Over at Confident Writing, there’s a group writing project on 4 x 4 Sources Of Writing Inspiration. We’re challenged to share four lots of four things on the theme of writing and inspiration. So here are mine.
4 ways I get inspiration:
1. Reading, especially reading novels for the first time. Since I’ve started taking my own writing more seriously (over the past four or five years, really), I’ve found I notice more when I’m reading about the author’s skills and style, their strengths and weaknesses. That makes me think more about my own writing, and sometimes gives me ideas.
In addition, I’m inspired by reading things that are badly written - novels, poems, short stories, blog posts, newspaper articles, technical manuals, whatever. Because they make me think ‘I can do better than that’ which leads into ‘Well then, why don’t I?’
2. Writers talking about writing. I read several author blogs, and I’ve met a few novellists over the past couple of years, some of them through National Novel Writing Month; last year for NaNoWriMo, we also had a series of emailed pep talks from authors. Knowing that successful writers go through exactly the same trials as those of us who remain unpublished is extremely encouraging, and many of the authors I’ve become familiar with outside their published works have some very interesting and pertinent things to say about the act and art of writing.
3. Random thoughts while driving. Three times a week, most weeks, I spend about two hours driving through some beautiful countryside to my official office, and then another two hours home again. Although the driving bores me, and I have to listen to the radio or CDs while I drive to keep me alert enough, I’ve found that my imagination goes off on its own little trip. Sometimes I wish I had a voice recorder to keep track of the stories that write themselves in my head! Things I see (particularly the changing of the seasons) or hear on the radio are also good catalysts, especially for short stories and poems.
4. My dreams. I’ve had a few dreams over the years which have become parts of novels - one actually inspired one of my NaNoWriMo novels, which then ended up being split into two novels and has spawned a third and a fourth… none of which I’ve completed, of course! I have two half-novels, another about 20% done, and the fourth is still in my head. But some of the images and events in my dreams definitely have a strong effect on my writing. I kept a dream diary when I was a teenager for really important ones (or ones that seemed important at the time) but now I wish I did the same for each dream I can remember…
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The top one of the pile of library books next to my desk was Stef Penney’s The Tenderness of Wolves: