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Help with inspiration.

SylasV

New Member
G'day all.

A little over 2 years ago I began setting the foundations for a world in which I would set a series of novels. I have created history, characters, factions and their relationships to one another and the inner workings of unique societies. After said 2 years based in this world I'm looking to take a step away and try my hand at a short story to hit refresh on what influences me and my creative process. Currently my mind is too bogged down in what I've started and how to expand those ideas that I struggle to focus on taking it further.

So now for my question, does anyone have any advice on finding inspiration? Are there any posts on here dealing with such a topic?(I'm sure there are a few)
Additionally what inspires you and your writing?

Side note: I wasn't sure where this post should be put so I hope it has an acceptable home here in the 'Writing Questions Forum' that it won't have to pack up its' letters, hire a moving van and relocate.
 
If some of my recent posts are any indication, I'm probably the least qualified person to offer advice on how to find inspiration...but, I'll try to help.

The first thing I would recommend is taking a break from writing and doing some reading. You should spend at least as much time reading as you do writing. Read a lot and read everything. Read genres you don't typically read--they all have something different to teach you. Re-read books you love and pay attention to why you love them. Re-read books you hate and pay attention to why you hate them. Read things that challenge you. Read fiction, read non-fiction. Just read.

I would also try listening to music. Write down what it makes you think of. Listen to all types of music with different moods and meditate on how they make you feel and what they make you think of. I find music very inspiring; you might not, but it's worth a try.

Try journaling. By that I don't mean "today I did this..." I mean write down your thoughts and feelings. If you had an interesting thought in the shower, write that down. Write down what you think about the things that are happening in the world. Write things you don't ordinarily write. Allow yourself to write down things you would never let anyone read. This might help you figure out why you're not finding inspiration, or it might help you to rekindle some.

The last thing I would recommend is doing something physical, especially something that requires you to get out of the house. Maybe take a walk around your neighborhood. Maybe just go to the grocery store. Sometimes you need a change in routine, a new backdrop. Physical activity helps to clear your head and helps it work more efficiently. Your physical and mental health are interconnected. Also, who knows what you might see while outside; you might come across something to write about.

I hope all this helps.
 

ddmealing

Dreamer
This might sound harsher than I intend, but I get 'inspired' by the fact that I have four hours per day blocked off for writing. I either type stuff or I stare at the screen.

I've never heard any advice that works better than just blocking off the time and forcing yourself to work. 'Inspiration' is great when it hits, but I don't know any career writers that wait for it before they start working.
 
This might sound harsher than I intend, but I get 'inspired' by the fact that I have four hours per day blocked off for writing. I either type stuff or I stare at the screen.

I've never heard any advice that works better than just blocking off the time and forcing yourself to work. 'Inspiration' is great when it hits, but I don't know any career writers that wait for it before they start working.

That's true. You do, however, need activities to 'recharge' your creativity, freshen up your mind, and prepare yourself to work.

Also, don't force yourself to write until you start panicking every time you try. I've been there. Sometimes you do need a break.
 

ddmealing

Dreamer
For sure! I actually find I can't be productive writing for more than 2-3 hours in one sitting. I need a solid 6-8 hours between writing sessions to let my brain soak on other stuff, typically my day job though it can be anything really.

I've always been super jealous of the writers who can do 10,000+ word days on the weekend where they sit and write for 8-10 hour stretches. Even if I was writing fulltime I'd still need to break it into two half-days - I got the idea from watching an interview with a screenwriter, can't for the life of me remember who it was now, but I've since learned a bunch of writers do it too. It works super well for me. One session in the morning before commuting to work, one just after dinner, with some mental break time in between.
 

Heliotrope

Staff
Article Team
Hemmingway set out to write one story about everything he knew about. That was his goal. He just said to himself one day "I'm going to write a story about everything I know about."

He knew about a girl having an abortion, so he wrote "Hills like White Elephants."

He knew about war, so he wrote: "For Whom the Bell Tolls."

He knew about living and writing in France so he wrote "A Moveable Feast."

I try to do the same. I think, hmmmmm, what do I know a lot about?

Well, I know about having a child with special needs and the confusion, guilt, sorrow and love that comes from that... so I wrote, "The Fig Boy: A Fable" for the top scribe challenge.

Being a member of Search and Rescue I know about survivors guilt, so I wrote a story about a retired army commander who suffered from survivors guilt.

I also know about strange rescue calls and the strange things people suffering from schizophrenia can think and do, so I wrote a story about a rescue gone wrong and a lost woman who heard voices (based on a true story).

I try to find inspiration, like Hemmingway, from my own real life experiences, but then I twist them and expand them and exaggerate them to make them fiction.

Often times I take what I know and see how I can make it a fantasy. So for example, with my current WIP I knew about being a teenager and hating my dad and thinking he was so embarrassing and lame and old fashioned... so I thought about writing a story about a girl who discovered that the reason her dad was so embarrassing and lame and old fashioned was becuse he literally was a time travelling pirate from the 1700s who got stuck in the time/space continuum and was now trying to raise a daughter in the 21st C.
 
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Hemmingway set out to write one story about everything he knew about. That was his goal. He just said to himself one day "I'm going to write a story about everything I know about."

He knew about a girl having an abortion, so he wrote "Hills like White Elephants."

He knew about war, so he wrote: "For Whom the Bell Tolls."

He knew about living and writing in France so he wrote "A Moveable Feast."

I try to do the same. I think, hmmmmm, what do I know a lot about?

Well, I know about having a child with special needs and the confusion, guilt, sorrow and love that comes from that... so I wrote, "The Fig Boy: A Fable" for the top scribe challenge.

Being a member of Search and Rescue I know about survivors guilt, so I wrote a story about a retired army commander who suffered from survivors guilt.

I also know about strange rescue calls and the strange things people suffering from schizophrenia can think and do, so I wrote a story about a rescue gone wrong and a lost woman who heard voices (based on a true story).

I try to find inspiration, like Hemmingway, from my own real life experiences, but then I twist them and expand them and exaggerate them to make them fiction.

Often times I take what I know and see how I can make it a fantasy. So for example, with my current WIP I knew about being a teenager and hating my dad and thinking he was so embarrassing and lame and old fashioned... so I thought about writing a story about a girl who discovered that the reason her dad was so embarrassing and lame and old fashioned was becuse he literally was a time travelling pirate from the 1700s who got stuck in the time/space continuum and was now trying to raise a daughter in the 21st C.

wow...your WIP sounds pretty awesome...!
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
Personally, use a email order service to deliver my inspiration. Every Tuesday at 11:01am I receive an email from Inspiration Inc. :p

Sorry, I'll stop now. For me, inspiration is about momentum. If I feel uninspired, I just start writing. The rust flakes off the gears and suddenly I'm flooded with ideas, some good, some bad. At the very least I end up going in a direction that I know isn't the direction to go, and I can try something else.

Right now I'm writing a short story, I started with a vague idea I wasn't sure was going to work. Wrote a few thousand words and realised something was missing, so I paused to think. Took a few minutes to sketch out a rough outline where I thought the main plot and subplot were going then boom ideas started flooding in, adding to and improving what I had down. Ideas fed off each other and now I have something to really work with. I just have to do a good job writing it now.

If you want to write, waiting for inspiration to come around is like waiting for a bad girlfriend/boyfriend to show up. When they do, it can be amazing, but that damned wait can be 1 minute or 1 year.

I never wait/rely on inspiration. I just go and it can catch up if it wants to. I depend more on craft to guide me where I want to go. Craft is the good girl/boy. They're always there when you need them. And they may not be as sexy and wild as inspiration, but darn if they don't give a good shoulder massage. :p
 
"Inspiration" ( I hate that term by the way for various reasons) for me comes from life experiences and thought experiments. My first book was a question about whether I can write a book. My second book was a thought experiment about what would happen if HP was set in the real world with real world political considerations. My third is a challenge to write a tragedy. My fourth is a thought experiement about what if certain aspects of magic were tied to property law. So I say think about things you know and then smash two seemingly unrelated things together.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
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So now for my question, does anyone have any advice on finding inspiration? Are there any posts on here dealing with such a topic?(I'm sure there are a few)
Additionally what inspires you and your writing?
Read. A lot. But if you're writing fantasy, then read mostly that. Use the stories you read to inspire ones in the world you've created, and mix that up with your life experiences or anything that stirs passion in you. Do you play video games? Use that as inspiration as well.

For example, a while back I read a Fae romance, which got me thinking...

...and thinking...

Now, I'm working on an elven romance. The absurdity of the romance in that book was such a turn on that it ignited a flame in my heart for a similar story. And you know what? I haven't (seriously) written an elven romance in like, ever. I wrote one for fun about 4 years ago. So this is totally outside my comfort zone because I typically write about humans. So I used this awesome book I read to inspire growth and new adventures in my writing.

Anything can be inspiration. The world I created for my stories (Mirovinia) was sparked from the mountain valley I live in, which I asked myself, "what would happen if a magical city existed in these valleys?"
 
I find that if you get addicted to something and then stop it causes a crush of ideas (starting with copycat ones but developing into more original ones).

I'm talking an author, or a game, or a tv series of course. Eh hem...

I actually wrote part of something recently with the television series the Sopranos in mind. Not sure what that says about me as a writer! But there was something about the scene where the cop whose been watching them for a series or two gets a trainee and walks up to the crime family in the street and they all introduce each other - it just lodged in my imagination : )

Good luck with your writing! Love stuff with interested societal fabric to lose myself in...
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Hello Sylas, and first of all Welcome to Mythic Scribes!

I agree with Dragon of the Aerie here. In order to get new ideas and some great inspiration, what you need is to clear your mind by doing other, various different things. Try reading books that you have never read before, watch movies, travel to new places and in general seek new experiences in your life.

Listening to great music (especially, discovering new songs!) helps me a lot with my own inspiration, so it would be great if you consider this as well. I am not sure how inspiration works and to me it feels like pure magic, but I know that there are many factors involved that suddenly combine and create that special big moment.

Also, I can tell you for sure that the best moments of inspiration come when you least expect them...

It happens to me when I am thinking of some other thing, or sometimes when I am just relaxing somewhere and my mind is clear and suddenly... Lightning strikes! If you intentionally try hard to get inspired, I doubt it will work... You need to do other stuff out there, think of different things and just allow it to happen naturally.

Physical activity also helps a lot to get your mind clearer and ready for new ideas: Walking, running, swimming or simply visiting some beautiful park, forest or other nice places can be of great benefit.
 
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