Like any other creative, writers often have to deal with the coin of inspiration. I say coin because on the head we the fountain of inspiration which spews forth ideas for us to use freely. On the tail there is the block known as writer’s block and its many ugly forms.
Flip a coin you get heads or tails. That’s about how fickle inspiration can be. And with every idea you have, you always have to play this game of heads-or-tails for whether or not you can make a story out of it.
The easiest way to deal with inspiration then, is to keep looking for it, and to gather a lot of it. The more you have of it, the easier the coin-flipping is.
One way is to keep a notebook or journal and write down interesting sentences you see or hear in the world around you. As a bonus, if you get stuck in your current scene or story, open the notebook to a random page and pick a sentence to use to help keep you moving forward.
A scrapbook of inspiring pictures can help you keep track of places you might like to set a story in some day. This can also be a good place to keep articles of events to inspire stories.
Music playlists are also a good option, especially when you’re writing and you’re struggling with a scene and want to try and capture the feeling. You can make them for the entire story, a specific act or even a character to help develop ideas.
There are a lot of ways to collect inspiration. I personally am a huge fan of Pinterest and pinboards, along with keeping a notebook in my bag for anything interesting I might find while out and about. Like anything else in writing however, the most important part of it is to find what works for you and your writing.
The Written Vixen 