10 ways to find inspiration to write
Inspiration can be a writer's undoing. If a writer is not inspired, they will not write. It's the beef, the jam, the glue, and the soul. If you write without inspiration, your words will be dry pasta, lonely mayonnaise, and lackluster. To be inspired, you have to open your world up to inspiration. You are a toddling baby with chubby smooth arms grasping at your parents' legs. You are a golden retriever jumping up to be loved. You are a forlorn teenager, and everything pains you.
Feel.
And don't be afraid to be unafraid.
But I don't feel like writing.
I don't want to.
I'd rather scroll and eat Rolos.
Me too…sometimes. But today, let's not. Shake those foil balls of Rolo trash off your shirt, and write! Because we can. Because we must. And most of all, because we feel inspired! Fists in the air….awkward pause.
Ahem, but first, let's conjure up some of that elusive creative influence.
1. EVERYTHING IS ART!
Anything can be an inspiration if you tilt it a little. The way the sun comes into your window, your sandwich with oozing peanut butter, the sound of your dog snoring at your feet. Turn your mundane into poetry.
Conversations can be songs with the right editing.
You know that feeling you get after you leave a museum or just come out of the theater after watching a remarkable film? You dip into an alert earnestness. But not in an ironic way. Everything feels deep and significant. You are arrested by ordinary beauty. You feel everything all at once. You understand the meaning of life, and you own the keys. You can build a magnificent empire brick by brick. It's awful and strange, and it's joy and pain. Everything makes sense but in a dizzy frenzied sort of way. You're aware of art. You realize art is in every moment of every day: the bench, t-shirt, movie theater carpet, a billboard for spider veins, the homeless man, a church window, that abandoned car, my face...it's all art.
Art is the filmy viscous residue that covers all things. It's abstract and ubiquitous. It's all art, and it's begging to be written about.
Write about your inside-out sweater, the way a leaf gets run over by a car, your forehead wrinkle. It's all inspiration. Use it.
2. Index your thoughts
Anne Lamott, in Bird by Bird shares her dedicated use of index cards. She admits to having them in piles on her desk, paper clipped to pages of a draft, and in the trash. Lamott faithfully tucks a folded (lengthwise as to not be bulky) into her pocket (along with a pen, don't forget a pen!), before leaving the house each day. Inspiration can smack her across the face, and so she is prepared to scribble a quick note or a word down to look over later. Because you will forget what you were thinking about in line at the grocery store. As much as you'd like to think you have a brilliant memory, you don't. Anne says this about writers that don't take notes and prefer to listen instead, "I think that if you have the kind of mind that retains important and creative thoughts--that is, if your mind still works--you're very lucky and you should not be surprised if the rest of us do not want to be around you."
I love this idea, and even though I am faithful to my notes app on my phone, I often get distracted by the bright alluring light...must start scrolling. Writing a thought quickly on paper keeps your notes pure and easy and your mind unsocialmedia-ed, hey I just made up a word!
Tuck an index card, or any small piece of paper into your pocket or bag the next time you leave the house, and be sure to write a small concept, idea, or thought into it. It could be the theme to your next magnum opus. You never know, stranger things have happened.
3. Doodle
Remember in class when you would doodle your name in bubble letters in the margins while your teacher was talking? Maybe you would draw sunflower babies while you were on the phone? Doodling is a great way to open up a different part of your brain, the part that helps you focus and forge new pathways. Doodling can help you be more deliberate with your thoughts and ultimately find a meaningful subject to write about.
Set your doodles free! Draw a sunflower baby!
4. Listen to music
Music is an influential minx, harness its romantic heroism. It might just save you.
Find some tunes that inspire you. Switch it up and try a different genre of music. Don't be afraid to dip your ear (?) into something different. Try traditional instrumental music from China or India. Try nordic heavy metal. Try rap or pop music in a different language. It might just unlock some creative forces you've had hiding.
5. Get outside!
Go for a walk, double points if you bring some inspirational music with you, and oop, don't forget an index card! Write an impromptu haiku about the clouds and cars. Pen some prose linking industry to pine needles, or fresh air to fresh bags of dog poop.
6. While you're outside, strike up a conversation with a stranger, your neighbor, or your local mail person. When you talk to someone for the first time, you're in this hyper-aware and observant space. It's in this space that you notice nuance, personality quirks, and if you're lucky, all this translates into a good story. Some of my best stories stemmed from talking to strangers. When we have new experiences, we can add the dialogue or thoughts into a crafty treasure box to draw on as we sit down to write. Did your neighbor say something racist or polarizing? FANTASTIC! Write about it.
7. Exercise and meditate
Get that heart rate up, focus on something other than screens and noise. Focus on your heartbeats, your breath.
The same goes for meditation. This is even better right after a ripe caloric burn session. Mediate, and attempt to clear all your thoughts. Once you've completed your quiet time, you'll feel much more clearheaded and ready to write.
8. Read
Read about writing. (Here's a post about my favorite books on writing)
Read poetry
Read a good book
9. Change your writing location
Get in the backseat of your car, sit on a bench, a hotel lobby, coffee shop, find a water source, your back yard, your bathtub. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just try something new.
10. Play with a single line of prose
Start in the middle of the story and work out, creating detail as you go. Writing just one sentence or a fragment is a great way to begin and see if that leads you anywhere.
Here are some examples:
She had the confidence of a much more beautiful woman.
When it's dark, and I only have my thoughts, and the cover of night, I can't help but think about...
"I never do this," I told him. I lied, I do it all the time.
She drove. She pushed the pedal hard and sped by the town she called home.
His swallow was labored. You could see his throat working, pushing the acidic chunks down.
You can do it. Just start.
Ohh, but first grab a handful of foil wrapped chocolate.
OK write!