This has always been an interesting topic for me. Personally, my ideas tend to come on when I need them the least, much like food poisoning.
My ideas tend to come up behind me and crack me over the head with a steel pipe, steal all my free time and disappear into that weird pseudo-space of 'I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm writing anyway' until I can find them again. And by then they've spent most of my free time and are legally married in Vegas.
Wait, I think I kind of got off topic here...
Most of the outright inspiration comes from the world around me, in a broader sense. I tend to fictionalise societal issues or else take something that society at large deems 'strange' - in some sense of the word - and create a world where it's the norm.
In reality, most of my ideas are not capital-I ideas, they're just thoughts. I wonder about things. I wondered about language and now have notes for a script. I wondered about violence and have an at least 100,000 word novel planned from wondering about violence and potential reactions to violence.
I guess that's what it comes down to. I try not to take anything for what it is - I always try to look deeper and find connections. People interest me. The world they live in interests me.
As to the third question, I guess that's a large part of why I feel wonderfully magical and wonderfully ordinary all at once. Inspiration for something can't really be pinned down in any tangible way. I do feel I have a gift for taking that inspiration and turning it into something that fits within a story when most times the whole idea barely fits in my head.
(I thank God for that. And I do mean that. I'm very grateful.)
Admittedly, I'm not much for calling a great deal of attention to the good in life. My stories tend to be dark and contain endings which may make someone want to throw themselves off of the nearest cliff. I feel that's important. My inspiration usually comes from what is jolting and distressing or downright odd.
It's a strange and wonderful thing, inspiration.
I could go on and on about the importance of dark stories and what I feel my job as an artist is but that's another post entirely.
Fourth, I've never exactly been a fan of 'write what you know' since that comes across as rather limiting, especially to younger writers. So, lately, I've begun to think of it in another way: 'Write what you know matters to you.'
Write what you know fills you with this weird evangelical zeal. Write what you know angers you or makes you cry or turns you on. You know much more than you think you do.
If something bothers you, write about it. If you adore something, find a way to write about it. Even if you can't get a full story out of it, it's still practice. Make it a habit.
When it comes right down to it, most of us - if not all of us - will never have one solid source of inspiration. We'll go through life, picking up scraps of sentences until the message starts to make sense. And then we'll run with it and make it ours. It's quite a love story - the writer and their work.
And it is work. Sometimes your inspiration will be something terrible, something horrific that nearly breaks you. But those times are rare.
For now, look around and really see your world. If something strikes you as interesting, scratch it down and pay attention to the smell of the ink or the click of the keys. Keep a journal, keep a blog, keep lists, keep learning.
Find what makes you think and follow it.
