Bastards

Sometimes people are too much to deal with. All the different personalities and attitudes and beliefs and opinions.... They clash every day. How in the world has humanity made it this far? No one does what you ask them to, expect them to, want them to. It just weighs on you and complicates life.
Stepping around eggshells and trying not to hurt anyone's feelings.
Strong personalities vs. weaker ones just means weaker personas are kinder.
Today people are rubbing me the wrong way. It's probably me, but it sure doesn't feel like it.
I seek a simple life and simple solutions. And sometimes, days like these are hard to handle.

Star Trek

Yesterday was the 46th anniversary of Star Trek.  I think that’s awesomely nerdy because Star Trek is the epitome of nerdiness. 

It's not just a favorite fandom for nerds like me.  Star Trek: The Original Series changed the world.  It inspired fans for generations; some of the first (published) fan fictions and conventions were of the Star Trek fandom.  Star Trek also gave hope to the civil rights movement.

"For me, [Star Trek] was a vision for the future," Ryan Germick, designer of the featured Star Trek Google doodle yesterday, said.  "I think it was also that it was multicultural, pro-science, and full of curiosity and passion. I think like a lot of good science-fiction, it sort of says a lot about its present era. We can really appreciate what Star Trek did in its time. As an adult, you can appreciate how progressive it was. You learned to be compassionate towards all kinds of people – even alien creatures."

I remember watching Star Trek, the original series and The Next Generation, as a kid with my dad. As I grew older, I quit watching it. My generation has been spoiled by the amazing special effects in movies and television today; I am.  I began watching Star Trek (everything) again after Star Trek, the 2009 movie, came out.  I began to appreciate what Star Trek is all about.  It is more than special effects and galactic adventures.  It's about good vs. evil, greed vs. generosity, tolerance, compassion, courage, sacrifice-- life.  The sequel to the 2009 movie is due out next year.  

I saw a squirrel humping a toad.

No, not really.  That idea just randomly popped into my head.  I wonder if it's ever happened.  The offspring would be a large hairy toad with a snout, ears, and bushy tail, don't you think?

Why can't my imagination run wild like this with one of my story ideas?  It used to.  I wonder if I have too many ideas up in my head.  They do vie for attention all the time; it's frustrating.  I end up asking everyone in my head to shut up.  I need to concentrate on one story and stick with it.  The issue is I don't know where to begin.  I have no inspiration for any of the stories I think about writing.  But--

This is what Cassandra Clare says on the subject of inspiration:

How do I get inspired and stay inspired to finish my work? How do I get motivated? How do I keep from getting distracted? 

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action. —Frank Tibolt 

Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time… The wait is simply too long. —Leonard Bernstein 

I am not the person to ask about inspiration. Mostly, I don’t believe in it — not in the popular conception of inspiration, where a lightbulb goes off in your head and suddenly you are inspired and your fingers start flying over the keyboard. Sure, that can happen, but as Bernstein says, you can’t rely on that happening. Writing is hard work, work that relies on learning and applying a varied set of skills, and finding out what those skills are, learning and practicing them, is always better than waiting around for inspiration. To quote Kristi Holl’s Writer’s First Aid: 

Writers who wait for inspiration before they decide to write are generally known as hobbyists. Working writers-those actively writing and growing in their craft-must write whether the muse is “in” or not.

Not many professional writers believe in inspiration, and the more I try to write a book, the more and more and more I don't believe in it either.  Writing is hard work, like any other job out there.  I have so many excuses about why I can't write... I'm too tired from work.  I have writer's block.  I can't get enough alone time.  Blah blah blah.

Any suggestions to make me shut the hell up and get to it?

An idea

I have had a dystopian story in my head for about a year and a half now. Tonight I was thinking about it, thinking through what I knew about the story already and what else I needed to figure out... A lot more revealed itself to me. I'm a little excited. For now, though, bed. Night.