Creative writing is difficult, especially if you’re not in a great place to start writing when inspiration strikes. I have found inspiration can strike at the most inopportune times, and not having anything to record the idea can be a big problem. I tend to forget that great idea if I don’t record it.
Most authors carry around a small notebook to write down ideas or inspirational circumstances to recall them when they are in a more conducive environment to write. If you’re looking to be a creative author, this is an excellent practice to take up. I use the Notes application on my phone, and it syncs to my various devices and accounts. However, for several years I carried around a Moleskine notebook that was pocket-sized. I preferred the ones without ruling as doodles, words, and ideas placed randomly on the page seemed to lubricate the thought organ. On occasion, I still carry one with me, but since there is more thought to putting a pen and notebook in my pocket, it’s far easier to use the phone. Either way, I’d urge you to keep something to track ideas and inspiration.
Getting Inspiration:
What gets those ideas swirling to atomize them into a refined fuel and air mixture for combustion? Everything. Seriously, I’ve had great thoughts at the most random times, sitting in church–this might be the combination of boredom, music, and doodling on the bulletin–, riding a bike, hiking in the outdoors, playing video games with the kids, reading a book to my kids, cooking dinner, and even having a fine adult beverage to loosen the synapses. Like I said, everything.
My personal favorites are riding a bike and reading a book. Both are excellent ways to get your brain moving. The bike ride frees my head to ingest the beauty in the world around me. Since it tends to be reasonably mindless, with changing scenery and elevated heartrate, I tend to have great ideas about what I want to write. I find that is a great time to think about outlining or developing premises for the story. It’s essential to record my thoughts at the end of a ride, or if it is an excellent idea, take a 5-minute water break and document them right then and there.
Reading has its ways of inspiration, too. Other writers can help inspire your work, increase your vocabulary and provide an example of a different writing style. Even reading a textbook or learning something new in a non-fiction book can be inspirational. Ask yourself if that new knowledge can be applied to your work? Can your characters use it? Can the world you’re building benefit from learning about quantum entanglement? The answer is yes; any excuse to apply quantum entanglement in purely fictional writing should always be attempted. I’d only advise that you make a good analogy of how quantum entanglement works, so you don’t lose readers. For example, it’s like flipping two identical coins across the universe. If one lands head up, you know the other has also landed head up.
What to do with all this inspiration?
It is important to review what you wrote down for inspiration a day or two later. It’s not all going to be great, even if the feeling at the time made you believe it was pure gold. Believe it or not, not all ideas are great, and it’s important to remember that. I tend to leave my thoughts written down and revisit them later to laugh at myself. That story about flying goats is still dumb, but maybe I can apply it to a political satire piece one day. Or perhaps it’s flying elephants. I might have something there. Inspiration is striking; I have to go.
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