Look to the mundane for inspiration.

I used to live in the city and write about Marilyn Monroe, old boyfriends, JFK, capuchins for paraplegics, Bill Holden and solicited phone sex. Maybe I had to write about those things before I was able to find the really inspirational, the truly motivating.

The mundane.

Because then I moved to the suburbs.

There is a routine. Get up at 6:00 every morning, drink coffee, feed the kids, wash hair in the laundry room basin, make the beds, pick out clothes, etc, etc. There are moments it seems meaningless, or just boring. But then there are moments that make it worthwhile. It can be like reading Shakespeare and finally getting it. It can be like finding the blue jellybean that was hidden in April, except now it’s June.

It’s life, stripped bare. Plain and simple.

This doesn’t mean you can’t write about Marilyn Monroe or solicited phone sex or secret agent ninjas or whatever—just don’t forget the ordinary amidst the extraordinary. It breathes life into a story. It makes something real.

Today, my little girl had two of her friends over and I had to go upstairs to tell them to stop jumping on the bed. One of her friends looked up at me and said,

Why not?

And I thought right away,

What a great line.

Actually, the first thing I thought was,

I don’t know why not.

Which is what led me to think,

What a great line.

Look to the mundane for inspiration. It’s happening all around you. You just have to see it.