Gas Prices Will Kill My Writing

That might not make much sense, but it's true.

I love riding in cars and buses, especially when they're quiet. In my experience, there's nothing watching the scenery pass to make a mind ready to receive the spark of an idea.

There's a story writing contest in November that I've been planning on entering, but I hadn't been able to come up with an idea for a story--and I wanted to have time to edit whatever I wrote, so I was a bit concerned.

Riding back from the bookstore in the dark a few nights ago, just letting my mind wonder where it will, I came up with the beginning of my story. Not just the idea, but the exact words that I wanted.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. The plot and title for one of the first stories I ever really worked on came to me while my dad was driving around a less developed part of the county; this story has since spawned into a piece of what will be a frame-style novel.

Car rides being one of my favorite sources for ideas, I'm finding myself more and more concerned as gas prices rise. It's hard to drive around in search for an idea when you have to sell your spleen to buy a tank of gas.

What do these prices mean? Is my best creative source being taken away from me all together? Am I doomed to mediocre ideas from now on?

No, I don't think so. But it is sad to see something so simple as a drive to nowhere in particular that can spark such good things becoming something of yesterday.

Though, if the quality of literature falls in the next few years, we'll all know that the oil companies are to blame.