Inspiration: It’s Everywhere!
Keep your eyes open to all possibilities
It is an easy path to take. The one where you sit around and justify all the reasons that you can’t be a writer. Just like any other passion, you need to find where your interests lie and explore them to the fullest. Exploiting can be a negative term for many people but is exactly what a writer needs to do when looking for the spark of inspiration to put pen to paper or hitting the keyboard.
Start small
Delve in to what interests you and start there. It can be surprising to many people just how much knowledge or information they have on particular subjects. Write down points as headlines, these can then be paragraph topics that help you get the juices flowing. Even a trip to the store for groceries can be rich with events and experiences. It just requires the mind to open up to looking at how a serious of events go together.
Write reviews for people and services that you use. There are plenty of places now seeking reviews and these can be short, sharp and concise. There also sites that look for reviews for travelers to give longer feedback on their experiences. All this practice lets you build up your writing skills and helps forma writing habit.
Pareidolia is the term for the mind to play tricks on us by seeing patterns and shapes in unusual places. The power socket that looks like a face or the cloud that looks like Dumbo. Look for patterns in what you do everyday and make notes of these micro events. They can be the inspiration for expanding on for the subject of your writing.
Think big
We are surrounded by cities, nature, stars and planets. The world is a big place and full to the brim of interesting things. But it’s not just the physical world that should inspire you. It should also come from the activities of everyday life and your own personal thoughts and opinions. Some points to think about;
- Write from your perspective on issues you feel passionate about, be they big, like climate change, or small, such as local community level.
- Be prepared to do some research to back up your view. Even if it is an opinion piece, it goes a long way if based on evidence
- Be prepared for feedback, good and bad. Like anything, all feedback is good. All of us need to develop the best method for coping with it.
- Keep a journal close by. This may even be the notes app on your phone. Good ideas can evaporate within minutes and recalling them can be difficult.
Have fun
Ultimately, you should enjoy what you do. If grinding out a 100 words is difficult, stop and do something else. Looking for inspiration everywhere becomes second nature and before you know it, you feel like you are drowning in a sea ideas and thoughts. No matter what you might think is silly or crazy, Goolge it, someone somewhere would have had the same idea.
In the end, inspiration must be down to you. What hasn’t inspired before, may do so tomorrow. It is the skill of capturing those moments and turning them in to text that then becomes enjoyable and fun for others to read.
