Where do Writers Find the Inspiration to Write?
It’s not as mystical as some readers believe it to be.
The most common question anyone asks of any author is, “Where do you get your ideas?”
This is especially true for us horror writers.
The first time I let my mother read one of my college short stories, she threw it down on the table and kept saying, “I don’t know where you come up with this. What gave you the idea to write something like that!?”
That story can be found here:
That assignment was part of a writing prompt my creative writing teacher gave us where she only gave the idea that we had someone going out for ice cream.
The rest was up to us. She gave us thirty minutes to speed write as much of a story as we could and the one above was what my mind came up with.
It’s not the perfect story, it definitely has some flaws, but I’m proud of it nonetheless.
Inspiration can come from anywhere.
You can be walking down the street to catch the bus to work and hear a snippet of conversation and the rest of it will run away in your mind as something you can have one of your characters say.
My current work in process is the story of a woman caught between worlds when she was sent away from her homeworld to protect her from the King’s deranged brother. There's magic, murder, and mayhem, all within someone’s plot for revenge and it’s not who you might think.
All I knew of this story, in the beginning, was that I wanted there to be a great battle of flashing lights, and spells bouncing all over the place in a whirlwind of color.
The rest fell into place.
Where did the inspiration come from for this story?
I was watching the Fourth of July fireworks on my back porch with my family.
The fireworks, a distance off behind the trees, covered by think clouds look to me as if it was a battle scene. Red and greens were flashing in all sorts of directions, a fight between good and evil behind the thick fog.
I didn’t want to lose the feeling that I had so I recorded the rest of the fireworks and then gave a quick good night to my family and set off to my computer to write. I didn’t move from my computer until well after midnight, but I was able to write over five thousand words in a story I didn’t even know existed a few hours prior.
My novel High Tower which is in the process of editing and is set to be released this October came to me while I watched a Goosebumps episode with my dad on a lazy chill day.
Sometimes ideas come out of nowhere and they hit like a freight train you never heard coming.
Other times they’re mere passing leaves in a breeze you have to reach out and grab.
The one lesson I’ve learned in all my years of writing is to never go anywhere without something nearby to take notes.
This can be your smartphone, a tablet, a notebook, or even a pack of sticky notes kept in the back pocket of your purse. (Or that might just be my habit.)
No matter what, inspiration isn’t something you can look for. You can’t stare at a blank screen and expect the force of the creative goblins in your brain to grace you with the perfect plot for your novel. Your imagination and creativity have to help you with that first spot.
Read as much as you can.
Keep an open mind when watching tv.
Get out of your phone when you are traveling to work and take in the world around you.
Most authors find their inspiration from the everyday world around them.
Keep writing.
With love,
B.K.