I don\u2019t have a lot of hobbies any more. I think as you get older and life gets busier, it becomes difficult to make time for the things you aren\u2019t required to do.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s a bad thing. Most likely it is. But it\u2019s a fact of life, and from what I understand, I\u2019m not in this boat alone.<\/p>\n
That being said, not always having time for your hobbies doesn\u2019t mean you let your curiosity go to waste. If there\u2019s a subject that piques your interest even a little, you need to get yourself online or to the library or buried in a reference book, whatever it takes to scratch that intellectual itch.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy as a writer to categorize these fishing expeditions as going in search of story ideas, but I think that\u2019s selling the process short. What you\u2019re really doing is satisfying a need to know. You\u2019re curious, so you\u2019ve gone exploring. Even if it\u2019s just along some nameless digital highway, you\u2019re covering ground that\u2019s new to you, and that\u2019s never a bad thing.<\/p>\n
In your search for knowledge, you may or may not find the answers you\u2019re looking for, but in my experience, you always come away with more questions. And more areas that need investigation.<\/p>\n
I make it a point to always feed whatever my current obsession may be. At the moment, I\u2019m harboring an almost unhealthy interest in number stations. I love listening to recordings of those creepy broadcasts that seem to come out of nowhere and disappear almost as quickly. When I\u2019m alone in the dark after everyone\u2019s gone to bed for the night, I like to fire up a few of those recordings and let my mind play, wandering at the origins of the broadcasts and their creators.<\/p>\n
Will this fixation eventually lead to a story idea?<\/p>\n
Maybe . . . maybe not.<\/p>\n
But I know I love being thrilled, freaked out, and mesmerized all at the same time. It reminds me of being a kid in the woods at night, when absolutely anything could be sharing the dark with you. You believed it then, and you believe it now. Only these days you try and play it off, like it really was the sound of the house settling that woke you up at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. And yes, you are sure. That\u2019s why there\u2019s no reason to leave your bed and investigate any further.<\/p>\n
You just need to make sure both your hands and feet are tucked safely under the blanket. Keep the corners tight, no loose edges off the bed.\u00a0 And you might as well pull the comforter over your head for good measure. To muffle the sound, of course . . . of the house, not the footsteps in the hall.<\/p>\n
I think there\u2019s a definite upside to nurturing that paranoid little freakazoid who lives in my head. Sure he\u2019s going to make me act like a fool when I\u2019m alone in the dark. And yes, he will encourage me to call my wife at two in the morning because I went to a midnight horror movie with my brother and now I\u2019m too afraid to get out of the car and walk upstairs by myself. (In my defense, she did turn off all the lights when she went to bed, so she really has no one to blame but herself.)<\/p>\n
But despite the crazy things he puts me through, that little guy in my head opens me up to a world of possibilities. He\u2019s the curious one who makes me consider a universe where almost anything can (and probably does) happen. Whenever he has a need to know, I have a need to know. I have no problem feeding his obsessions because the world is equal parts fantastic, mysterious, dangerous, and deadly, and who knows what might come in handy when everything finally goes to hell.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going to happen sooner or later. The little guy inside says so. Might as well be prepared.\u00a0 And if I get a story idea out of the whole thing, well . . . that\u2019s just gravy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u2019t have a lot of hobbies any more. I think as you get older and life gets busier, it becomes difficult to make time for the things you aren\u2019t required to do.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s a bad thing. Most likely it is. But it\u2019s a fact of life, and from what I understand, I\u2019m not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[247,512,772,1069],"class_list":["post-3319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-influence","tag-curiosity","tag-hobbies","tag-obsession","tag-story-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confabulatorcafe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}