How to Learn the Skill of Being Inspired
A writer’s biggest problem is how to find inspiration. Once you have a subject, a character, or a circumstance that fascinates you, it’s all anyone can do to keep you from rushing to the blank page and scribbling away like mad.
Writing with inspiration is easy. Finding inspiration can be one of the hardest things in the world.
One of the reasons for the elusive nature of inspiration is that we expect finding inspiration to be effortless. More than effortless – we expect it to be nearly magical. One day we’ll open the drapes and look out on the street and there, walking in front of us, will be the character around which our next great novel will revolve.
Or we’ll be sitting at a coffee shop one day and inspiration will hit us, suddenly, like a bolt of lightning. All at once, we’ll know exactly what we should be writing about.
Inspiration does sometimes happen this way, but this is a little bit like saying you shouldn’t have to go grocery shopping just because a friend of yours occasionally stops by with pizza.
Sure, sometimes inspiration happens unexpectedly, at just the right time and in just the right place. Most of the time, writers have to go looking for it. And we have to have the skills to recognize where to find it.
Explore New Experiences
I know many aspiring writers who sit around the house all day by themselves, trying to think of new things to write about. Whenever they’re invited to do something new and exciting, they say, “Thanks, but I have to work on some writing.”
These same people are constantly in distress because they can’t find the inspiration to make their writing flow easily.
The last few times I was struck with sudden inspiration, it was because I was doing something new, something I hadn’t experienced before. At the very least, it was something I hadn’t experienced in quite awhile. The new experience forced me to look at the world in a slightly different way. From that, I got an idea.
That’s inspiration.
Go ice fishing. Attend an art opening. Check out a rodeo. Visit some of the tourist attractions in your area that you’ve always known about but had never bothered to visit. Go on a walk by yourself with no music and no particular idea where you’re headed.
Then pay very close attention to every single thing that happens.
Ask People about Themselves
One of the common failings I notice in writers is that they only want to write about themselves. Sure, writers are all told to ‘write what you know’, but no one ever said, ‘write what you know about yourself’. Your work will be seriously one-dimensional if all it is are simply variations of you and your experiences.
In order to find out how other people think and to get inspiration for new material, new characters, new ways of looking at the world, you need to know what people think and do and believe in. The only way to get that information is to ask them.
Pay attention. It’s very hard for us to listen to another person without jumping in with our own anecdotes. It’s a natural human response to demonstrate, “Hey, I’m just like you!” Resist that impulse, if only for the reason that you’re interested in what makes you two different from each other.
Think about that. If you like, start discussing your differences with this person. He may be able to expand on a viewpoint to the extent that you really feel you understand it. The next time you’re crafting a new character, you’ll think of all those viewpoints and one of them will ring true to you.
Bring a Notebook
Ever see a writer look very distant, very suddenly? It happens a lot among the creative crowd, and it’s usually because they just had a wayward thought about a possible idea. Mostly, they’ll try to remember it long enough to write it down later, but later comes after dinner and conversation and drinks, and they can never quite dredge up exactly what made that idea so wonderful.
That’s if they remember the idea in the first place.
Bring a notebook everywhere you go, especially when you’re exploring new sources of inspiration, because it’s you’ll likely have a flash of a great sentence or a scene or a just-right metaphor. You’ll want to catch that idea while it’s still fresh.
Later, when you lack inspiration, open up that notebook and browse through some of those brief moments of brilliance. I guarantee you that you’ll find what you’re looking for.
James Chartrand is the pro in the know on how to write stories that grab people by the heart and keep them reading. Visit James’ blog at Men with Pens, where he and Taylor will keep you hooked – and get your readers hooked on reading your words.
James, couldn’t agree more. I have those black and white speckled notebooks with me at all times. You WILL forget! Write it down!
These are all great ideas for finding inspiration, thanks for the article James!
I completely agree with keeping a notebook on you at all times. The (very) few times I leave the house without my notebook, I always get inspired and struggle to remember it later. Even if you’re leaving the house for a short time, take your notebook. You never know when inspiration will come.
I love the idea of asking people about themselves too. Far often people only talk about themselves, and write about themselves, but as writers we should be inquisitive and eager to learn about other people, about what makes them tick, and the experiences that they’ve had, and what makes them who they are, deep down.
Great post James, thanks :)
I always think about bringing my notebook every where I go, but I almost never do. The same goes for my Macbook. Every time I go on a holiday, or stay at a hotel, I think about bringing the Macbook, but I don’t. I’m not sure why I’m not, because I really want to. I bring my iPhone though, and I add notes, but it’s not the same. This is happening over and over, it’s starting to get annoying :D
I never ask people about themselves. I understand why this is valuable. There are a lot of “hidden” information and a lot of interesting people. I might be too shy, but that’s about to change.
The only thing I can say that I’m doing different this year, is that I’m exploring new experiences. I’m not staying at home, I’m at new places and doing new things. I’ll be traveling a lot, to Greece, Spain and I might even go to France (never been there before).
The reclusive artist is a common stereotype. I think we call can relate. But it is those novel experiences that open new neural pathways and drive that spark of creativity.
As an “inspiration junkie” I love that creative spark, finding a new idea, thinking about something out of the ordinary, and looking at the world a little differently. There’s nothing better than that; it’s my drug of choice. For this reason I love education. While school is a great source of thinking and puts you around a lot of people of many backgrounds, even self-education can be inspiring.
I’m hearing my own advice as I write this, like listening to one of my characters, but just because as artists we live in our own heads doesn’t mean we have to be reclusive.
Talk to people on the bus, ask the waitress what she her dreams are (cliche, I know), blog, make small talk with your barista at Starbucks, and really listen to people. The more you listen, often the more people are willing to share.
Nice post, James.
As a shy writer, I also feel that frequenting busy places and observing everyone helps me with my own creativity. It might not be the best for sitting down and writing, but it’s good exercise for the imagination — to see someone and start imagining where they came from, where they’re going, etc.
One such example has stuck with me for a few years now — I was at citywalk in Los Angeles and saw this man making balloon animals for kids. A closer look revealed he was covered with tattoos … and not the kind you get from the parlor.
Where did this man come from? What happened in his past — did he go to jail for it? Are those tattoos from a cell-mate or from an artist with bad equipment? Is that a teardrop tattoo? A spiderweb on the elbow?
These questions flooded my mind as I watched the gently man create animals out of balloons — he seemed to have jumped straight from someone’s story about someone who goes from one extreme to the other.
This experience not only reminds me to always keep an open mind in general, but keep an open eye as well — you never know who you’ll see or meet, and how they might spark your creativity.
There is no doubt inspiration come from everywhere and like the last commenter said often it means just being aware of your surroubndings. And when I am feeling burned out I know I have to do something diferent, change something in my routine,
Sometimes It also means being like a lion and knowing your ideas can come from anywhere. Often it means doing something totally different, Writing is always the tip of the iceberg: your mind is always working, your ideas are always rearranging even when you are not conscious of it. Inspiration literally means to breathe in, that what gives you life. Your mind never stop working. And as you said we have to get out of our-self, do something new or become stale.
Remember, James, there are no rules. Creativity is about the act of creation, period.
Great post, by the way, as usual. I really enjoy reading your posts. You are a good writer.
I think many creative people can be inspired if they would only pay more attention to their bodies. Get into the habit–maybe every now and then–of hoofing it in the outdoors. Wild nature has a way of nurturing your primal instinct, imagination. Intuition can’t be far behind while you are at it. I have been blessed by poems too many times while going for strolls.
On the other hand, the sedentary lifestyle sure worked for Emily Dickinson and others.
So really creativity is a process and it is a mystery and it is also a work in progress. No?
I just found your site through google. Love the info!
Another good one. I’ve recently adjusted my attitude and am getting out more- saying yes to invitations to things that are outside of my comfort zone, and it’s helped a lot.
Retweeted this post- many thx! Glad I found this blog.