“I feel a blog post coming on…” The phrase has become a stock joke, particularly from my eldest son with whom I spend a goodly amount of my time. A thought will crop up in discussion and, waxing philosophical we will pursue it down the odd byways of the mind. Conversation, interaction with other minds… that has to be the best source of inspiration you can get, for me.The ideas and analogies thus born form a rich vein of inspiration every day.
In the beginning, though, there were long periods of procrastination, where I would sit in a caffeine fuelled stupor desperately seeking anything to take my mind off the lack of words on the screen. I became a dab hand at all forms of Solitaire and can lose myself in the online bookstores as readily as I can in their musty counterparts in another reality. These days if I didn’t have to work and sleep I think I would be constantly writing in an attempt to get down all the things I want to pin to the page.
But there are days when the whiteness stares back, a mocking mirror of the blank slate of the mind. Where then to seek that spark of inspiration? It happens to us all… and if I do not suffer from writer’s block, I do have days when it is harder to get into gear. All you need is a start… and from there things unfold. This is where I go…
1. The scrawl…
There is the inevitable sheaf of papers, letters and bills on the desk. Many are sent back with an apology for the scribbled notes they bear. I do try to use pencil, but sometimes I forget… Odd ideas that flit momentarily into being must be captured before they disappear, so something to scrawl on is always to hand.
Of course, you put down the odd word or two, knowing you will …of course… remember the sense of the idea that engendered them. Only to find you really haven’t got a clue. All you can remember is that it was the best idea ever.
Even worse, you tidy up and lose the best idea ever altogether…
2. Seeding ideas…
In the same vein as the scrawl, there is a file on my desktop full of documents. Each one holds the foundation of an idea. On the up side, I don’t risk throwing these in the bin when I do the housework. On the down-side, a lot of the really good ideas got just that word or two as triggers… and their substance has dissipated.
3. The doodle…
When I was small…okay, I know. I still am. Start again… When I was very young and wanted to learn to draw, my grandfather would draw random squiggles on a page and from these I would have to make a drawing. I still do it. Sometimes it is simply the same thing… a doodle on paper and see what comes. From there an idea might form.
Sometimes I doodle with words… half a dozen random words plucked from thin air and typed on the screen. Their associations usually set a spark to the tinder.
4. Pick a card, any card…
I keep a Tarot deck on the desk. I know the cards well… I have used this one particular design for many years. Between the images themselves, the meaning of the card of the symbolism depicted, there is always a thread to follow. It might be a hairstyle that sets of a memory, a creature or colour combination. A few minutes thought opens many doors.
The downside is that it is way too easy to get caught up in the pursuit of symbolism and the meditative state is not conducive to actually writing.
5. Books…
This I try and avoid for obvious reasons. It takes discipline to walk over to the bookcase and pick up a book, open it at a random page and start reading. Well, it takes discipline to put it back down again anyway…
The same applies to reading blog posts, articles… even the sempiternal cereal box, though at least that is easier to put down.
It isn’t about plagiarism, but sometimes another writer’s words spark a train of thought that is the start you need.
I always keep a Bible in arms reach too. The old custom of Bibliomancy comes in handy as I allow it to fall open at a random page and see what the verses have to say. It is handy too because at least with the Bible I will not read above a chapter or two… Well, there is so much symbolism in there I get easily sidetracked…
6. Pictures…
I have a lot of photos… all arranged in folders. I would like to say ‘neatly arranged’, but that isn’t the case. I rely on memory to find things… which isn’t always efficient but is always an interesting journey.
Picking both a folder and an image at random will usually throw up somewhere to begin. All the midnight haiku are written this way.
7. Housework…
I do this as little as humanly possible these days… and to be fair, with just the dog and me there isn’t much to do. You can guarantee, though, that as soon as you are elbows deep in polish, suds and bleach, you will get a good idea.
7a. Gardening…
Ditto… though it probably isn’t suds I’ll be up to my elbows in…
8. Outer space…
Walking in the landscape or just picking a road and driving is another perfect place. You are away from the computer, you probably can’t write anything down… your mind is free to roam… and roam it will. Whether you remember any of it when you get back to a keyboard is immaterial. The process has begun.
9. Inner space…
Meditation, contemplation, a wallow in a bathtub… just take any thought, any phrase and let it play…and somewhere there will be that Eureka moment. Personally, I think that’s what Archimedes was doing in the bath in the first place…
10. Google…
Take any word… any at all… and type it into your search bar with ‘quotes’ before it. See what comes up. There is always something to switch on the light!
And if all else fails?
Sit down and write. It really doesn’t matter what… once the flow has begun, something will emerge from the fog.
But that’s just me… where do you go for inspiration?
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
I’m mostly once the flow…guy…
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Mostly here too 🙂
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Other bloggers? For my poetic inspiration! 🙂
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🙂
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I find, when my mind is open to it, that that there is inspiration almost anywhere… or blogger fodder as I like to call it!
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I know… everything serves 🙂
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Absolutely Sue!!!
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i have many of the same sources of inspiration – most are ‘aha’ moments, a photo, a note, a scrawl, a happening, something i see or fall into, reading others’ posts, the world is full and like you, i try to ‘organize’ it in some way that i’ll remember, throw things in a box or pile or into my brain or heart as well. somehow some of it makes it to a post )
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It all stays in there, even when we lose the thread…it comes back when the time is right in one form or another.
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Reblogged this on ladyleemanila and commented:
cool advice 🙂
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Thanks, Lady Lee 🙂
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I often see things that inspire me to write when I am driving or travelling. I have little notebooks everywhere that I scribble my thoughts in. I don’t have a lot of free time so try to write when I get an opportunity like on an airplane. I do a lot of good writing then.
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Most of my best stuff is written in the car…but as I am driving, it never makes it to the page 🙂
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Reblogged this on Journey To Ambeth and commented:
A lovely post from Sue about the many places inspiration can be found 🙂 Where do you go to find yours?
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Great post, Sue! I’m with you on the scrawl – my desk is littered with sticky notes and scraps of paper, and I always carry a notebook and pen with me, just in case. I know we live in a digital world, but for me, the immediacy of paper and pen cannot be beat 🙂
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I agree with you on that one, Helen…and the bits of paper turn p everywhere! 🙂
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And half the time I have no idea what the idea was! 😀
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Same here:)
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😀
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I love art galleries, museums, going for days out those are the kind of things that trigger my imagination. But nearer to home it might just be something as simple as a cat visiting my garden and becoming my muse!
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Just about anything can set us off, can’t it? 🙂
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The point 7a is always useful and practical. It makes your negative energy leave, so the positive can seed a creativeness. It also works right after you get out of the gym. Me personally, I drain my inspiration from music, movies… art in general. Art inspires the art. Love this post.
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Thanks. Just about anything can start the process 🙂
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My inspiration comes from pretty much everything around me. A story. A movie. Song lyrics. Nursery rhymes. Fables and parables. A random prompt. An odd-looking stone. A beautiful flower. A unique tree. Birds and animals and technology. Musing about the future or reminiscing about the past. Shapes in the clouds and stars in the sky. A phrase or a concept or a Chinese proverb.That really ugly Citroen I saw parked near an electric charging port in Amsterdam. Architecture and art and sometimes a taste or a smell or a sound.
But mostly random prompts. 😛
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‘Mostly random’… that about covers my sources of inspiration too 🙂
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Interesting post Sue. Thought I was the only one who scribbles on envelopes lol. I also have files of thoughts and phrases and the beginnings of ideas. Looking at photos does it for me too, as does reading articles and other blogs or even watching TV and seeing movies or wandering through museums. But over the years I’ve learned that shutting doen my computer and not even thinking about it usually works best. It’s when I’m doing something else and I stop taxing my brain that ideas come — almost always when I’m in the shower, for example.
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You can buy showerproof notepads that stick to the tiles, Fransi 🙂
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I know, I have them. A friend of mine gave them to me. Such a cool idea 🙂
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I haven’t yet… one of these days I’ll remember…before I get in the shower 🙂
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Do it right now 🙂
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I just might at that 😉
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👌
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Some excellent tips here. Doodling is great! If I get stuck for ideas, I often find myself going back and editing what I’ve already written – usually a no-no, but sometimes it works in my favour. When I got stuck with the first draft of Gateway to Magic, I went back and scribbled out a word, and the scribble turned into a doodle that looked like a woolly sock that had come alive and raised its head. This gave birth to creatures called sockworms, who became part of the story and moved it on!
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I love the idea of Sockworms 🙂
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I often find inspiration when I’m walking the dog or changing into my tennis gear. I think people are slowly becoming used to the strange American who dictates notes into her iPHone in the changing room or park
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I’m not sure my village will ever get used to me muttering an un-loseable phrase over and over as I race the dog back home 🙂
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Oh goodie we can be muttering women walking their dogs together!
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Nothing wrong with that at all 😉
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I have notebooks of random scribblings. Sometimes I look at something and wonder what on earth I was thinking about when I wrote it. I tried to have a major clear out once but I couldn’t do it. A note saying, ‘no one ever bought dusters – vests, pants’ Has just in the last couple of days become a poem – though I’m sure I was not jotting down an idea for a poem.
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“Persistent hobbit, Darth Vader ring tone”… Oddly enough, I know to what it refers. I just can’t recall why…
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Reblogged this on Kate McClelland.
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Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog and commented:
Here’s a great post from Sue Vincent on where to find inspiration for writing.
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Like the hints, especially the pitfalls you may encounter such as No. 5, first paragraph.
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Bookshops are dangerous creatures 😉
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I have gotten some of my inspiration from The Story of Your Life as well as youtubeXD. It may not be the best place for getting facts, but they do come up with some creative stuff that makes me think a little.
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Inspiration comes from everywhere… it only takes a spark to get the fire burning 🙂
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I have to admit, I’ve had a couple of inspirational bathroom visits over the years 😀 … but mostly when my mind is still and I let my senses connect with the worlds around me. 🙂
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Yep…I can relate 😉
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The challenge isn’t always the inspiration… but to follow it through to the end, irrespective of whether you hit publish or not. I usually find myself in hold of an awesome idea but lack a keyboard or pen to jot it down.. Then somehow, it just dissolves into a few phrases.
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That is always a problem…especially in the shower 🙂
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Really helpful blog, Sue. Thanks. 🙂 — Suzanne
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I’m glad 🙂
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Television, especially great lines and quotes. Memories brought on by whatever we are watching, his and mine.
I don’t scrawl, but i write down a couple of line in my site to either turn into posts later … or not. Garry prefers the whiteboard on the refrigerator.
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I don’t have TV. I have ‘a’ TV, but it is not connected to anything other than the DVD player. I rarely miss it and am still trying to find time to watch my Christmas films 🙂
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When my daughter, Tara, was little we used to do the same. A doodle or covering the page with different coloured crayons and I would tell her to find the picture within the page. We loved this and I still do it today. xx
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My grandad used to play that game with me too 🙂 xx
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