In Search of Altruism

Call it what you will—material, inspiration, fodder, oxygen—writers do not write books without it. They wait for it patiently, like a trout fisherman or a birdwatcher or a rock climber trapped by inclement weather. They imbibe extravagantly or enter a convent or (in countless movies, including the recent Limitless) just stare at a blank page or screen, fingers poised. They troll for ideas in newspapers, old newspapers, Wikipedia, WikiLeaks, old photo albums. Old-school writers have file cabinets full of yellowed clippings and photos, notebooks with scraps of conversation, journals with pages studded with asterisks marking plot or character details or ideas, or titles for a novel. Modern writers (most are both modern and old school) have bookmarked websites and flash drives full of downloaded PDFs; maybe someone is working on an Inspiration app. The muse often hibernates for years, like an old dragon in a cave, or an exotic plant that only flowers every seven years, or...