MEL DONALSON: I'd say when I was younger, I was under this misconception that somehow I had to reach deep down and come up with these ideas that no one else has ever thought of before, and almost like some kind of alien, create this world, this universe that belongs in my head.
But as I've gotten older, as I've written a lot more, I've realized that there's nothing that is more bizarre and fascinating than reality. And so it's not so much the idea that has to be original and something that's never been done before. It's how you develop that idea.
How do you render it? How do you massage it and tease it out? So that if you're writing about teenagers who've fallen in love with one another, even though their parents don't want them to, that you're writing something that people have written about for centuries. But it's the way in which you do it that makes it very, very unique.
So these days, having done some writing for a number of years, I find that everything from the news, to eavesdropping conversations if I'm walking through the mall, or when at the gym listening to what men are saying and how men talk, when perhaps at a movie theater listening to people and how they interact with one another, the couples who fight over how much butter to put on the popcorn, the parents who are with their children who are trying to explain what an R-rated film is-- all these things can be sources.
And they're right in front of you. So it's just a matter of just opening up your eyes, and more importantly, learning how to listen.