On need

I don't think it's a  secret. The modern world has convinced us that we need much more than we do.

Like refrigerators.

I don't have one. I am not starved. Or malnourished. In fact, I eat healthier now than when there was a fridge in the house. Think about it. How much of the stuff in the refrigerator is stuff you actually need? How much of it is good for you? How much of it would rot in less than 5 days if it wasn't refrigerated?

Maybe not needing a fridge is a little far-fetched for some people. So how about a car? Whether you need a car depends on where you live. How's the public transportation? How far from work/school do you live? Can you get there without a car? If you need something that must be done with a car, is there someone close to you who will do it?

Now that I've got a Japanese license, friends keep asking when I'm getting a car. Truth is I don't think I need one.

I've lived in this town for 5 years. When I came, I didn't have an International license because of the joy that is the Barbados Licensing Authority. I could have gone to get a Japanese license. But two of my schools and town hall were within walking distance. The third school was an easy bus ride for US$2.50. I could walk to the supermarket. Taxis were expensive but not so much so that I couldn't call one if I had a heavy package from the home store. Now, I work at one school I can walk to and my other school is right next to the train station, one stop away. Even after the recent typhoon, when the trains weren't running there was still a bus.

The trains are an hour apart and the buses are inconvenient. It's hell with a cherry on top to get to any town the train doesn't run to, and sometimes it can be complicated for the ones with trains that aren't a straight shot. But, I do have access to cars. My Japanese Dad's car has taken to parking itself at my apartment, and just last night, the mechanic was like, 'Claire,  you can use my carS any time.' I don't really need a car and if do, they are several available.

My friends who keep asking are all drivers themselves or foreigners. I guess they see cars as infinitely more convenient than the alternatives. But since my alternatives are easy, a car looks like a colossal pain in the in-grown toenail. Buying them, insuring them, filling them up, all cost money. They inform people of your every move. If you run into a parked car with just your body, who cares? Run into it with a car and you're liable. I don't need a car.

The third thing I often think of as 'you really don't need this anywhere near as much as you think you do' is a smart phone. To start with, the necessity of a cell phone is questionable. It's linked to your line of work, your neighbourhood, how many people really need to be able to contact you right now. But even if we assume a cell phone is necessary, does your phone really need to be able to plot the entire solar system?

I've only recently crossed over to smart-dom. The only reason I need  a smart phone now is because I've decided not to get internet at home (to avoid ridiculous broken contract fees if I have to move again) and my family on the other side of the world likes to know that they can find me without having to get on a rice boat. I don't even like it. It makes me feel way to over connected. So it spends half the time at home or turned off, making it actually LESS useful than the idiot-phone I had before.

The other funny thing about these ''needs'' is that they all have drawbacks. Guns don't shoot people. People shoot people. But without a gun, people - try as they might - can't shoot people. Similarly fridges make people fatter and unhealthier. Cars cause more pollution than they need to because people get used to having them and drive when they could reasonably walk or use other transportation. I also suspect that having smart phones do all our thinking is going to start to atrophy our brains at some point.

It's a lot to chew on, but I wonder how often people take the necessities for granted. All people really need is air, water and food. After that it's a hierarchy of how much easier life becomes with the inclusion of a particular thing.

You think you need it, but do you really? And is it actually doing you more harm than good?

What a great idea!

So Nano's right around the corner, and I thought I'd talk about where I get my ideas. (Apologies to those of you non-nanners out there. You must be sick of us by now.)

Ideas come to me constantly. I am not exaggerating when I say a story spark comes to me every day. From my posts, you've already seen that I can make connections where there are none. The same thing happens when it comes to story ideas.I get my ideas from everything that happens in my life.

A Sentence or Phrase
As I was walking home, I saw a guy go the wrong way on a one way street, and it reminded me of a joke we have at home.

This guy is kind of drunk and driving home one night, when he finds himself on a one way street. A policeman stops him.

"Where do you think you're going?"
"I don't know, Officer," the man replies, "But I must be late, 'cuz everybody's coming back."

The phrase "everyone's coming back" stuck in my head. And I thought of a story with an MC who feels like their friends have already reached their destination and are passing him on their way back.

A single word
I was commenting on a blog, and the verification was "ables." Suddenly I was imagining a dystopian society, where you have the regular people, and then those who have developed powers the others don't have - the Ables.

Something you see
Sometimes I'll see a random object on the ground and start to imagine it's story. For example, I can see a pink ribbon and imagine a girl who was a ballerina as a child and her dream was to become a prima, but then she was involved in a bad accident as a teen, and while she can now walk again, she will never dance the same way. SO she throws every thing that reminds her of ballet out the window. Her mother goes out and picks them up, in case her daughter someday wants the memories, but this one ribbon escapes and twirls along on the almost empty main street.

A story you hear
Sometimes a factual story on the news or in the paper, can set me off imagining. Admittedly, this doesn't happen very often since I tend not to go looking for the news, and my tv is in Japanese.

The ones that get me most commonly are tragic stories. Someone's been run over, or murdered their wife. The average person asks themselves, "What would make someone do that?" or merely says, "What a waste!" I start building a plot in my mind.

What if
What if a deaf person wanted to become a concert pianist?

Okay, I'll admit this is not really a what-if, but somethin I saw. My hearing impaired student can play the keys off a piano.

A character
Sometimes a character lodges him/herself in my brain, and eventually tells me his/her story. Like Clarkson Bourne, who's always drunk, and gets into all kinds of messes on account of it.

A theme
After my trip to India, I knew I had to write a story about one set of people oppressing another.

A setting
On occasion a setting inspires a story in me. Living in Japan, I want to some day write a story set here. Also, having gone to a military academy, I'd like to write a story set there one day as well.

A Song
I love music, and there are lots of songs that tell stories. Sometimes, I feel like expanding a song into a novel, or even just capturing the spirit of a song in a novel. Some examples: MISERY BUSINESS by Paramore, SK8ER BOI by Avril Lavigne, pretty much every song Taylor Swift sings, CALIFORNIA GIRLS by Katy Perry, ORDINARY DAY by Vanessa Carlton and 22 by Lily Allen.

All of these are really just sparks, and need development before they could be converted into a novel. But even the tallest tree comes from a seed.

Where do you get your ideas?