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There are only so many music notes and guitar rifts and drum beats to work with. There are only so many topics that one can sing about. So, inevitably you will hear covers of popular or classic rock, sampling is common in the hip hop scene and I've even heard random English lyric songs translated by Spanish musicians. So isn't it logical to get some of your writing inspiration from other writers using almost the same M.O.?

I took one of my favorite childhood (equally appropriate to adults) books: Johnathan Livingston Seagull, and adapted it to screenplay. Hmm. But that seems too unimaginative. Well, how about an adapted screenplay where the protagonist is a little boy instead of a seagull? Instead of a flock of seagulls trying to catch fish near the fishing boats, why not a community of fisherman like in some old New England lobster town?

Another favorite of mine is a short story that I adapted from a story that an old man told me about his own childhood. I thought it was the funniest thing that I had ever heard. So I gave the characters names and added some extra drama inspired by events in my own life at the time and came up with a story that I love.

How about news stories where you only get a glimpse into the lives of the people involved. Did you ever read a story about the crazy things that people do and think, well maybe we don't know the whole story. Maybe this or that? Well, why don't you write this or that? Of course the story itself could very well be worth expanding on. For example, this snippet that I read in the "News of the Weird" column of a local newspaper:

The Mexican government is scheduled to consider a proposal from its states' migrant assistance offices to hand out satellite-tracking devices to its citizens who plan to emigrate illegally to the US, so that they could be located in case of emergency after crossing the border.

The stories are out there and like this one, they practically write themselves! So instead of blocking out the ramblings of your senile great aunt or avoiding any part of the newspaper except for the comics, look for inspiration in these places and write write write!

Learn more about this author, Brittany Butts.
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