Getting Your Inspiration (6 Methods to Try)

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

As I previously put on my Twitter:

I don't have a muse. I have a troll. And he's eating all my chips.#writerslife #writinglife #mymuse #writerproblems #writinghumor

— Scribbled Fiction (@ScribbldFiction) March 4, 2019

How dare he. I kind of want those, okay, dude?

In such situations as this, it can be difficult to find something to write about. The muse- sorry, troll- is completely out of your grasp, you have resorted to eating all the celery since all your chips are gone, and worst of all, the words just aren't coming because you don't know what to write about. At all.

So where will you find your inspiration? Worry not, my wordlings, your fairy godmother is here for you. Today I have 6 different methods already figured out for you. Surely out of the six you will find something that works for you, and you can find something to write about.

1. Use a song. There are so many songs out there (specifically by Urielle, Taylor Swift, or 21 Pilots) that make great character songs. You just base the character off the words and feeling of the song, and there you go! You already have a main character to write about. You could even use a song as the basis to start the story itself, or a piece of an OST(original soundtrack) to set the stage. Novel soundtracks are among the best things in the world. Or as another idea:

Haven't used this in anything yet, but I've had it saved to my Worlds board for a while.

2. Use a picture. This one works so well for me. I use Pinterest a lot to look for the right picture, but you can also just Google it, search your social media, or use DeviantArt. This method works for finding a story idea, discovering a main character, designing a world, whatever you want. Just put in the according art search and you're sure to find something.

3. Talk. Talk to your sister(what I do all the time). Talk to your dog. Talk to your teddy bear. Talk to your favorite succulent. Just getting the problem out of your brain and into the open air helps. Plus talking gets your mental gears moving again and this will trigger more ideas. So just keep talking. Something will eventually click.

4. Base it off of something in your life. Anything in your life. Think about how some experience would have happened differently if, for example, orcs had suddenly popped out of your closet. Make your favorite aunt the main character. This whole idea just goes to prove how different people's creative processes work, because this never seems to work for me,  but I have heard so many writers talk about the things they've based off of life experiences and people they knew.

And if you want a formula to work with: Write a basic description of one of your relatives(just make sure to give them a different name). That's your main character. Write about what happens to him/her when one of your experiences happens with a strange and unusual twist. Have them learn something that you wish you'd known ages ago. Be careful who you use as inspiration for your villain, but there you go.

5. Find your place of inspiration. For me, this is the beach. Beaches are my happy place. I can walk on a beach for ages, and while I'm doing that, multiple writing ideas always pop into my head, without fail. Find your place like that. It might be a park, your car, or a certain room of your house. For some people it might not even be a place. There might be a certain activity you do that triggers ideas for you, such as showering, washing dishes, or going for a run.

6. Write a list of ideas. Come up with a number of ideas to write(I recommend doing at least 12) and don't stop writing until you've come up with that number of ideas. If you haven't got anything satisfactory by the time you get to 12, keep going! Reach for 15, or 20, or even higher! It's best to know a few basic facts about your story, such as your main character or setting, before starting so you're not totally floundering, but I find this works super well. What this does is get the ideas you were stuck on out of the way and gets the really good ones to appear.



See? Told ya you'd find something. If you tried all of these and none of them worked for you, tell me, and I pinkie swear I will write another post with six more methods for you to try. Until then, my writer friends, and show up again on Tuesday for a post on the intelligence of writers! Are we as smart as people think?
(btw, I keep forgetting to tease the next post in the outro. If I forget in future, please take note and give me grief until I fix it)

How do you find your inspiration? What's your favorite method to use? Let me know in the comments!

My Twitter
My Instagram