Where My Ideas Come From
"Ian, what's your inspiration?"
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Hello! Welcome to my weekly newsletter!
Enjoy a dose of my playwriting process,
writing confessions, and all the mess in between.
The question I get ask ALL THE TIME.
And it can be quite exhausting. Because the answer is: EVERYWHERE.
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Kidding!
Ideas come from all sorts of places. There’s no one thing that can give you a source of inspiration because one play to another, the starting point can be vastly different.
So let me tell me the source of inspiration from some of my plays, so that you can see how absurd some of them are. One of them is WILD.
POLY (Polygraph)
I was watching Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher.
It was one of the final scenes where it was a reveal of some sorts and there was an interrogation-ish where the story kept unfolding and unfolding.
And I thought, “interrogation. yum. What if the audience was taken on a wild goose chase veiled with all sort of things that seemed pointless but really was not.”
Hence, POLY.
POLY (Polygon)
Religion itself and the conditioning that I grew up with as a stronk Christian and how I was so caught up in it all that I believe anything and everything.
POLY (Polyamory)
My relationship with my partner and what I would do if I found out that he was actually married to someone else and that have been kept a secret for forever.
We Are Gathered Here Today In Loving Memory of John Paul Parker Smith
As a child, I used to simulate my funeral to see who would be there and what were the things they would say about me. And I thought that would be the perfect beginning of a play.
AFTERTASTE
This one is wild and 18SX, so skip if you don’t want to know or if you’re not ready/not of age.
While scrolling through Twitter, there was an OnlyFans creator who took the master-slave thing soooo far. Not only did he dabble in coprophilia (don’t google it). He wanted to be owned. And with it, he tattooed across his pubic area: OWNED BY <his Twitter name>
And I thought… damn. That’s some next level shit. What if…
The rest is history.
Curious?
The Flood
Around 2019, there were a lot of flash floods happening in Malaysia. And I thought to myself: oh how I would hate to be caught in a flood. But I would have hated it more if I was stuck with a family that really didn’t see eye to eye.
And if it helps:
“Write what you want to learn about.”
- Katori Hall (American Playwright & Screenwriter)
So really, ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere.
I’ve heard colleagues/friends talk and thought “this can be a play”
Or I’ve looked at paintings, listened to sounds and thought “this can be a play”
Or I’ve starred at people and guessed their past and thought “this can be a play”
Or googled a word and thought “this can be a play”
Or even came up with a damn good title and thought “this can be a play”
It only becomes a play if that stimuli is burnt in my brain and I can’t get rid of it and I think that there is some richness and depth to this possible story here.
So the next time you’re out, don’t think “I’m going to find inspiration.”
Let inspiration come to you.
It will come to you when you least expect it.
Cos when it does, it’s gold.
The best work comes from the heart and from the burning rage you have inside of you.
Wherever that rage comes from.
Use it.
Where do your ideas come from? Do let me know!