My son talked about abiogenesis and spontaneous generation as I drove him to school this morning.
The idea of spontaneous generation, excited me. I quickly asked him what time period people believed this in. He thought the 1400-1500's, which just happens to be the time period I intend to set my story in ( I still have to do more research to be sure. I am attempting to avoid time periods with much stife and upheaval). Before my son brought up topics of science, I hadn't thought of the possibilities that different time periods offer in the realm of beliefs. I had thought about music and art, and decided to try and weave a bit of that in, but this offers a whole other direction, a whole other way, of not just using a time as a backdrop, but in inhabiting a space, a place in time. There is much work to be done, there is much research to be done. Both daunting and exciting. But....
not today,
today I need to finish the read through of Echo, so I can make some mild corrections, and send it off for others to read, so weeks from now I can do a proper (intense) edit.

My point here is this, I love this part too, about writing, how everything one hears or sees, becomes a possibility, has a potential to lend itself to the story. Whatever I am exposed to during the period of writing it, from TV (the media), the books I read, family, things I overhear strangers saying at the grocery store, world events, the weather, whatever, all this will have some part in shaping little pieces of what I write. Two tawny mice materializing from wheat (or perhaps hay). That imagery wasn't within me yesterday. While such an idea might not end up anywhere in this story, those little mice feet will no doubt lead me on to other ideas, that will become part of this tale.