Obama’s IOC Failure Provides Inspiration
by Al Kalar
No matter what your political outlook, this is good material.
An author mentioned last Friday (10/2) that she uses current events as ideas for stories (she writes Fantasy). She was particularly hyped about the morning’s goings on. Here’s my reply (slightly edited):
~~~~~
The Chicago Olympic fiasco is heating up as the media turns themselves inside out to spin it.
- It’s Daily’s fault.
- It’s Chicago’s fault.
- It’s a “good thing” for Obama because he’ll be distanced from all the corruption that will go on in Chicago (CNN).
- I’m waiting for them to blame Bush and Rush Limbaugh.
You can’t make this stuff up on your own. It’s GREAT fodder for stories when you put your characters into similar positions. Just play the media the same as you’re seeing (believability is easy that way) and wrap your story around that.
~~~~~
No matter what your personal politics, you can use situations like this for scenes in your books. Human behavior changes in small ways, but basic human reactions remain. We still have monsters who plunge the world into deadly conflicts. People still mate and have babies. Gossips and (later) troubadours and the media tell stories to suit their own biases. People murder other people for a variety of similar reasons no matter what the period in history. People worship deities or reject them. And so on.
For science fiction writers, only the background technology changes. Ancient man walked, we now fly or drive, our characters hop a spaceship (or matter transmitter), but in the end they’re still human.
Harry Turtledove writes historical fiction set in “real” situations. He told me he often found things in his research that he could never have dreamed up on his own.
So, pay attention to what’s going on around you. There’s a world of inspiration just outside your safe, writing cubbyhole.
Tags: current events, history, inspiration
Entries (RSS)
Entries (RSS)
October 6th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I know you wrote this last week.
Well, over the weekend your prediction came true. The media blamed both Bush and Limbaugh.
Great grist for part of a yarn (in fact, I’ve got a novel on the back burner that can use a variation on this theme for a great scene as my hero wages political battles while he tries to get his ass-sets out of Dodge.)
Yes, “you can’t make this stuff up”, but life will do it for you.
One of my short stories (published in Alpha Dreams - available at AKW Books) worked around the relationship of FDR to one of his ancestors, a shipping magnate who smuggled cocaine in the China trade. Clavell’s book “Tai Pan” was based on that same China trade, but centered on an Englishman who was working the England - Turkey - China route.
Real life, present and past, is full of ideas. As you say, you just have to pay attention.