Where do you get your ideas?

I got asked this question the other day. I guess its true that this is one of the most frequently asked questions writers get.

My usually glib answer is that the ideas stalk me, then mug me, and demand to be written.

This is partly true. I’m not always sure where the ideas for my stories come from. My Muse just finds something amusing, or cool, and says ‘Hey! Write a story about that!’

Other times there is a definite trigger or inspiration. For instance, I am rewatching Star Trek, starting with the Original Series, and going all the way through to the current shtuff. I rewatched the episode ‘Miri’ last night. Capt. Kirk and crew come across a distress signal coming from a distant planet many lightyears from Earth. When they arrive to investigate, they find that the civilization has all but disappeared. The only survivors left are children. Well, children and the occasional disfigured murderous adult. The children are nearly feral, having a centuries long childhood with no adult supervision.

They come across Miri, a young girl on the edge of becoming a woman. Kirk charms her to get her to help them deal with the situation they find themselves in. She of course, is attracted to him and develops a crush.

Spoiler alert: I expect everyone has seen this by now but the younger generation may not be as up-to-date on a sixty year-old TV show. Of course, if they aren’t, shame on their nerd parents for not raising their kids right.

The inhabitants of the planet found a way to prolong their lifespans into hundreds of years, if not indefinitely. The drawback – it worked on kids and killed off the adult population. Once a kid hit puberty and their body chemistry changed they would age rapidly and become dangerous. Kirk and crew, being adults, contract the virus that will age them and must race against time to find a cure.

Of course, everything works out in the end, McCoy saves the day, and all is right with the world. As Kirk and crew are leaving orbit, Kirk is telling Yeoman Rand that advisors will be sent to the planet, and teachers, to help the children develop and become responsible adults. The episode ends as Kirk directs the crew to warp off to their next destination.

And that set off my Muse. What happened to those kids? Did McCoy’s cure allow them to retain their near immortal status? Or do they have really long childhoods and then once they hit puberty they age normally? What about Miri? Does she spend the rest of her life pining away for Kirk, hoping he will one day return to her? Do the immortal children get taught about space travel? Do they want to go out into space if they are taught? Does the Federation let them? Doesn’t the Federation doing anything to help them go against the Prime Directive of not interfering with a culture’s development? And surely Federation scientists are going to be all over the research developed on that planet to see if they can recreate it. Immortality sold to the highest bidder!

My Muse asks these questions and wants an answer, so she starts trying to come up with a story to fill in the blanks. The crew from The Next Generation could visit the planet and check up on the inhabitants to see what is going on. Or some other starship crew. The story could go on.

I have a high need to know what happens next. I have watched plenty of bad movies and read plenty of bad books because I have to know how it ends. I suppose this is a variation of the Zeigarnik Effect. Psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik noticed waiters could recall orders easily up until the time the customer paid, and then they would forget the order. It was like they had a mental ‘open loop’ that ‘closed’ once they came to the end of the task.

This is similar to how soap operas keep their audiences watching every day. They start one storyline, but before they finish it off, they have started another storyline, or more likely, multiple storylines. When the first storyline has been completed, there are still others that are in progress, remaining as ‘open loops’ in the audience’s minds. Sneaky devils, those soap opera writers.

Anyway, this is how I come up with story ideas. I just want to know how the story ends.

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