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Inspiration, Where I Find It

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I read a post by winterbayne about inspiration- An Example of Inspiration

It got me thinking about where I get my ideas from and where we, as writers, draw out inspiration from.

Inspiration is a pretty fickle thing. One minute I can be swamped in ideas from everything I see and hear, next minute I can be starved for even the smallest spark.

At times I just need a bit of help to get my ideas going.

It seems with the amount of information on the internet now, this should be easier than ever for writers and artists in general.

I recently discovered Pinterest’s use as a tool of inspiration. My Pinterest account holds a couple of different boards for all types of things: writing tips, inspiration for specific novellas, self publishing advice, etc. The inspiration (or Pinspiration) I get from this is quite incredible, it’s a great wealth of images to scroll through and find my mind lighting up with ideas.

Music is, as for many people, also a great source of inspiration. I have a very vivid and active imagination that can create images very easily and this tends to be what happens when I listen to songs. My head creates almost like my own music video to go with the songs I listen to, and a lot of the time I get a good variety of stories from this method due to the wide variety of music I listen to (I have Fall Out Boy, Alice Cooper, Britney Spears and Disney all combined on my playlist! It’s certainly eclectic.)

Prompts are something I find incredibly useful at times, especially if I just want a quick go at writing practice. If that’s your thing, I would highly recommend checking out this blog, Of Paradise, great selection of very varied prompts and Featured Fiction for weekly prompts.

But even with all the media and information we can get from the internet and technology, sometimes its just as good to look around us. Nature and people can inspire great moments! I do have a rather bad habit of people-watching. I try to do it not so obviously, I don’t really want to appear like some crazy lady who stares at people as they pass! But sometimes it’s interesting to think of how many individual people there are in the world and each with their own individual life and story of their own.

Nature and the world around us can also provide lots of ideas. For example, I was walking down a high street of a city near where I live and noticed how the old buildings butted up against the rather boring, modern ones. This gave me a sudden spark of inspiration about a story where old meets new and the differences in appearance and functionality between them.

So, if you’re ever stuck for something to write sometimes it’s just as good to look out of the window as it is to turn to the computer! Inspiration can be found everywhere and it always seems to strike quite forcefully at the most unusual and unexpected of times. Just make sure to have a notebook always handy for those moments 😀

Is there any specific place you get inspiration from? Do you keep a stock of pictures/words to draw creativity from?

Also, I will be adding a ‘Connecting‘ section to my sidebar with my accounts at Pinterest, Goodreads and my email, etc. Just in case anyone want to get in touch in other ways.

–

Progress Report:

Word count: 5746 (Total word count: 17,844).

Status of Third Manuscript: Writing first draft.

March E-Book Review: 60% read.

48 thoughts on “Inspiration, Where I Find It”

  1. sha-yeah! Need to connect…post the links.

    I get ideas from inside my head, asking questions. I watch documentaries. I read history and I love ancient history. I people watch and don’t give a rip if someone does think I’m some crazy chic staring at them. More than likely I am.

    I can’t really explain where they come from. They just happen. Which may explain why there is nothing incredibly special about my plots or characters. Either way, I doubt anyone would survive in my head long enough for my rambling thoughts to mean anything to them. Just ask West.

    I can’t say music or pintrest inspire me, but they do help me describe. Write out what I’m seeing and feeling in my head. They put me in the mood.

    thx for the link to that insane post by the way! Can’t believe you read it and could follow it!

    • It was a great post 😀 One that stuck with me!

      Ideas are strange things, they do come from the oddest places sometimes 😀 The inside of my head and imagination must make for a pretty crazy place as well!

      Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂

      • That story idea was my nov nano. It’s horribly written and has no direction. One day I’ll fix it from start to finish. It’s a hot mess right now. Well, except the first part that James helped iron out and patch together. That part now has promise.

  2. Great blog post, thank you! 🙂
    I am inspired by nearly everything. Therefore, I always have my little black book, a pen, and my cell phone with me.
    I follow ‘Of Paradise’ now – thanks for the hint. ⭐

  4. Great post. Nature, music and the media are probably my biggest influences when it comes to ideas 🙂

    I mentioned you in my post about the Liebster Award by the way. If you have already done one or don’t want to, then don’t worry at all. I just wanted to let you know I enjoy your posts and can’t wait for more! 🙂

  5. I get my inspiration everywhere! Music, books, movies… Sometimes the news or an overheard conversation between people in Starbucks.
    When I’m not very inspired I usually take my dog for a walk. I live in the country, so the nature is a great source of inspiration for me.
    Also Pinterest. Pictures often inspire me. Even if it’s a random picture of a vintage suitcase, there is always a story that goes alone with it.
    And of course words. Often times a word will come to me (any random word at at random time) and I will make a note of it. For someone to read through my notebooks or the notebook app on my phone, they would probably think I was crazy.

    • It is great to find so much inspiration around us, practically anywhere we are willing to find it. But yeah, my notebook would look pretty odd as well, not sure many could make sense of it 😀

      Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂

  6. I find music not so much inspiring as facilitating to the whole writing process. I write my best stuff to music. And I like to use Pinterest for visuals, an idea I actually got from KaSonndra Leigh, one of the first indie authors I associate with. Do you mind if I follow you on Pinterest?

    • Oh, also, inspiration! Holy fuck, I was driving back home from Houston, and I swear every other car I encountered on the road (particularly if they were goin’ notably slow or notably fast) hand me dreamin’ up all kinds of ideas about them! Like “what’s goin’ on in their life that they think it’s okay to go 55 on the freeway?” hahaha. Not the safest thing I’ve ever done – daydream behind the wheel of a car – but when you’ve got 7 hours ahead of you on the road, and you’re a writer, things like that tend to happen. Heheh.

      • 7 hours?! No wonder you were daydreaming 😀

        I do find it interesting to just glance at others and realise they have a whole other life, and wonder what it’s like. It’s probably really boring, but I always make some fabulous life for them in my head, lol 😀

  7. Loved the post. I find inspiration in the oddest places. Sometimes when I’m about to fall asleep thoughts will come and a new ending or other times, when I’m in the middle of a conversation with people and I suddenly see what I need to do…I need to start bringing a little notebook with me…People might even think I’m some sort of spy! Hee! Thanks for the post!

  8. Pingback: Posts I loved this week | Taylor Grace

  9. I’ve always had a fondness for using dreams for inspiration. I don’t normally finish my dreams, so it’s pretty handy having the chance to do so through my art. Unfortunately, I don’t get as any dreams these days.

    • Dreams are a great source of inspiration, just got to make sure and keep a book handy to write them down straight away, I always forget mine. And sometimes they are just too plain weird to write down 😀

  10. I tend to get a lot of my ideas from various forms of media — tv, music, movies, books. It all kind of percolates in my brain, and then I get struck by random ideas — either when I’m chilling (like when I’m taking a shower or going for a walk), or when I’m working (my brain takes great delight in distracting me, lol).

    • I know that feeling, when I’m trying to do something important, my brain seems to come up with some of the best ideas then 😀

      Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂

    • Thank you very much, I do seem to be writing out quite a bit lately, I hope it keeps going like that 😀

      Pinterest is a great source for me since I found it. So many images out there to spark the imagination.

      Thank you for reading and commenting 🙂

    • Pinterest is one of my favourite places, definitely a great site to let your imagination flow and be inspired. It helped me a lot in my second novella, to get inspiration for medieval type dresses and things 🙂

    • I do love pinterest, such a wealth of visual resources and inspiration. Though, it’s easy to get distracted and end up looking at the pretty stuff for hours on end! 😀

      Thanks for reading and commenting 🙂

  17. I look everywhere. I have to say pictures though, long drawn-out ones work for me. I want to know the story behind the drawing/artwork. And dreams. I get some pretty vivid ones like scenes from the books I’m writing.

    • Dreams are always a great source of inspiration, I just have to make sure I jot them down as soon as I wake up 😀

      Thank you for reading and commenting 🙂

  18. Thank you for the like and follow, Harliqueen. This is a great post. I, too, become inspired by the things around me, and I, too, have found a wealth of inspiration via Pinterest. We seem to be headed down a similar road in our writing endeavors. I’d love to see a picture of that high street you mentioned, too. My mind started churning the second I read that line. 🙂 Good luck to you!

    • It is pretty amazing where we find inspiration, even things like the high street (which I will endeavour to remember to get a pic of!).

      Pinterest is such a great resource!

      Thank you for reading and commenting 🙂

  19. Nicely thought out and well expressed. You have a good following and it seems you’re a natural communicator. That said, thanks for the like on my posts. I’m the oldest one reading you, so let’s have fun.

    • I’m glad you enjoyed it, and thank you very much for the compliment 🙂 I’ve never thought of myself as a natural communicator, but it’s nice that someone thinks so!

      We’re all writers and bloggers, it’s nice to have a community feel and I love reading everyone’s posts, will definitely keep reading your blog.

      Thank you for reading and commenting 🙂

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