Goodreads asked James Van Pelt:

How do you get inspired to write?

James Van Pelt This is an interesting and weird question because I've been writing for a long time, and there are multiple ways to answer.

- When I started writing, I was inspired by reading stuff that was so great, that impacted me so thoroughly, that I wanted to be able to do the same thing myself for other people. I blame Ray Bradbury for most of that inspiration. I read THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES and FAHRENHEIT 451 back to back in 5th or 6th grade. I started writing stories then.
- Girls inspired me to write when I was in high school. I mean, I felt I had things to say, and I really liked cool language, but I think some of the inspiration to write came from wanting to look like a writer, to have other people perceive me as a writer, and those other people in high schools were girls. I thought if girls saw me as sensitive and romantic (I wrote a lot of poetry in high school), that I would get more dates. It didn't really work out that way.
- Now, all kinds of things inspire me. Connie Willis says getting angry often inspires her. She sees something she considers stupid, and she has to write a response to it. Sometimes anger is an inspiration, but mostly now I'm inspired to write because I see myself as a writer. I'm thinking about the story I'm working on and the next story all the time.
- I'm partly inspired by guilt, like a jogger who goes on a run because he knows he'll feel badly about himself if he doesn't. I'm like that with writing.
- I'm inspired by good writing. I can't read Stephen Crane, or Edgar Allen Poe, or Jane Austen without thinking I'd like to give that writing thing a try.

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