I think about the housework I’d have to do if I wasn’t writing.
Ah, so that’s why I don’t declutter my office…
I drive through the commercial districts of bad parts of town and watch what’s going on. I always see something that I’ve never seen before and I use it.
I do physical activities – outside work, exercise, household chores – that I can put on auto pilot, while my mind is free to explore and run wild.
My writing studio is crammed with quotes, props, and tchotchkes (Google tchotchke if you don’t recognize the word). Each has an origin and a meaning that inspires me. Oh, and the clock.
If I waited for inspiration to strike, I’d never get any writing done. 😉
“I only write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.” – Peter De Vries
Talk it over with some wise people – Johnnie Walker or Jim Bean.
I see what you did there.
I take an idea and run with it, inspiration will arrive soon after, one way or another. Put me down, too, as in the same boat as Sue above–I don’t wait for the muse to show up. I get to work. She’ll show up soon enough 🙂
I get inspiration from reading. Running or other forms of exercise also seem to boost my creativity. Running while listening to a good audiobook or writing course is the perfect form of inspiration multi-tasking. 🙂
I listen. To music, to other people’s conversations, to my g-children talking amongst themselves. To silence. To too many planes and helicopters flying over our five acres. Then I allow myself to wonder.
I read. I’m reading a trilogy right now about what life would look like if a small nuclear device detonated an EMP in the atmosphere above the US.
I check in here, always inspirational.
I also drink coffee… 🙂
Creative inspiration? Absolutely nothing. Picking out the inspiration that can grow into a story? That I work at.
I got my Storymatic (thanks for the tip JSB) and when I pick out a few cards it gets me thinking and then that gets me thinking about something topical. I’ll download enough about it to put a few things in the research file and delve into it. Like, we were talking about Bernardini and his weirdo scam the other day….got me thinkin.
Ideas are like fireflies-you have to snatch them up quick and put them in a Mason jar or else they’re gone.
You remember the Troggs, “Love Is All Around”? Crime is too.
Another vote for Storymatic. Cool!
1. Read good novels from cover to cover.
2. Read bad novels from frontispiece to as far in as I can bear. (I have yet to reach a backispiece, presuming there is one. E.g., Confederacy of Dunces, in which I reached page 3 or 4.)
3. I once journeyed to Nepal, seeking inspiration. There, atop a low mountain, a wise man listened to my request, fumbled in the large box beside him, and held up a sealed brown envelope stamped “INSPIRATION, US$100.” He graciously accepted my $100 and warned me not to open the envelope until I was back home. It was hard not to rip it asunder at once, but I withstood that urge just until my plane squeaked down at LAX. The message therein was scrawled in disappearing ink on a scrap of cheap paper. It started fading immediately. I barely had time to decipher it before it vanished, but, as the flight attendants shooed me off the plane, I decided the terrible handwriting must have read:
ρɾҽყιɳɠ, ɱҽԃιαƚιɳɠ, ϝαɾƚιɳɠ
My life has been inspired ever since. I now live on a hilltop near Glendale, selling bogus wisdom in brown envelopes to suckers, interrupting random strangers arguing on the street, and living on a diet of mostly beans and boiled cabbage.
As long as you have a plan…
1. Connect with other writers.
2. Pay attention to deadlines.
I read your books on the craft of writing and your articles on Killzone.
I think about the housework I’d have to do if I wasn’t writing.
Ah, so that’s why I don’t declutter my office…
I drive through the commercial districts of bad parts of town and watch what’s going on. I always see something that I’ve never seen before and I use it.
I do physical activities – outside work, exercise, household chores – that I can put on auto pilot, while my mind is free to explore and run wild.
My writing studio is crammed with quotes, props, and tchotchkes (Google tchotchke if you don’t recognize the word). Each has an origin and a meaning that inspires me. Oh, and the clock.
If I waited for inspiration to strike, I’d never get any writing done. 😉
“I only write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.” – Peter De Vries
Talk it over with some wise people – Johnnie Walker or Jim Bean.
I see what you did there.
I take an idea and run with it, inspiration will arrive soon after, one way or another. Put me down, too, as in the same boat as Sue above–I don’t wait for the muse to show up. I get to work. She’ll show up soon enough 🙂
I get inspiration from reading. Running or other forms of exercise also seem to boost my creativity. Running while listening to a good audiobook or writing course is the perfect form of inspiration multi-tasking. 🙂
I listen. To music, to other people’s conversations, to my g-children talking amongst themselves. To silence. To too many planes and helicopters flying over our five acres. Then I allow myself to wonder.
I read. I’m reading a trilogy right now about what life would look like if a small nuclear device detonated an EMP in the atmosphere above the US.
I check in here, always inspirational.
I also drink coffee… 🙂
Creative inspiration? Absolutely nothing. Picking out the inspiration that can grow into a story? That I work at.
I got my Storymatic (thanks for the tip JSB) and when I pick out a few cards it gets me thinking and then that gets me thinking about something topical. I’ll download enough about it to put a few things in the research file and delve into it. Like, we were talking about Bernardini and his weirdo scam the other day….got me thinkin.
Ideas are like fireflies-you have to snatch them up quick and put them in a Mason jar or else they’re gone.
You remember the Troggs, “Love Is All Around”? Crime is too.
Another vote for Storymatic. Cool!
1. Read good novels from cover to cover.
2. Read bad novels from frontispiece to as far in as I can bear. (I have yet to reach a backispiece, presuming there is one. E.g., Confederacy of Dunces, in which I reached page 3 or 4.)
3. I once journeyed to Nepal, seeking inspiration. There, atop a low mountain, a wise man listened to my request, fumbled in the large box beside him, and held up a sealed brown envelope stamped “INSPIRATION, US$100.” He graciously accepted my $100 and warned me not to open the envelope until I was back home. It was hard not to rip it asunder at once, but I withstood that urge just until my plane squeaked down at LAX. The message therein was scrawled in disappearing ink on a scrap of cheap paper. It started fading immediately. I barely had time to decipher it before it vanished, but, as the flight attendants shooed me off the plane, I decided the terrible handwriting must have read:
ρɾҽყιɳɠ, ɱҽԃιαƚιɳɠ, ϝαɾƚιɳɠ
My life has been inspired ever since. I now live on a hilltop near Glendale, selling bogus wisdom in brown envelopes to suckers, interrupting random strangers arguing on the street, and living on a diet of mostly beans and boiled cabbage.
As long as you have a plan…
1. Connect with other writers.
2. Pay attention to deadlines.
I read your books on the craft of writing and your articles on Killzone.