5 Places To Look For Writing Inspiration
Your bookshelf is not part of the list.
For emerging writers, there’s a thrill in knowing that people are reading your work. It’s exciting when strangers from the other side of the world click on your headline to skim, if lucky, read through the entire article that you worked so hard on.
Receiving claps, shares and highlights from top writers become the best part of your day. It brings a positive feeling and you’re motivated to write again.
How many times do you check your Medium stats in a day?
The slew of topics you plan to write seems endless until one day, there’s none. Call it writer’s block, laziness, demotivation, lack of passion— whatever you call it, all of these don’t produce output.
Veteran writers go through this as well. Even distinguished artist Neil Gaiman who created The Sandman series and authored the books Stardust, Coraline, American Gods, says that from time to time, he too gets stuck. If an award-winning artist like Gaiman, who has mastered the art of writing gets stuck, it only means that anyone who writes experiences the same.
Whether you have prepared a bunch of headlines for the next few weeks or planning to add new ones in the next couple of hours, this list of sources for writing inspiration might be of value to you today:
In the faces of strangers you meet.
Every face has a story, every action has a reason. There’s so much to see, hear and create if you watch people (not in a creepy way) for a few minutes. Places to do this are parks, beaches, universities, or in places where people go unguarded. Try and make up stories about them and see what you can weave into yours.
Writers are, ultimately, connectors of ideas, thoughts, and words.
In your me-time.
Julia Cameron, author of the book The Artist’s Way calls this the ‘artist date’. She encourages readers of her book to spend alone time once a week. This time is to be treated as sacred and only you can participate.
Replenish your well and fill your pond of ideas through your artist dates — be it a long drive to the countryside, a quick hike to the hills, or a staring contest with the sunset.
In a stand out conversation.
I recently published an article about perfection, which came out of an actual conversation with a close artist friend. When he told me that he wants everything to be perfect before moving forward with a new project, a part of my brain lit up and that pushed me to grab my notebook and write.
Simple yet meaningful conversations packed with lessons are part of your day. You just have to notice and listen more.
In your most intimate relationships.
It could be a relationship with your partner, your mom, your dog. This article about not being able to say ‘I love you’ after an argument came to me on a day that my heart was ripped open. In your intimate relationships, you are the most vulnerable.
When you are vulnerable, you feel safe. When you feel safe, you are ready to look like a fool, to cry, to feel no shame. That’s already the start of a great story.
In your journal entries from then and now.
Your ‘journal self’ is different from your ‘writer self’. Your tone is different when you write for your audience. In your journal, you can write anything. If you can, look through the pages of your journal from 5 or 10 years ago. See how your life has changed since then. In 2015, I wrote, ‘I want to travel so bad. To achieve this, I need to find a home-based job.’ It took me 4 years to get that home-based job. It’s not an original story but it’s my story.
You have your unique stories too. Recollect. Write them down and breathe life into them once more.
Run after inspiration and grab it as if it’s never coming back. Like your life depended on it. For many writers, life does depend on inspiration.
It literally sits everywhere. You just have to pick the right ones to write about.
Sometimes it’s fear that stops us from writing. Sometimes, it’s the need to be perfect. American writer Rebecca Solnit said, ‘So many of us believe in perfection, which ruins everything else because the perfect is not only the enemy of the good; it’s also the enemy of the realistic, the possible and the fun.’
So, go crazy and use that idea. Turn it into something good. Tune into what your environment, history and close relationships are telling you.
When you told the world that you are a writer, you just claimed to be a medium for all these stories to be heard. Now it’s time to do your job and be the storyteller.
The author is a writer, Ashtanga yoga practitioner, and a remote worker. Follow her tweets here. Subscribe to her weekly letters to hear her thoughts on Ashtanga yoga, shifting from the office desk to remote work, writing (of course) plus bits and pieces of her personal life.
