Inspiration from the Dead

Most of us have our own methods for seeking inspiration and story ideas. Some of us take notes in bars, some of us look for funny news items in the paper, and some of us utilize writing exercises to jump-start our imagination. But Bernice McFadden listens to the dead.

The author writes an essay for the Washington Post that states “I won’t deny that some part of what I write is of my own imagination, I feel that 80 percent is being shared with me by people who have been dead and buried for years.”