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?

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.

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.

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.

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).

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 :)