting together in the heat of passion from when my husband and I have to steal away moment when the kids are preoccupied to have a tryst in the bathroom, laundry room or garage.  

I'm not sure how other writers draw inspiration to be able to write, but my life is like a story made up by a mad scientist/fiction writer and if that isn't enough to get me inspired I don't know what is.

TTFN!