What Inspires Me Is Disturbing

It's true.

I find all kinds of things inspiring. Some, like the way the sunlight glows through the strip of forest in my backyard, are beautiful. But mostly, it's the black sticky underside of humanity that really gets my creative juices flowing.

Take this news story, for example. A pregnant bride murdered in her apartment, a cryptic note promising more deaths in the future left with her body.

Please understand that I'm horrified by what happened to this poor woman. She had other children and a fiance who are grieving now. My heart goes out to those poor people.

But this real-life story is the kind of thing that really gets my mind going; the true stories of really horrible people being horrible.

In real life, the police are almost always smarter than the criminal. Remember the story about the criminal who robs a liquor store and then demands the clerk grab him a bottle, too, only to be stupid enough to produce his ID when the clerk cards him? I truly believe most criminals fit into that "too stupid to breathe with their mouths closed" category. (I need to check Snopes.com for that story, it crops up too often to be real, even if it's realistic.)

And even if the police aren't smarter than the criminal, they've got more people working on catching the bad guy. One murderer trying to get away with it can't usually compete with a team of people all focused on holding him accountable for his crime. Because this is the real world, that's a very comforting thought.

But in fiction, all bets are off. Since I focus solely on fiction, my bad guy can get away with a lot more than he would in the real world. A really bad, evil, and brilliant nemesis is much more fun than a really good, moral protagonist. I mean, who went and saw Superman in the theaters and walked away thinking Superman stole the show? Everyone talked about Lex Luthor, because he was just more interesting.

I love a good paranormal/fantasy story. When the bad guys, (or the good guys, too, in some cases), have fangs or superhuman strength, it's fun because the reader knows the level of "bad" just increased exponentially. The damage that can be done to the hero/heroine just went up, so the interest level went up, too.

News stories remind me that not all villains have fangs or superhuman strength. Bad guys can be average-looking and unassuming. Bad guys can go to work for 40 hours a week at a regular job, only to do unspeakable things in their basement on the weekends.

And to me, it's more interesting if the one who's dismembering the neighbors could be the guy who gives out the jaunty, two-fingered salute and a grin as you drive by.