Writers are often asked where we get writing inspiration. The simplest answer is this: Inspiration is everywhere, we just have to reach out and grab it. Whether you’re a beginning writer trying to create your first story idea, or you have an idea but you’re struggling to feel inspired, here are 4 quick and easy tips to keep ideas churning.
Writing Inspiration From Life
The world is a beautiful, flawed masterpiece. When it comes to inspiration from reality, there are three angles to consider.
1: Your Own Experiences
Even if we feel that our lives are boring, we have all likely experienced joy, sadness, love, loss, humiliation, struggle, and success. We can draw writing inspiration from our own emotions and past events to create ideas for our stories or add more depth and realism to existing ideas. If a character is going to a job interview, consider how you felt on your first job interview. Did your palms sweat? Did you charm your way into the position? Did you ask the interviewer to repeat the question because you couldn’t seem to hear it?
You can also draw from the experiences of someone close to you. Perhaps you have a friend or relative who faced overwhelming odds and came out on top. You can model a character after them or include similar events in your story.
I’m not saying you need to copy and paste real life experiences into your book, but use them as a launching pad. Let’s say you’re writing a fantasy epic about a group of friends traveling the world to overthrow the dark lord. You probably don’t have personal experience with that, but you probably do have personal experience with the highs and lows of friendship. If you don’t, well…We can be friends!
2: News & Current Events
There’s always something going on in the world. Whether that’s a celebrity getting a new hairstyle, a local bakery becoming famous for their delicious cupcakes, famine, or rumors of war. While it’s easy to get bogged down by negativity in the news, look instead for rays of hope. Look for the hero who saved a child from a burning building and think about what they might have felt as the flames closed in. Think about what your characters might think or do in a similar situation.
3: History
History is rife with stories of honor and sacrifice, love and war, rebellion and ruthlessness. No matter what genre or time period you write in, history can set an example. Is there a historical figure you admire? Consider what qualities made you admire them, and how you might incorporate those into a character. Are you writing about a war? Research historical battles. Look at what tactics were used by each side, and how weather or geography affected the result.
While some historical details may be lost to time, there’s plenty to work with to get the creative gears turning.
Writing Inspiration From Other Media
The fourth main source of writing inspiration is other creative media. Other books, movies, tv shows, songs, video games, or works of art. Each of these is brimming with inspiration. Play your favorite song and close your eyes (after you finish reading this, of course). What do you imagine while it plays? Do you see an epic battle for revenge? Do you see a couple dancing in a field of wildflowers? Try taking these images from your mind and transforming them into a scene.
Think of your favorite books and movies. What makes them your favorite? What scenes do you think about all the time? What do you love about it? Even books or movies that you dislike can be a source of inspiration. What did you dislike about it? What would you have done differently if you wrote it?
If you have ideas for your story but feel stuck, check out this post about conquering writer’s block.
Inspiration vs Stealing
On the subject of other media, there’s an important distinction between gaining inspiration from another work and stealing from it. It’s perfectly fine for us to be inspired by, say, Harry Potter, and craft a story about a school for wizards. But if we call our school Hogmoles and split it into four Houses called Raventalon, Griffinmore, Huffpuffle, and Slithering, we’re setting ourselves up for a lot of raised eyebrows.
Unless we’re specifically writing parody fanfiction, we need to do a bit more work making our story original. Maybe instead of four Houses, there are six factions. Maybe our wizards use quills and runes instead of wands. There are endless ways to put our own spin on the wizarding world.
While it’s good to be inspired by existing works, we can’t simply copy and paste large elements and call it our own.
A Note About Originality
You’ve finally done it. You’ve come up with a story nobody has ever told before. Nothing exists like it and nothing will ever be like it. While celebrating your victory, you browse through your favorite genre and pick up a book you’ve never read before. Partway through, you realize that there are a few concepts similar to your story. More than a few, actually. The story that was 100% original with nothing like it suddenly doesn’t seem so original. Your good mood comes crashing down as you wonder how you can call yourself a writer in the first place.
Don’t despair, fellow writer. We all go through these feelings (at least, I have).
Nothing under the sun is new, as they say. This does not mean our hard work has gone to waste. It means that it’s impossible to make something that is 100% original, so don’t stress about it. If I were to ask you and four other writers to write a story about a person escaping from a prison, I’d get five completely different stories. They’d all feature similar things–a prison, prisoners, guards, and an escape. But I can guarantee nearly everything else would be different, from the look of the prison to the method of escape to the voice of the main character.
There will always be another story out there that has at least one thing in common with yours. It’s your unique voice and perspective that makes your story feel new and different. Nobody else can write quite like you. Your story is already original simply because you’re the one writing it.
So take heart, grab your pencil, and let’s get writing!
What’s your biggest source of inspiration? Let me know in the comments!
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