Stranger than fiction

Often, the news is all doom and gloom. I don’t like watching it. Economic disasters, natural disasters, famines, wars, ineffectual politicians bickering about issues that don't ever seem to get resolved to anyone's advantage. And there's always someone on there banging on about how things aren't as good as they used to be and how it's Someone's Fault, whether the guilty parties are rich people, poor people, strange people, stupid people, smart people, unhealthy people or even just The Government.

But sometimes, the news can be inspirational for writers. Especially if you've got a penchant for the gruesome.

Take the recent Saga of the Missing Airliner. That 777 that 'vanished' in South East Asia. I don't wish to make light of tragedy, and I feel for the families of all the deceased. It's a terrible situation.

But it's intriguing, too. Apparently, someone in the cockpit of this aircraft has calmly switched off the transponder, turned the aircraft away from its planned course and flown it into the middle of nowhere.

No emergency, no engine fire or explosion or loss of cabin pressure. No radio calls. No squawking 7500 for 'hijack'. No shenanigans on the flight data the plane's systems automatically send back to the airline. All, apparently, was smooth and sweatless. And then…

Hijackers, hell. Do you know how to turn a high-tech, glass cockpit, almost fully automated airliner and fly a new heading? To switch off the transponder? Hell, I wouldn't even know which switch was the transponder. Besides, the cockpit is locked, and inaccessible from the cabin. Since 9/11, they don't open the door for anyone, no matter what havoc they're wreaking.

So who flew this plane to its death?

The flight crew, that's who.

There are so many cool and creepy explanations why someone would do this, I hardly know where to begin. An outbreak of zombies in the cabin, obviously. Insanity. A contagious disease that would have wiped out the world. A suicide pact among the flight crew. Mind control by abducting aliens. Possession by demons. Inspiration from on high. Maybe the captain was the hijacking nutbag. I can hardly wait.

Here's another one for you. I was watching a doco about a future manned mission to Mars, and they said that one of the limiting factors is how much exposure an astronaut can stand to the background radiation in space.

This radiation is cumulatively deadly, so this program said, and unlike solar radiation, we have no substance that can shield against it. But maybe there will be some humans who are genetically immune to the radiation, or at least slower to die from it. The 'right stuff', in the future, might be genetically determined.

An awesome story pretext to put a bunch of really wrong people in space for an emergency long-haul space mission to save humanity. Because they're the only ones who can possibly survive it. A genetically predisposed idiot. An agoraphobic who's never left the house. A claustrophobic. Someone with their own agenda. Or a madman…

Anyway. Inspiration is everywhere. Just let your imagination run wild. And if all else fails, add zombies and/or serial killers. They're a sure winner.

xx
Erica
www.ericahayes.net

Headlines as Story Inspiration

by Christy Carlyle

Most writers I know have been asked at least once, if not many times, where they get their ideas. The answer is that writers get their ideas from virtually everywhere—personal experiences, history, literature, mythology, an overheard conversation at a coffee shop, and even from news headlines.

Current headlines include a missing jetliner, the loss of lives and homes after century old gas mains caused an explosion in New York City, and the trial of Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The intensity and tragedy of the events that make up news headlines often set writers’ minds spinning, and those events inspire stories or serve as elements of setting in their novels.

In a recent interview in the Bend Bulletin, bestselling American crime fiction writer Patricia Cornwell acknowledged that the 2012 school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, as well as recent Wall Street scandals, served as key elements in her recent novel, Dust.

As a historical romance author, modern headlines might not be applicable to my stories, but I can still be inspired by historical headlines. My favorite place and era to use as a setting is 1880s London, and there are few news headlines from the period more famous than those related to the still unidentified killer who came to be known as Jack the Ripper.

Fascinated with unsolved mysteries and London from the time I was a teenager, I’ve read several book about the Ripper mystery and always thought the period, the events, and the conundrum of the cases would make for a fascinating story backdrop. At the time of the crimes, several authors were inspired by the tragic events. The Lodger, a novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, is based on the Ripper mystery and tells the story of a London family who suspects their lodger is guilty of heinous crimes. The novel inspired four film adaptations, including one by Alfred Hitchcock.

When I began developing ideas for my Whitechapel Wagers historical romance series, I knew I wanted to include the Ripper mystery as a backdrop for the stories. Though my characters aren’t directly involved in the crimes, as in Scandalous Wager, the first novella in the series, they do inhabit the same area of London where they took place. Using real events as a backdrop to the series not only grounds them in history, but it also allowed me to explore a bit beyond the headlines.

Do headlines ever inspire story ideas for you? Have you read a story that was inspired by headline news?