Fixations: Deciding What to Write

The first comic book I made was called “Shotgun Jane.” It was meant to be a contest entry for Shonen Jump’s 50 year anniversary. I never made the deadline, and so I elected to publish it myself.

You can read it online for free.
https://www.chainlinkproductions.net/shotgun-jane-by-michael-persin

Funny enough, this story was in my head some time before this contest, and it made an excellent opportunity to show off my creative prowess. But what inspired me to make this book about a scornful woman pumping lead into a bunch of crooked mafia members?

My fixation on a particular thing was the driving force behind this story. That fixation was Alabama 3’s “Woke up this morning.” I was obsessed over that song and it was stuck in my head for weeks. Every time I played it in my mind (and in my ears,) this story just developed seemingly on its own.

Inspiration may result from a multitude of sources. If you struggle finding inspiration, I feel a key source of it comes from becoming (healthily) obsessed over something. At least, that is how I come up with a good number of my story ideas. Isekai anime inspired me to come up with an idea of a WWII soldier dying and being reborn in a fantasy world. “Don’t Hug me, I’m scared” and “Sesame Street” inspired an idea of muppets fighting and killing each other in a sort of street gang setting.

There is a plethora of ideas you can achieve just by having your heart fixated on something you’ve seen or heard.

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